Devastating Hamsters Everywhere, Kia Is Killing the Soul
The Kia Soul will be discontinued after the 2025 model year following a nearly 20-year run.
Justin BannerWriterMotorTrend StaffPhotographerManufacturerPhotographerOct 06, 2025
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There was a time that boxy designs were all the rage, for about a decade starting in 2005 or so. Nissan, Toyota, and Kia all offered boxy but roomy subcompact vehicles, but of the Cube, xB, and Soul, only Kia continued offering its geometric compact beyond 2015. Now, after nearly 20 years and 1.5 million vehicles sold in the U.S., the final Kia Soul will be built this month.
While it wasn’t the first box-shaped vehicle to make it to the U.S., the Kia Soul ultimately became the best known in large part due to savvy marketing. We can forget the trio of cute, hip anthropomorphic hamsters that danced on behalf of Kia’s compact hatchback starting in 2009? It was a part of Kia’s “A New Way to Roll” campaign that earned several advertising awards—including Nielsen’s Automotive Ad of the Year—and eventually culminated in a special 2010 Kia Soul Ham-star edition.
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From there, Kia riffed on the popular Soul with concepts such as the open-roofed Soul’ster and the 250-hp AWD Track’ster. The latter debuted design cues found in the second-generation Soul that began production in 2013 as a 2014 model, but the production Soul wouldn’t ever feature AWD. (A subcompact Kia crossover with AWD later became reality with the Seltos.)
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The Soul reached the 1 million units mark in 2018 just as it entered its third generation as a 2019 model. There will not be a fourth. That’s unfortunate in a world where inexpensive cars become ever more endangered. At just $21,935, the Kia Soul was one of the most affordable crossovers you could buy, but its death leaves just two other compact crossovers with similar prices. But as much as we lament the loss of an affordable vehicle, we just might miss the Soul’s funky style more.
Justin Banner
Having experience in many forms of the automotive industry, Justin Banner has done more than just write about cars. For more than 15 years, he’s had experience working as an automotive service technician—including a stint as a Virginia State Inspector—service advisor, parts sales, and aftermarket parts technical advisor (a fancy way of saying he helped you on the phone when you had trouble fitting your brakes over your aftermarket wheels and the like). Prior to his tenure as a full-time editor, Justin worked as a freelance writer and photographer for various publications and as an automotive content creator on YouTube. He’s also covered multiple forms of motorsports ranging from Formula Drift, drag racing, and time attack, to NASCAR, short course off-roading, and open desert racing. He’s best known for breaking down complex technical concepts so a layperson can more easily understand why technologies, repairs, and parts should matter to them. At MotorTrend, Justin is part of the news team covering breaking news and topics while also working as a judge for MotorTrend Of the Year events and other major comparison tests.
