2014 Kia Soul
Complaints about this year name headlights far more often than the other years of this generation — 9% of them, about 10× the usual rate of 0.9%.
First year of a new generation. The Kia Soul was redesigned for 2014. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 894 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 271 |
| Involving a crash | 34 |
| Involving a fire | 69 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- headlights — 15.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the other years of this generation (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: headlights, night, flicker, signal.
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.
Also unusual this year
- engine cooling — 7% of complaints, 5× usual
- night — 7% of complaints, 4× usual
- engine engine — 7% of complaints, 3× usual
What owners wrote
HEADLIGHTS AND INSTRUMENT PANEL GO OUT SUDDENLY. THIS HAPPENS BOTH IN MOTION AND STATIONARY. ALSO UPON STARTING THE CAR OR AFTER DRIVING EVEN A SHORT DISTANCE. RANDOM ACTUALLY. VERY DANGEROUS AT NIGHT.
WHILE DRIVING THE CAR THE HEADLIGHTS FLICKER AND SOMETIMES GO OFF RANDOMLY. THIS HAS NOW BEGUN TO OCCUR WHILE THE CAR IS ALSO PARKED. THIS IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS WHILE TRAVELING AT NIGHT AND A HUGE SAFETY RISK.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V750000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V120000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 17V608000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V123000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 22V096000 AIR BAGS 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 2014 Kia Soul? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…