2012 Kia Soul Eco 1.6 Tested: Attempting to Do More with Less

By the time the Kia Soul arrived Stateside for the 2010 model year, conventional wisdom had the Kabuki-faced wagon pegged as a late entry to a contest the Scion xB had already won. With a six-year head start, it seemed the xB—and to a lesser extent the slightly larger, somewhat pricier, and now-dead Honda Element—had the hip, inexpensive box-on-wheels segment on lockdown. But in a story rich with Faustian implication, Kia sold its Soul to more than 100,000 Americans in 2011 alone, almost six times the number of xBs that Scion managed to move in the same timeframe. So the Soul is an unqualified success, and the mid-cycle refresh for 2012 aimed to keep up the momentum with freshened styling, overhauled powertrains, and the addition of the economy-minded Eco package tested here. (more…) from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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