Thinking of Buying a Used Kia Soul

[jcor4321sr]

Hello Mustachians,
In his used car video from a few years ago MMM recommended the Kia Soul. The Lemon-Aid book also gave them 4-5 stars. But recently I've seen a lot of stuff about engine failure and other problems with them. It seems like 2011, 18, 19 are still pretty good according to the sites talking about the problems.
My budget is 12k max and Souls under that price usually have 90-150k miles on them. I checked out a 2016 (the worst year by some reports) and like the look, feel, space of it.
Does anyone have experience with these?

[lhamo]

The Soul is one of the models with very high theft rates due to the ease of hijacking the starter via a USB:

https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/hyundai-and-kia-car-thefts-spike

[clarkfan1979]

Hello Mustachians,
In his used car video from a few years ago MMM recommended the Kia Soul. The Lemon-Aid book also gave them 4-5 stars. But recently I've seen a lot of stuff about engine failure and other problems with them. It seems like 2011, 18, 19 are still pretty good according to the sites talking about the problems.
My budget is 12k max and Souls under that price usually have 90-150k miles on them. I checked out a 2016 (the worst year by some reports) and like the look, feel, space of it.
Does anyone have experience with these?

I've rented the Kia Soul before and I liked it. I really like my 2007 Pontiac Vibe. It's a hatchback and the same car as the Toyota Matrix, but it's 40% cheaper when buying used. Plenty of room and good gas mileage. I bought mine for $2750 in January 2020 with 150K miles.

[Asalted_Nut]

To lhamo's point about theft, be sure to call around to some insurance companies to get a quote on if you were to buy the car what it could cost or, more importantly, if they will even cover it.

State-depending, many insurance agencies may refuse to insure it.

[ChpBstrd]

If you get one, change the CVT transmission fluid immediately. CRVs and RAV4s are priced so much higher for a reason.

[Dave1442397]

I'd stay away. As stated above, CRVs and RAV4s are more expensive, but that's because they're worth paying extra for.

My sister-in-law's 2011 RAV4 hasn't needed anything but routine maintenance, and she took it off-roading quite a bit when she lived out west. I'm surprised she didn't break it :)

[jcor4321sr]

I'll look into the insurance and Vibe, CRVs, Rav4s. I'm upgrading from a '99 Honda Civic and would like something with more cargo room like those.
Thanks everyone!

[spartana]

I'll look into the insurance and Vibe, CRVs, Rav4s. I'm upgrading from a '99 Honda Civic and would like something with more cargo room like those.
Thanks everyone!

If you're buying a somewhat inexpensive used car then you may want to just get liability coverage rather then full coverage that covers your cars repairs or replacement. That should be the same cost  regardless of your cars value or theft risks since it only covers the other persons car.

I don't know much about Soul but years ago (2018 I think) I rented one for a month following a knee injury since I couldn't drive my manual transmission truck. It was WAY too small for my longish legs even with the seat fully back. Very scrunched up and painful to be in a long time - which is the case for me with most smaller vehicles. So if you're tall or long legged you may want something with bigger leg room.

Also I found the rear hatchback to short for most of the things I wanted to haul even with the rear seats folded down and the front passenger seat played flat. But good for shorter things. YMMV of course.