2013 Kia Soul
This year drew an ordinary 660 complaints for a Kia Soul — the model's median is 271. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.2% of them mention check, against 6% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Kia Soul ran from 2010 to 2013, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 660 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 271 |
| Involving a crash | 22 |
| Involving a fire | 45 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 26.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- check — 18.2% of this year's complaints, against 6% across the other years of this generation (3×).
- knocking — 7.9% of this year's complaints, against 1% across the other years of this generation (7.6×).
- where diagnosed — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: where diagnosed, engine needed, diagnosed engine.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
there was an abnormal knocking sound coming from the vehicle with the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer where it was diagnosed that the engine had misfired and the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was no…
FUEL EFFICIENCY HAD DECLINED GREATLY OVER PAST MONTH. CAR STOPPED WORKING AND HAD IT TOWED. THE KIA DEALERSHIP REPLACED THE STARTED BUT SAID THE ENGINE HAD A KNOCKING AND NEEDS REPLACED. HAS ONLY HAD KIA WORK ON IT AND ALL REGULAR MAINTENANCE HAS BEEN DONE. CH…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V120000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 14V822000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 23V652000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Soul was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2013 Kia Soul? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…