Here at Jim Butler Kia of St Louis, any up-close look available of upcoming vehicles gets a large amount of our attention, and pretty quickly at that! It was back in February when the ice scrapers were making their daily rounds about the lot here, when we got our first sneak peak at the upcoming Kia Soul. Cloaked in heavy camo and testing in the snow, that first encounter gave us quite a few photos, but we have not seen the nimble and very eco-conscious crossover much since then. TFLnow on YouTube came upon a prototype enjoying a pleasant blast of warmer weather in Colorado. Since there was no snow in the footage, it seems the sighting was quite recent.
The footage looks to be gleaned from Silverthorne, a town that looks like the setting of a picturesque model railroad. Since the camo wrap was gone from the fenders, the sculptured body lines on both the door and fender are revealed more clearly, as well as a very close look at the new front clip beneath the covers. There is a new stacked headlight design that is shown more clearly through this as well, on top of LED tail lights that wrap around onto the hatch in a well-woven dramatic stackup.
From these photos, it's a bit tricky to tell what kind of powertrain exists beneath the outer skin will finally be offered as an option with front-wheel drive serving as the base platform. There may be a turbocharged option on deck for all-wheel drive, and all of us here have appreciated just how far under wraps we were able to keep details of the new model. A full reveal will possibly take place in November at the L.A. Auto Show, or perhaps early next year in Detroit. This is a vehicle that has truly given drivers an excellent gift that “came in a box”, and the form and factor lives on, even after its original release 5 years ago.
It's the staunch new model that the Car and Driver staff lovably deemed “funkadelic” and popular after test driving this year's model, and the practical tall hatch/small crossover will lure many buyers in markets just like ours where customers frequently require all-wheel-drive. It has also truly been one of the true ambassadors of our brand, and one that we admit is sometimes even a more solid example of what we can produce and lay our namesake to than our beloved Stinger sport tourer. If recent news events regarding Eco-conscious issues have swayed you as they should, there are also rumors that a hybrid or plug-in hybrid variant may be added to the range. There are a lot of choices out there right now for those that want a truly dependable, durable, and budget-friendly SUV: come down for a test drive of the Soul soon, and see how the precise engineering of tomorrow will benefit you today.
