2011 Kia Soul problems
NHTSA has received 271 complaints about the 2011 Kia Soul, and 17% of them involve brakes. After that come electrical system (12%) and engine (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 271 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 17% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 43 and 7
- Injuries and deaths
- 43 and 2
- Typical mileage
- 53,000 miles 184 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 48 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 30 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 24 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 12 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 19 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 14 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 10 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 7 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 12 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 6 |
What the data shows
Among the 184 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 52,000 miles. For brakes specifically, the median reported mileage is about 114,000 miles (20 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 43 complaints mention a crash; 7 complaints mention a fire; 43 injuries reported; 2 deaths reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 91% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2011 ranks 11th most-complained-about out of 15 model years of the Kia Soul with enough data (132 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My daughter was traveling on a country road at 50 miles per hour. Another vehicle crossed into her lane, hit her head-on and she died on the scene. When the police department arrived to investigate, they noticed that the steering wheel of her kia soul detached from the column and they located the steering wheel (airbag deployed) in the floorboard behind the driver's seat.
Myself and 13 yoa daughter were on cr0151 when we were struck by a 1996 chevy s-10 on the right side of our 2011 soul hitting the passenger side front fender doors and pillar between the right side doors. No air bags went off with this impact and with all the air bags why didn't any go off? ...updated 09/12/12 updated 09/18/2012
Tl. The contact owns a 2011 kia soul with nexxen tires, size 225/45 r18. The DOT was not avthe contact stated while driving 30 MPH the contact pulled the emergency brake to stop the vehicle. After stopping the vehicle the contact notice a significant amount of tread on the tire. The contact called the vehicle manufacturer and the manufacturer gave the contact the phone number to the tire manufacturer.
The rear window on my 2011 kia soul shattered after closing the front passenger door. The door was not slammed or closed with any force and the car was parked and turned off at the time. It was lightly snowing and around 20 degrees f when the incident occurred. The window was broken from the center, but the glass bowed outward and the edges of the window had crumbled and fallen out as well.