I’ve got a friend who had one. He got a basic white one with no frills. He came from a classic Cherokee and just liked white boxes and needed something reliable with a low cost of ownership. He had it for 3-4 years and had no problems with it. He said it was fun to drive around town, and didn’t mind it for a recurring 5 hour highway drive, but it wasn’t his favorite for highway use either. He missed having something a little heavier and picked up a Chevy Colorado a few years later. No issues with the soul, according to him. I personally think H/K ups their game with every new revision. Their current models, frankly, are beautiful.
as a guy who volunteers with a local ministry to do simple car maintenance for widows and wives of the deployed, I do see a few Hyundai/Kia vehicles regularly. I’m continually impressed with the interiors and the solid feel of the chassis and running gear. Where they suffer is old age, where every single sensor starts to fail, and access to them requires a lot of labor to get to. And the failures seem to cascade, and often the owners can’t handle the high costs of labor to deal with the waves of repairs. Granted, those are all 10-15 year old vehicles, and H/K has probably improved a lot since then.
i’ll put it this way, if my wife said she wanted a H/K, I’d be willing to give it a try for her.