Model years › Kia Soul

2016 Kia Soul

Complaints about this year name catalytic converter far more often than the other years of this generation — 27% of them, about 3× the usual rate of 10.3%.

Generation 2 of the Kia Soul, which began in 2014 and ran to 2019. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• converter — 29.2% of this year's complaints, against 11.1% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: converter, converter clogged.

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

Also unusual this year

• engine cooling — 11% of complaints, 8× usual
• engine engine — 12% of complaints, 5× usual
• software — 7% of complaints, 3× usual

What owners wrote

while driving approximately 35 MPH, there was a loss of performance with the engine, and the speed inadvertently decelerated to 5 MPH. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer but was not repaired or diagnosed;…

THIS IS REGARDING HIGH EXHAUST GAS [VIN] THAT MAY DAMAGE THE CATALYTIC CONVERTER AND POTENTIALLY OTHER PARTS, DEALERS ARE SUPPOSED TO UPGRADE SOFTWARE ON ALL KIA SOULS EVEN IF NOT RECALLED. THE KIA DEALERSHIP IN WARRENTON OREGON SAYS MY CAR DOESN'T NEED IT, I…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 19V120000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
• 17V608000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.

Own a 2016 Kia Soul? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Kia Soul was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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