YearsTell

all vehicles · every Soul year · method

Kia Soul 2012

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.43 per 1,000

1.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 47 complaints filed in the first three years, of 513 ever. 95% lower bound 0.31.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model yearPer 1,000Complaints
20101.0772
20110.5143
20120.4347
20130.4553
20140.5572
20150.4464
20160.2435
20170.2634
20180.4145
20190.2323
20201.94165
20210.7555
20220.2617
20230.6941

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Engine 209 complaints

campaign5928%
engine engine5325%
campaign engine4924%
engine cooling4723%
cooling4723%
converter3919%

Steering 166 complaints

coupler4225%
clicking3924%
clunking3622%
steering coupler2415%
coupling2012%
clunking noise2012%

When it breaks

17% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 88,000 miles, from 310 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

5 investigations covering this model year, 3 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 43 complaints about this component over roughly 122 months before an investigation opened.

Hyundai and Kia ABS Module Fires

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10427688 · 10438749 · 10443440 · 10450518 · 10451710 · 10452134

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.