Kia Soul
£10,495
Miles per gallon: 43.5
CO2 per KM: 153 grams
Good for: City squares
Bad for: Boring squares
When your neighbour guffaws, points at your car and asks, "What's that?" you know the designers at Kia have succeeded in the brief they were set. They were asked to create an urban crossover vehicle that was "totally different to conventional, workaday small cars". And the Soul is defiantly different. It has an unusually high bonnet with wide powerful shoulders, bulging wheel arches and a roofline that slopes from the windscreen down to the upward sweep of the tapering doorline. One of the car's "concept" sketches featured a wild boar. And it's true, there is something of The Lion King's Pumbaa about the Soul.
The Soul is without doubt an attention-seeker - it's a Big Brother contestant in car form and in the week I drove it provoked a huge amount of interest. But I'd be lying to you if I told you it was all positive. In fact, "What's that?" was about as good as it got. I patiently smiled through a dozen or so comments, but two did make me laugh.
1) "It's like the new KitKat caramel - chunky and funky." 2) "You look like you're in a Playmobil ambulance." Aren't people witty?
In fact, Kia has a lot to be proud of. With the Soul, the Koreans have created from scratch a vehicle with a "personality" - an incredibly difficult thing to do. On the highway, it's the bland that lead the way. Taking its inspiration from the Mini and Fiat 500, the Soul can be bought in a bewildering array of configurations. The design boss, Peter Schreyer, says it is, "the first Kia where customers will check the colours and accessories before they check the price".
To add to the confusion, Kia has also instigated a rolling programme of special Soul "Originals" which will be refreshed every 12 months. This year, the Originals are the Samba, Shaker and Burner. Once you've plumped for your model, you can then select everything from carpet mats to security upgrades. Some are little more than froth (dragon decals and speakers with "mood lighting"), but underlying all, Kia has blessed its Soul with a sound mechanical foundation and all the safety and driver-handling programmes your heart could desire.
Finally, a shocking fact you may not have considered. Each vehicle produced by Kia in its Gwangju plant creates an average of 5.1 tonnes of waste. And that's from a company very aware of the ethical and environmental tightrope all manufacturers tread these days.
