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| Road Test Kia Soul Burner 1.6 CRDi |
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Not For The Vicar
Based on the affable and chirpy Soul, a car that cleverly turns a basic two-box road car into a thing of great charm, it has a paint job that tries to give the impression it's a tarmac-shredding hotrod that's crawled straight from the broils of Hell. I mean it. The vicar isn't going to look right driving this car. More of that in a mo. Mechanically the Burner is available with just one engine, but it's the best engine of the Soul bunch – a 1.6 CRDi diesel unit that works up 126bhp and 192lb/ft of torque to give adequate performance in the real world. It's a little raucous and takes just over 11 seconds to reach 62mph before topping out at 113mph, but it has a happy official average fuel consumption approaching 55mpg and its carbon dioxide emissions are below 140g/km. It also has the same firm suspension set-up, tuned by Lotus specifically to cope with twisty British roads. That means it corners well for such a tall car but there's a fair amount of road noise and the ride is bordering on the harsh over traditional drill-and-fill road patches. The Soul is a roomy car considering it sits on the same sized patch of earth as a small hatchback. All five seats are upright and comfortable with plenty of head and knee room. The boot isn't overly huge but the back seats fold forwards to extend it if necessary. Visibility out the back when you're reversing is a bit limited by the huge rear pillars, but on the go the view is fine. There are reversing sensors on this car to help in roadside parallel parking.
I like the Soul in its basic form, but I have to admit I'm stumped as to whom exactly the Burner is targeted. It comes in gloss black with a stylised silver dragon emblazoned asymmetrically down each side. At the front, the little radiator grille has a deep red rim to it like the air intake on a jet aircraft but enigmatically called by Kia a "tiger nose". Its wheels are bigger than normal 18" alloys that are mostly black but with silvered outlines to the five spokes and rim. Indoors the red and black theme continues to the seats and surroundings. Get this – the speakers in the doors will even glow red but thankfully you can turn that detail off. Subtle it ain't. Anyone other than an outrageous extrovert need not apply. What also sets it aside from most of its cousins in the range is the 315W sound system that plays radio, CD, MP3 and iPod music. It has a large speaker built into the top of the dash and a huge sub-woofer mounted in the boot. Put on your ear defenders, turn your drum-and-bass up to the max and watch your rear-view for windows shattering, street-lights going out and pedestrians falling concussed to the pavement. So who's going to look good in it? Tricky question to answer and impossible without drawing a gender reference. Initially I thought it's a young man's car . . . a very young man's car, in fact, with that aggressive colour scheme and the Korean dragon theme. But then again, since the basic car is such a sensible vehicle, the effect on a man's image is going to be like wearing a motorbike jacket with pinstripe slacks and black slip-ons – a hollow statement, a pointless pose, a bit geeky. No, there's no way a bloke can pull this off without looking like a prat – sorry, it's just the way it is and it doesn't matter who you are. The Soul Burner is clearly a woman's car. There are several girls I know who would look great, dressed to kill and stepping out of it onto a Saturday night city centre party street. The world would smile, nod, and say "well done". There is one major drawback, though. The Burner is clearly a young person's vehicle, but it's actually the most expensive Soul on the road. Coming in at a whisker under £15,000, the people I think would suit it best simply wouldn't be able to afford it. Price: £14,995
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