2023 Kia Soul
This year drew an ordinary 48 complaints for a Kia Soul — the model's median is 288. What they were about is the unusual part: 14.6% of them mention see, against 4.4% 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 | 48 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 288 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 30.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- see — 14.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.4% across the other years of this generation (3.3×).
- way — 14.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.9% across the other years of this generation (3×).
- radio — 6.3% of this year's complaints, against 0.4% across the other years of this generation (14.1×). Owners wrote it as: radio, uvo, radio recall, 2025 uvo.
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
My vehicle is almost un-drivable at night due to a terrible headlight bean pattern. See attached image. I have taken to two different Kia Dealerships with no results and reached out to Kia. Something is seriously wrong with these lights. #1 Cochran Kia: 5200 C…
I am driving on the highway. No construction. No traffic. Cruising. No problems. I get a dashboard warning "WRONG WAY! Turn around safely" It was on for at least 10minutes. Very worrisome. But the lane assist was still working.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V298000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 23V531000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V830000 AIR BAGS 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 2023 Kia Soul? What happened to yours?
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