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Dealership worker takes Kia Soul for 200-mile joyride

Most often, dealership road-test capers in customer cars involve exciting metal - an employee totals a Chevy Camaro ZL1, or a does the same thing with a Dodge Viper. Or tapes himself wringing out Italian exotics at triple-digit speeds on public roads. That kind of horseplay rarely involves mass-market metal because it's not worth getting caught running red lights in a 2001 Mitsubishi Montero - except that actually happened, too. But we still don't understand the mechanic at Peak Kia North in Windor, CO, who used a customer's Kia Soul as his own car for four days and put 200 miles on it. Owner Veronica Pief discovered the nonsense when she downloaded the 17 hours of driving video from her dashcam. She dropped the Soul off to have its speed-volume control fixed, but got it back with the extra mileage and the volume problem still hadn't been remedied. It got worse when she said of the dealership, "Afterwards, they just blew us off. They didn't care. They didn't show any concern." Sometime between that disrespect and Denver's KUSA 9NEWS doing a story on it, the dealer decided it should fix the situation. Pief said she wanted the dealer to buy her car back and pay off the loan, which sounds extreme, but she might have been thinking about the verbiage in her owner's manual. Kia is one of the automakers that's strict about voiding warranties if it deems a car has been abused. Peak Kia North gave Pief what she wanted just one day after the original story ran, buying the car back from her with plans to auction it and donate the proceeds to charity. And yes, the mechanic was fired. You can watch the local news report above. Related Video: News Source: Detroit Free Press, 9NEWS Auto News Kia Car Dealers Hatchback Videos viral video colorado

Kia expects US to be Soul EV's top market

While its sister brand Hyundai invests in hydrogen fuel cell technology, Kia is entering the battery-powered electric vehicle market with the new Soul EV. The Korean automaker plans to sell some 5,000 units of its first electric vehicle around the world. While it's not saying exactly what proportion it hopes to sell in (or how many it's allocating to) any individual market, the latest reports indicate that it expects the United States to be its biggest market.
Part of that may come down to the growing popularity of electric vehicles in America, but also to the substantial incentives offered by federal and local government agencies towards buying an EV. Though the Soul EV retails for a reported 42.5 million won in South Korea - equivalent to less than $41,500 at today's rates, of which the battery alone accounts for about 40 percent - incentives will mean that the actual cost to a buyer in the US will be about half that, although Kia hasn't announced official pricing yet.
The latest electric vehicle on the market is based on the existing Kia Soul hatchback, a vehicle chosen due to its packaging vis-à-vis more conventionally shaped vehicles. The 27 kWh lithium ion battery pack adds about 330 pounds to the vehicle's curb weight, resulting in a 0-62 time of 11.2 seconds and a 92-mile range. The Kia Soul EV will initially be sold only in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Maryland.

Kia Venga puts a fresh face on mini minivans

Minivans in America have grown to become anything but mini. That's not the case overseas, however, where Ford offers the B-Max, Citroen the C3 Picasso and Kia the Venga. On the European market now since 2009, the Venga shares its underpinnings with the Soul and with the Hyundai i20. The shape which Peter Schreyer sketched for it won a prestigious iF Design Award upon its debut, but five years later, it was time for a bit of a refresh. Debuting alongside the updated Rio at the Paris Motor Show, the new Venga has received some updated sheetmetal, an upgraded cabin and enhanced equipment – all the better for transporting a (small) family around some European metropolis, where the streets are narrow and the parking even tighter.