Kia Soul 2017

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.26 per 1,000

better than this nameplate’s own median · from 34 complaints filed in the first three years, of 272 ever. 95% lower bound 0.17.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2010	1.07	72
2011	0.51	43
2012	0.43	47
2013	0.45	53
2014	0.55	72
2015	0.44	64
2016	0.24	35
2017	0.26	34
2018	0.41	45
2019	0.23	23
2020	1.94	165
2021	0.75	55
2022	0.26	17
2023	0.69	41

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Engine 191 complaints

knocking	46	24%
rod	30	16%
engine failed	19	10%
converter	18	10%
catalytic converter	17	9%
oil light	17	9%

When it breaks

25% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 74,000 miles, from 117 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

11011914 · 11024832 · 11032004 · 11035753 · 11042733 · 11046385

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.