Kia Soul 2018

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

0.41 per 1,000

0.9 times this nameplate’s own median · from 45 complaints filed in the first three years, of 219 ever. 95% lower bound 0.29.

Against its own model years

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

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2010	1.07	72
2011	0.51	43
2012	0.43	47
2013	0.45	53
2014	0.55	72
2015	0.44	64
2016	0.24	35
2017	0.26	34
2018	0.41	45
2019	0.23	23
2020	1.94	165
2021	0.75	55
2022	0.26	17
2023	0.69	41

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 141 complaints

oil consumption	32	23%
consumption	32	23%
rod	21	15%
knock	19	14%
excessive oil	13	10%
consumption test	12	9%

When it breaks

32% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 55,000 miles, from 80 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

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:

11082237 · 11101360 · 11113338 · 11113971 · 11129352 · 11131703

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.