2021 Kia Soul
This year drew an ordinary 226 complaints for a Kia Soul — the model's median is 288. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.2% of them mention under recall, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Kia Soul, which began in 2020. 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.
| Complaints filed | 226 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 288 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 29.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- under recall — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (3.3×).
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.
What owners wrote
while driving at 35 MPH and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle lost power. An independent mechanic was contacted. The contact stated that the vehicle was towed to the residence and then was towed to the dealer, who refused to repair the vehicle unde…
Hi, I had my car tested for recall SC336, and it initially failed, indicating the engine needed replacement. The dealership ordered a new engine from Kia. However, a few days later, they called to say that after retesting, the engine was fine and didn't requir…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V259000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 25V099000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
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.
Own a 2021 Kia Soul? What happened to yours?
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