Newer Stickshift Runabouts: 2011 Kia Soul vs 2012 Hyundai Veloster

Sbsd 4 25 2024
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Good morning! On today’s Shitbox Showdown, we’re looking at some cars that were built this century for once. Heck, they’re only twelve and thirteen years old! That’s practically new. And they’re both sticks, and hatchbacks too!

Yesterday I was kind of mean to you all, asking you to choose between two really awful cars. There really wasn’t a good choice, but in that price range, you can’t get too picky. The Avenger won, but really I think it just lost less than the Outlander.

I think I’d have to drive them both before I decided. They’re kind of a toss-up in the maintenance department, with one having a V6 turned the wrong way and the other having all-wheel-drive, which seriously clutters up the underside of these little crossovers. Could I live with the crack in the Mitsubishi’s windshield until next payday when I could get it replaced? Does the Avenger’s stained interior include an olfactory component? These are the questions you can only answer about a car in person.

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Now then: There was a time when a twelve-year-old Korean economy car simply didn’t exist, or if it did, it certainly wasn’t worth buying. Can you imagine what one of the few surviving ’86 Hyundai Excels looked like by 1998? When was the last time you saw an Excel, period? Talk about an extinct car.

But times have changed, and Hyundai and Kia now make pretty good little cars. Nothing special to drive, and they still have their share of problems, but they hold together reasonably well – at least, if you pick the ones with the right engines in them. These both have the “good” engine, and even better, the proper number of pedals for a small car. Let’s check them out.

2011 Kia Soul – $3,900

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Engine/drivetrain: 1.6 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD

Location: Huntsville, AL

Odometer reading: 116,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

I can’t remember which of my friends pointed it out first, but not very long after the Kia Soul hit the streets, someone pointed out a white one going by and said, “That looks just like a Stormtrooper’s helmet.” And ever since then, that’s all I can see when I look at one. That, and those stupid hamsters.

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The Soul was targeted at young buyers, much like Toyota’s similarly-shaped Scion xB, but the combination of low cost, easy ingress and egress, and high seating attracted a far older demographic, and you’re as likely to see gray hair behind the wheel of a Soul as you are a hoodie. As such, manual transmissions are uncommon. This celery-green color, however, is not; it was pretty popular, and it’s nice to see a bold color get chosen so often.

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This Soul doesn’t have a lot of miles on it, only 116,000. It runs and drives well, according to the seller, and everything works. It’s powered by Hyundai-Kia’s 1.6 liter “Gamma II” engine, which has a far better reputation than the ill-fated Theta motor. With the five-speed, I’m sure it’s plenty of power, and probably pretty fun to wring out in that “slow car fast” kind of way.

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It’s in pretty good shape, both inside and out, though there are a couple of dings and dents, and the back bumper is a slightly different shade of green than the rest, making me think that it was replaced at some point. It does still have a clean title, so whatever happeend must not have been too bad.

2012 Hyundai Veloster – $3,995

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Engine/drivetrain: 1.6 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, six-speed manual, FWD

Location: Springfield, MO

Odometer reading: 163,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

The Hyundai Veloster, built on the same platform as the Kia Soul, also has a nickname around our house: the “Velociraptor.” My wife thought that’s what it said on the back when she saw one in traffic, and the name stuck. And for a while, I didn’t realize the odd door configuration, and assumed it was available in both two-door and four-door forms – as it could have been – until I saw one parked.

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The Velociraptor- sorry, Veloster – gives up a door to its Kia Soul cousin, but it gains a forward gear. I think the manual take rate on Velosters was comparatively high, and those who chose one with three pedals were rewarded with a six-speed manual. It’s powered by the same 1.6 liter Gamma II engine as the Soul, but this one has direct injection and puts out just a little more power.

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It runs and drives great, according to the seller, and it looks like it’s in great shape. The inside shows a little wear and tear, but nothing out of the ordinary for the mileage. You can tell the Veloster was meant to be a sportier car than the Soul; not only is it low-slung, but the seats don’t look nearly as comfy.

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My only real problem with the Veloster, and it’s a problem I have with a lot of cars of this era, is that the dashboard is absolutely hideous. It’s busy, and there’s so much silver plastic and weird angular shapes that it looks like one of those cheap stereos they were selling at Best Buy twenty years ago.

Minor styling quibbles and silly nicknames aside, Hyundai and Kia have come a long way from the Excel and Sephia days. These are both competent, efficient, useful little cars that still have life in them. And since they’re so close mechanically, it almost comes down to personal preference. Which one is your pick?

(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)

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71 thoughts on “Newer Stickshift Runabouts: 2011 Kia Soul vs 2012 Hyundai Veloster

  1. This is very much a both situation. I owned a 2010 Kia Soul Sport and it was bulletproof all around, even after 150k. The Veloster is just fun though and at that price, I’d hoon the absolute fuck out of it.

  2. I have to take the Soul, only because those green ones have been plaguing the high school parking lots and my daughter is sick of them, so yeah….torture the child with one in the driveway too

  3. I would much rather NOT have direct injection if I’m buying a car priced low enough to have its expensive maintenance items deferred as long as possible, so it’s the Kia Soul that takes my vote.

    Removing the intake manifold and/or heads and blasting them clean is not something I’m eager to have done to a $4,000 car that’s likely to serve as a beater. You’ll probably have to do that to the Velo before long.

    I would rather have the Velo’s body style and six speed, but it’s just not quite sporty enough to justify the lower utility and additional expense it’s very likely to need soon.

    Also, BOTH bumpers on the Soul are brighter than the rest of the car. It is somehow normal for these for the paint to stay more true to original on the plastic bumper skins than the body.

  4. I’ll take the Kia Soul, since that the same color and generation I bought my son, but his is the 2013 with the automatic. I taught him to drive a stick, but he didn’t want to DD a stick in traffic.

  5. I’ll take the Soul. I like cars with a lot of interior room and I like how much cargo space it has with the rear seat folded. I also like that it is green.

    I also have some concerns about the Veloster. The seller mentions that it has had five previous owners. I wonder why no one wants to keep this car very long. Also, it is for sale at a small lot located between an adult video store and a motel with a review that says “It was 20 bucks, I’m not picky.” This car lot could be the one respectable business on the block, but an independent lot in a dodgy part of town is not the kind of place I associate with good used cars.

  6. The extra utility and door would be good on the soul, but my sister had one just like this and the interior was so much ugly and hard plastic that it was just terrible. I absolutely hated driving that stupid thing. Went for the Veloster just because the interior is less awful.

  7. Veloster is a stupid name, allegedly created by combining velocity + roadster. Half of that equation is questionable (it’s sort of quick), the other half is false (not a roadster; Mini got it wrong with their backward ball cap coupe, too). Plus it looks like King Kong used it for an ottoman. Going with the extra door, high ceiling and COSTCO trunk. Today I’m a Soul man. Rubber biscuit!

    1. You’re thinking of the mini coupe. The Roadster was the convertible version of it. I think it was very much a Roadster by modern definition. Going back a few decades and roadsters typically didn’t have tops at all, but if you can accept that modern cars aren’t going to be sold without a top at all, the mini is justified to call itself a roadster.

      1. You’re right, I mistakenly remembered both the hard and soft top versions being referred to as roadsters, but the ball cap was the Coupé.

  8. I drove a Soul for about six months while my Miata was in the body shop. About all I remember about it was it was red, the interior was black, the driver seat was comfortable and it was easy to get in and out of. That’s pretty much it, for something I drove daily for half a year. Soulless might have been a better name for it. It was much better than the Sorento we owned at the time (worst automotive purchase I ever made, although in fairness that might be tainted by a horrible dealer experience), but I voted for it anyway as the asymmetry of the Veloster would have messed with my OCD. (A Veloster N might have won the day, though.)

  9. I owned a Veloster, 2013 6MT in Blue, it was awesome! You can upgrade the heck of just about everything, you can replace the stereo with something with Carplay, I updated the gauges to the slightly refreshed version from 2015 to give it an updated look inside. They are fun to drive (if a bit of a harsh ride). Go Veloster!!

  10. Hey, I call foul! The green paint color on the Kia was specifically called Alien Green, Alien II or Alien Pearl Metallic for different years. Put some respect on that charmingly dorky name!

    /half-joking

    1. Hmm aliens could be any color, not just green.

      Heck, they could be a color that we humans can’t – wait a minute! Maybe they ARE here and we just can’t see them!

  11. This is a tough choice. The Soul is in the signature color Kia Soul Green (I think they called it Alien, but whatever LOL), but it doesn’t have a sunroof like the Veloster has.

    If you can’t decide between a 2-door or a 3-door, get a 3-door 😛

    Only the first year 2010 could you get a manual Soul with a sunroof.

    I voted for the Soul for the cooler color and more space

  12. Soul all day every day. I still have out 2010 as the getaround vehicle when we dont want to use the van. Its practical, but I also have the 2.0 5-speed which is already pretty lethargic, so I can imagine the 1.6 being floored quite often when merging onto the highways.

    Its just so much more practical than the Veloster. I have fit a pallets worth of boxed merchandise with the seats down and still had room on the top rack for more if I wanted.

  13. I already have a box on wheels- a Sienna- when I need one. But the Veloster would fit my current commute perfectly, entertain me with six gears, and put up way better fuel economy to boot. I guess I have “Velocirapture”.

  14. The Soul is the better buy for most people, but I would go with the Veloster. It makes me think of the cheap little sport coupes that were everywhere when I was a young adult that have now largely vanished.

  15. I’m a Veloster owner, but it’s a Veloster N, which feels so different mechanically that it might as well be a different platform from the base Veloster. It does give me warm fuzzies when I see the first generation Veloster now, though. But with the 1.6l Gamma? Naaaah. If it’s slow, give me the more practical Soul with the much more usable (and more tasteful!) interior. That old Veloster is way less fun to drive than it looks, and conversely the Soul is a little more fun to drive than it appears.

    I also have to give it up for Soul as it’s the type of vehicle we generally need more of: something small yet roomy, at an affordable price, that’s still a fucking car. Oh, and they still sell them in colors.

  16. That’s hard. Soul is pretty soulless, but I just can’t cope with how ugly the Veloster is. Not only the dashboard, but the whole damn car. I’ll choose Soul, at least it has nice colour and If I had to be anyways bored I might be bored while doing some practical stuff.

  17. UGH, “a problem I have with a lot of cars of this era, is that the dashboard is absolutely hideous. It’s busy, and there’s so much silver plastic and weird angular shapes that it looks like one of those cheap stereos they were selling at Best Buy twenty years ago,” NAILED IT.

  18. Instead of the “both” button, today we need the “either” button. I can’t make a compelling case to choose either one of these over the other. I guess the Soul is slightly more practical, and is a better color? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  19. Neither floats my particular boat, but the Veloster is way too small for me. If I am going to be disappointed, I would rather not be uncomfortable as well.

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