Kia Soul Shaker review
by Sarah Dickie (9 March 2009)
(Sarah Dickie, our youngest contributor, is a Physiotherapy student at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, as well as being a talented musician and winner of many swimming competitions. She has agreed to undertake a six-month test of the Kia Soul Shaker, the female-oriented version of a car described by Kia as having "the charm and desirability of the MINI and Fiat 500".)
My Kia Soul - or "the Gangstermobile" as I'm calling it - has arrived and has already caused a lot of comments. The most common among my student friends is that it looks like a box (or, as one of them said, like a hearse), but when I was sitting in it waiting for my brother to get off the bus an old gentleman came up to me and said he had seen pictures of it online the night before and thought it was fabulous.
The Shaker is only available in a colour called Vanilla Shake which is meant to appeal to female drivers. The colour is fine, and I can see why they chose it (though it shows up the dirt, and you constantly have to wash it to keep it looking decent) but I don't think this is a very feminine-looking car. The front is really nice, but the bit at the back is just too flat.
Women keep asking, "Does my bum look big in this?" Well this car has NO problem with that! There's nothing to the back end at all, and I don't think women are going to like that. None of us want a big ass, but we don't want no ass at all. As my sister says, there has to be some "junk in the trunk". I remember that the Renault Megane was a shocker when it first came out with that strange back end, but it's now socially acceptable. Will the same thing happen with the Soul? Maybe. But I do think a car should have a proper ass.
I love the interior, love the gadgets and gizmos, especially the audio which lets me plug in my iPod without having to go out and buy a special adaptor. Being able to operate it using the radio control panel makes things easier, and the way the system remembers which part of an iPod or CD track it reached last time you used it is really good too.
I've not really tested out the luggage space yet, but there's lots of room for the driver and passengers, and my friends think it's very comfortable. The seats are good because they don't restrict you to one position but they still make you feel secure.
One thing I found early on is that the controls are super-sensitive - my first trip was to Asda, a mile from my flat, and I was kangaroo-jumping all the way, but maybe that's just because I'm not used to driving such a new car. The brakes especially were hard to get used to, but I've adjusted to them over the first few days and they're fine now.
April 2009 Report
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