[ebacherville]

OK I'll tell you, After driving every car under the 15k mark.. Litterally we hit every model we could find under that 15k mark... the winner , the Kia Soul...

We didnt even really consider it as it didnt show up on the " best small car" lists, as its considered a crossover... This car is the best equipped, most room, Well styled (some may say) and very fuel efficient with a manual its EPA rating is a not to shabby 31 mpg, only 2 under the Honda fit manual.. but this thing is HUGE in comparison and its like riding around on your sofa, its very comfortable.

We really thought we were going to get the Honda Fit, we really liked the Honda fit right up until we drove it, it wasn't that comfortable and the ride was sort of choppy and loud.. We were pretty disappointed in the Honda fit.. our expectation was far higher than what it actually was.. The Nissan Versa was actually more comfortable.

Now the fit did have a bit more cargo room than the Kia Soul due to it's magic seats, but the Soul hands down was the winner, no comparison.. The Kia Soul is on a whole other level compared to any of the others.. Well at least for us it was, we were looking for something that replaced a minivan, the soul basically is a short minivan, It's far bigger than youd expect from photos, we though it would be like a 4 door mini cooper from the pictures on Kias website, its not, its about 6 feet tall.. It's BIG.. and yet with a manual 31mpg.. with reports from owners getting upwards of 34mpg after breakin.

Now I know people say "KIA" and run.. But this inst your old KIA from years ago or even a year ago, Kia has risen the bar big time.. IF you don't believe me go check out there Forte and Soul.. these are there newest cars.. they will blow you away with there quality and style.. And there warrantee can't be beat.. I owned a 2002 Hyundai Accent we never had any mechanical problems with it, now my buddy owns it and has well over 130k with no issues..

THe other car that suprised us for the value for the dollar was the Nissan Versa.. however to get one with all the added equipment that the Kia Soul has, you'd spend more and have a smaller car, less warranty, and a car that still says econobox, the Kia Soul doesn't scream econobox, it actually screams SUV, like a ford escape..

The Souls standard features even on there base model include power windows, power locks, power mirrors, air conditioning, a nice radio with USB and Ipod connectivity, ABS.

Yeah the Honda Fit includes most of these to but the fit base is 14750, and the Soul is 13300 and it's far more comfortable to drive in. We did give up a few MPG and Honda's great reputation in quality, however we gained a lot longer warranty and a far more comfortable car, and a few extra features, and saved about $1500 in the process.

The Soul may not fit everyone, The styling grows on you, its kind of weird. AT first you kind of don't know what to think, then after you see it and experience it it really starts to grow on you.. We both however did like the Honda Fits "cockpit" sytle design allot, but it felt like a cockpit, hard and constrained.. The soul was very nice, but was more of a upright sitting position, more suv or minivan like.. and the seats are very very comfortable front and back.

We were both shocked actually by the Soul, we never expected it to blow away everything else so easily, it wasn't even a hard choice.. it was a no brainier in our situation. We were not even going to look at it.. we went to look at the Kia Rio.. It sucked us in the moment we saw it, met our MPG requirements, and was priced with in our budget.. After we drove it we went back to the car, looked at the list of stuff we had driven, the only car we had not driven was the Honda FIt at this point .. we crossed every thing else off the list.. Went to Honda Drove the Honda and half way through we stopped the Honda turned it around and both of us agreed that Kia took it hand down.

We were really really shocked.. I still cant believe how great the Soul was.

Now the hardest part... what color Soul we should get