Car performance

When the KIA Soul’ster Concept premiered at the 2009 North American International Auto Show, it turned heads. Even though the 2dr open-top SUV design was well-received by the media and public, rumours surfaced of a production model, planned for the near future. Apparently, Kia has now cancelled its plans to build the Soul'ster for production.

In order for Kia approve the Soul’ster, Orth Hedrick, director of product planning, said “You have to have broader appeal” to justify the development time and money it would take to bring the model to market. He added that a production Soul'ster would be an “almost all-new vehicle,” due to structural and weight differences from the regular Soul.


“The business case is really what we have to keep studying all the time,” said Hedrick, noting developing and selling Soul variants would be a challenge, “especially in this environment.”

Hedrick also confirmed that the Soul will undergo revised front and rear fascias, as well as receive more upmarket features for the mid-cycle change in 2012.

A car reliability survey carried out by consumer magazine Which? have acknowledged that the Kia Picanto is the most reliable new car on sale.

Although being one of the cheapest new cars on sales at £7,195, the petite Kia beat every other car to the top spot with a customer satisfaction score of 98.1%. Only 1.9% of people experienced problems and found the 7 year warranty offered something to fall back on. But, Which? doesn’t vouch for the Picanto thanks to its lack of safety features and poor Euro NCAP crash test rating. So in its place, the 2nd placed Mazda3 received the Which? Best Buy gong.


Asian car manufactures primarily dominate the chart, with seven making it into the top 10 list. Only Volkswagen and Mercedes represent Europe.

Most reliable new cars:

1 - Kia Picanto – 98.1%

2 - Mazda3 – 97.6%

3 - Daihatsu Sirion – 97.0%

4 - Honda Insight – 97.0%

5 - Honda Jazz – 96.2%

6 - Toyota iQ – 96.1%

7 - Toyota Prius – 95.4%

8 - Volkswagen Golf Plus – 93.3%

9 - Mercedes-Benz SLK – 93.3%

10 - Mazda2 – 93.2%