And now for something really exciting, a Kia Soul..
Discussion
So, 4 months ago on the premise of working from home I decided to jump head first back into the world of bangernomics and bought a Jaguar XJ for £1,000. I fettled with it, spent some money getting it through an MOT and then treat it to a service and a couple of bits of suspension work. It proceeded to thank me by having an argument with its ECU, causing it to go on strike and refusing to come out of one. Cleaning earthing points and all of the standard stuff proved fruitless, it was adamant it was going to stand around the brazier refusing to move. For 3 days I felt like British Leyland Management.
Alas, the Jag has been sold to someone local for what I paid for it (so only a small loss overall, which is good going for me) and with work advising that we'll now be going into the office a couple of days a week from next month and a member of the family becoming more dependant on me, I thought I should go back to being boring and buy something a bit newer with some warranty and winter reliability.
Enter "Spongebob", a Kia Soul advertised at a car supermarket not too far from me. I've always had a thing for "Marmite" cars and this is about as Marmite as they come. But, everything looked promising, nice big wheels, Sat Nav, android auto, a panoramic roof that is bigger than a screen door, heated leather, keyless entry & start, a nice 8 speaker sound system with speakers that act like disco lights (oh dear), 40k miles and 9 months of manufacturers warranty left on it, all for £7,500.
So goodbye bangernomics and hello to 1.6 litres of diesel normality. It's not exciting to drive in the slightest (the sport setting on the steering feels like it was put there for a laugh) but I've always loved the way these things look, almost as if they made it from concept to production with not a lot of change.
Alas, the Jag has been sold to someone local for what I paid for it (so only a small loss overall, which is good going for me) and with work advising that we'll now be going into the office a couple of days a week from next month and a member of the family becoming more dependant on me, I thought I should go back to being boring and buy something a bit newer with some warranty and winter reliability.
Enter "Spongebob", a Kia Soul advertised at a car supermarket not too far from me. I've always had a thing for "Marmite" cars and this is about as Marmite as they come. But, everything looked promising, nice big wheels, Sat Nav, android auto, a panoramic roof that is bigger than a screen door, heated leather, keyless entry & start, a nice 8 speaker sound system with speakers that act like disco lights (oh dear), 40k miles and 9 months of manufacturers warranty left on it, all for £7,500.
So goodbye bangernomics and hello to 1.6 litres of diesel normality. It's not exciting to drive in the slightest (the sport setting on the steering feels like it was put there for a laugh) but I've always loved the way these things look, almost as if they made it from concept to production with not a lot of change.
(I appreciate it's not a Soul...)Ilovejapcrap said:
Love a flat backed vehicle always seems to make most of the space.
What’s the boot like
The boot is quite small, but with the seats folded down its like a little van. There's a tray under the false floor too for the regular crap you'd normally keep in the boot long term. What’s the boot like
V6todayEVmanana said:
Looks cool in yellow. Not all cars carry it off.
How's the sound system? Some.models are supposed to have quite good/funky set up.
The sound system is very good for this level of car. 8 speakers, a subwoofer and an external amp branded as Infinity who are a sub-brand of Harman Kardon. You need to fiddle with it a bit to get a decent balance for various music genres as it's quite a bass heavy setup even if you lower the bass down, but it puts the 13 speaker Alpine setup in the Jag to shame (although the Jag was 9 years older) How's the sound system? Some.models are supposed to have quite good/funky set up.
The light up speakers are a bit niche, but only a bit of fun.
Another one whose mother has one.
I helped her buy it (replaced a Kia Cee'd, which got written off). She loves it. It's an auto, which took her a while to get used to (her first car in the UK was a Triumph Vitesse, and every car since then's been manual), but it's a great little thing.
I helped her buy it (replaced a Kia Cee'd, which got written off). She loves it. It's an auto, which took her a while to get used to (her first car in the UK was a Triumph Vitesse, and every car since then's been manual), but it's a great little thing.
They are very under rated cars, we have a 2014 MIXX 1.6 diesel that we have had for three and a half years. Only had a couple of niggles and all sorted under warranty. Under body protection is poor and if it's going to be a keeper then I would recommend rustproofing. Ride can sometime be crashy with the 18" wheels but other that that ours is a long term keeper.
g3org3y said:
Looks great in yellow. 
The speakers in the doors flash a variety of colours, you can set them to "beat" where they pulse with the beat of the music playing, "rotate" where they cycle through all of their colours and "off" Steve421 said:
a nice 8 speaker sound system with speakers that act like disco lights (oh dear),
Bit random, never seen that in a car before. More details about this please.
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