Kia Soul reliability by year
15 recall campaigns and 5,591 owner complaints across 16 model years. Best year to buy: 2024. Year to avoid: 2014.
Worst model years to avoid → — the single year to avoid for every model line we track, ranked side by side.
Years to avoid — and why 10 flagged on the NHTSA record
Cleaner on the data: 2010, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 . Still verify the specific vehicle.
At-a-glance: every year color-coded
Each cell shows the last two digits of the model year and its 0–10 reliability score from NHTSA data. Click any year to see the full record. ★ best year · ✕ year to avoid.
Year-by-year reliability 16 model years · newest first
Per-year recall counts add up to 34, more than the 15 campaigns above, because a single NHTSA campaign often covers several model years and is counted once in each.
Common trouble spots across the Soul aggregated across 16 model years
Common questions
What's the best year to buy a Kia Soul?
Based on NHTSA complaint volume and severity weighting, the 2024 Kia Soul scores 8.4/10 — the strongest in the 2010–2025 range. 30 complaints on file, 0 active recalls. Reliability scores reflect the federal complaint record, not subjective owner reviews.
Which Kia Soul year should I avoid?
The 2014 Kia Soul scores 5.8/10 — the weakest in the lineup. 904 owner complaints with NHTSA, 5 active recalls. That doesn't mean every 2014 is a problem — it means failure rates run higher than peer model years on the same platform.
Which years of the Kia Soul should I avoid?
On the NHTSA complaint and recall record, the model years to be most careful with are 2022 (avoid — the engine — 3 fatality reports and 1 fire-related complaint on the engine); 2019 (avoid — the engine — 5 fire-related complaints on the engine); 2018 (avoid — the engine — 7 fire-related complaints on the engine); 2017 (avoid — the engine — 9 fire-related complaints and 1 crash-related complaint on the engine); 2016 (avoid — the engine — 17 fire-related complaints and 5 crash-related complaints on the engine); 2015 (avoid — the steering — 45 fire-related complaints and 2 crash-related complaints on the engine). The cleaner years on the data are 2025, 2024, 2023, 2021, 2020, 2010. This is our read of the federal data, not a substitute for a pre-purchase inspection of the specific vehicle.
How many years of the Kia Soul are tracked?
16 model years (2010 through 2025) with NHTSA records on file. Total across the lineup: 15 distinct recall campaigns and 5,591 owner complaints. Those campaigns land on 34 model-year entries in total, because one campaign often covers several years at once — which is why per-year recall counts add up to more than the campaign count.
What's the most-reported problem on the Kia Soul?
engine is the most-reported category — 2,645 complaints across 14 model years. Average shop repair runs about $3,100.