All Souls’ Day: 2012 Kia Soul Kinetic Edition 6-speed

Yesterday was November 1st, known in the Latin Catholic Church as All Saints’ Day and is a yearly celebration of Saints, and I missed the opportunity to post nothing but Volvo 1800s as driven by Mr Roger Moore in The Saint.  However, today I will not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the lesser known (but equally important) All Souls’ Day and post nothing but spiffy examples of the Kia Soul.  Starting with this 2012 Kia Soul Kinetic Edition located here on eBay offered for $6,525 buy-it-now located in Fort Myers, FL.

Wait a minute…are you trying to tell me that I can get a Kia Soul with a gasoline direct injection engine and a 6-speed manual gearbox?  What kind of world is this?  Oddly enough, this isn’t some tarted up hot-hatch version of the Soul, it is actually the cheapest way to get a Soul if your name isn’t Beelzebub. 

That 6-speed gearbox is attached to a 1.6 liter Gamma GDI inline-4 that is good for 138 horsepower and 123 ft-lbs of torque, not exactly driving nirvana, but with a 2615 lb curb weight and a 5-door layout, this is about as close as you’ll get to most of the daily driver style cars sold in Europe.  The Kinetic Edition seems to be a reference to Kia teaming with Kinetic Racing to campaign Optimas in the Pirelli World Challenge Series, but it isn’t clear what the edition adds other than some graphics.

So, if you want a European style commuter, buy a used base model Kia.  tips@dailyturismo.com