Final update. I bought the Soul, it was a couple of thousand under an almost identical dealer daily driver at Napleton. When I got the title it was under a rental agency that is totally unlisted. The street address came back to a mish-mashy mix of rent to own, and private financing opportunities to prop up dealerships with loans. My suspicion that this is some kind of high risk flim flamery sort of like mortgage traunches in 2007. Bad debt grabs by dealerships when bank financing goes way up. My suspicions were confirmed by my girlfriend's Acura sales manager neighbor who confirmed that dealers were in a huge cash squeeze with rising rates. I think I got a pretty good deal and my old '17 Soul went to my daughter, and her Accent to my granddaughter. Had to pull the trigger as promised right after the new year. However had I been able to hold off until mid-February, my thinking is that I could have gotten an even better deal. Looks like used car market is quickly collapsing.
There is another document showing this is an internal swap between Napleton Kia and Sinclair Lincoln so I suspect this is all desperate scrambling on the part of dealers swapping used cars while trying to keep their heads above water. I still think that Sinclair is thinking of broadening into the HyunKia market as they seem to be adding new car lines.
With the exception of a single Hankook Kinergy tire on the rear matched with three Nexens (must be a story there), the car itself seems extremely clean. I could have gotten a new Soul LX with tech package for roughly the same price as this 8K S. What I get with the upgrade is the larger screen (but no wireless Android Auto unlike the LX) with duplicate mapping, power drivers seat, nifty blue and black color scheme unavailable with the LX also a slight upgrade in safety. I'm really impressed with the increase in mpg compared to my '17, roughly 5 mpg. All the safety stuff is most impressive to this codger. Keeping me in lane, and stopping me from backing into traffic is a big plus. Plus beeping insanely if there's someone in my blind spot and I put my turn signal on. Like all this stuff. Having the engine turn off at stop lights seems to bother huge amounts of people but I like it just fine.
Miss the cargo cover in the '17+ but can hopefully get one (available in higher trim levels). Rear windows are dark so no big deals.
Looked carefully at the GM-Korean three cylinder 1.2-1.3 cars but like simplicity of Kia's 2 liter fours better. Think they've learned the lessons from their earlier second generation oil burning problems but time will tell. Kia has really gotten up to date quickly with CVT technology, much better sorted out than the Nissan Kicks I test drove. Nissan interiors were a mess and Kia seems to be a bit more upscale than the Chevy-Buick competitors.
The missing fob was replaced by someone who came to my house. He also said that he had reset both fobs. Never thought about the security problems with having a lost fob floating around out there. Told me paying for a replacement would have been $315, but that "everybody was getting into the mobile key business", so I suspect like used cars, locksmithing might be something open to future price reduction.
There is another document showing this is an internal swap between Napleton Kia and Sinclair Lincoln so I suspect this is all desperate scrambling on the part of dealers swapping used cars while trying to keep their heads above water. I still think that Sinclair is thinking of broadening into the HyunKia market as they seem to be adding new car lines.
With the exception of a single Hankook Kinergy tire on the rear matched with three Nexens (must be a story there), the car itself seems extremely clean. I could have gotten a new Soul LX with tech package for roughly the same price as this 8K S. What I get with the upgrade is the larger screen (but no wireless Android Auto unlike the LX) with duplicate mapping, power drivers seat, nifty blue and black color scheme unavailable with the LX also a slight upgrade in safety. I'm really impressed with the increase in mpg compared to my '17, roughly 5 mpg. All the safety stuff is most impressive to this codger. Keeping me in lane, and stopping me from backing into traffic is a big plus. Plus beeping insanely if there's someone in my blind spot and I put my turn signal on. Like all this stuff. Having the engine turn off at stop lights seems to bother huge amounts of people but I like it just fine.
Miss the cargo cover in the '17+ but can hopefully get one (available in higher trim levels). Rear windows are dark so no big deals.
Looked carefully at the GM-Korean three cylinder 1.2-1.3 cars but like simplicity of Kia's 2 liter fours better. Think they've learned the lessons from their earlier second generation oil burning problems but time will tell. Kia has really gotten up to date quickly with CVT technology, much better sorted out than the Nissan Kicks I test drove. Nissan interiors were a mess and Kia seems to be a bit more upscale than the Chevy-Buick competitors.
The missing fob was replaced by someone who came to my house. He also said that he had reset both fobs. Never thought about the security problems with having a lost fob floating around out there. Told me paying for a replacement would have been $315, but that "everybody was getting into the mobile key business", so I suspect like used cars, locksmithing might be something open to future price reduction.
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