Kia Soul Searcher launches

The Kia Soul Searcher available from January 2011

There’s not a lot wrong with the Kia Soul. Or certainly not a lot wrong at the price point. It’s half decent to drive, has half decent dynamics (it’s the same under the skin as the Hyundai i20)  and is very practical with a big warranty. It even seems cool in a not-cool kind of way, probably because it’s just trying to do everything right without trying too hard to be cutting edge.

So far we’ve had a small flock of Kia Soul special editions – Burner, Shaker, Tempest and Echo – and we now follow on the theme with another dreadful VW Golf-esque name – the Kia Soul Searcher. Good grief.

The Kia Soul Searcher comes all decked out with a coat or three of light green metallic paint and a coffee and cream interior (I knew if we waited long enough the ’70s would return). The exterior gets a bit of bling with chrome bits on the grill and door handles, a set of roof rails, black bezel headlights and a set of 18″ alloys.

There is extra kit as well as cosmetic tweaks for the Soul Searcher with privacy glass, parking sensors, electric mirrors and front fogs in the spec. Throw in Climate, heated seats, decent audio, Cruise, Bluetooth and iPod connectivity and you have a proper grown-up spec.There’s also a full set of airbags, ESC, EBD, traction control and it comes with a five-star NCAP.

The Kia Soul Searcher is up for grabs from January 2011 at £16,965 for the manual and £18,025 for the auto. Both versions come with the 16 litre CRDi lump.

Cheap-ish motoring with a big spec and long warranty. And almost cool – because it’s not.

By Cars UK