Battle of the Boxes! Renegade vs Soul

Y'all can say what you want about the soul but Wards just named the Soul+ as one of their top 10 interiors. Heres how they do it:

The honorees represent a broad swath of cars and utility vehicles available in the U.S. with advanced human-machine interfaces, high-quality materials, outstanding comfort and, in some cases, breathtaking aesthetics and limited self-driving capabilities.

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I had an '11 Soul and a '14 Soul. I'll start out by saying I loved the original design & am a huge fan. The original design with the metallic avocado green was awesome! When that lease was up, I got a '14. Didn't like the aesthetics as much, but it had improvements in other areas (blind spots, ride quality, etc.). It was also the best car I've ever driven in the snow thanks to a combination of TC & ESC (iirc ESC was mandated on all cars '14 & newer, absolutely wonderful technology for snow driving!). Ended up trading it in for a Forester because my wife hated stick, and also the Soul was underpowered with a 6-speed MT & ~130HP motor. Side note on the '15 Forester: I call it the best car ever built. Goes up hills effortlessly, lots of nice safety features, adaptive cruise option, amazing visibility, but...pretty bland. I almost got a second one, but the Renegade caught my eye & I dug the design, especially the interior. It's not as strong on hills, but makes up for it in a lot of other ways.

So having had two Souls...the Renegade is essentially a Soul with AWD. It's basically exactly the same car, but with a way better ride (the Soul has a pretty stiff suspension). Since I've gotten to the point where I drive more miles than makes sense to lease, I wanted to buy something fun that would also get me through the New England snow...technically the Forester was the best answer, but the Jeep is WAY more fun, so I opted for the combination of fun & practical. I almost bought another Soul (great-looking dark metallic blue with tan leather interior, ~$24k), but for $1.5k more, I got the Jeep with AWD/4WD & vastly improved ride experience. I feel better knowing that I'll have that for the winter & also so I can have some fun going on trails with my Jeep buddies. It's just nothing something I'll have to worry about in winter. Again, the '14 Soul was the best car I've ever driven in the snow, but I can do even more with the Jeep, and again with the ride, it's just soooo much better. More solid even than the Forester imo.

I think the Soul looks better than the Renegade, especially the older models. A lot of people don't realize what great cars the Souls are & what a good value they are...when I looked, it was like the third-cheapest car on the market (after the Mitsubishi 1.2L deathtrap & Nissan Versa) but had a ton of features available in a really great car package - sit upright, lots of room, surprisingly great quality...basically a modern Saturn. The Renegade has some weird design features, like the slightly oval-on-the-horizontal side windows & stuff (fortunately it looks better in person than in pictures), but is lovable in its own way. I went with the Commando green because heck, gotta get an ugly color to match an ugly car I actually like the kind of WWII nostalgic green it imparts to the design. Definitely getting some Jurassic Park stickers for the side doors next Halloween, haha!

Anyway - the Soul is a great car. Very underrated imo. However, if you're planning on buying a decked-out Kia model, for a little more you can get a Jeep 4x4 with a ride that is so much better it doesn't even compare.

R3N3GAD3 said:

And the Renegade is an SUV - not a car, like the Soul is. For me, there is no comparing the two.

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Having just gotten out of a 2014 Soul this past May, I can tell you they are just about exactly the same car, even has the same wheelbase. The difference is mainly in the suspension - the Renegade has a great ride, whereas the Soul has a budget-box ride (much stiffer, you definitely knock on the bumps). Plus the extra features like AWD/4WD in the Renegade, of course - but again per my previous post, up to getting the Jeep, the '14 Soul with government-mandated ESC is hands-down the best car I've ever driven in the snow. So after driving the updated Soul design for a year & a half, I'd say the main difference is the quality of the ride...the Jeep has a good one, the Soul has an economy one.

But honestly, other than that, they feel super similar. I actually like the Soul's transmission better...the Jeep's 9-speed is crap. I have the 2.4L automatic & I can literally count to 3 before the power kicks in, which is actually kind of dangerous if I need to punch it, like this morning when a semi-truck was trying to merge into my lane - it barely moves for a few seconds & then the power comes on, so you either have to pray it kicks in or try to honk & move into the emergency lane until it does. Even my wife's Forester with the CVT is 10 times better when you need to gun it. It reminds me of driving a Prius, if you've ever driven one from a full stop - it has that delay from when the electric motor switches over to the gas engine, there's an anemic period before the power starts, which can be scary if you're trying to turn left in front of oncoming traffic or need to squeeze out of a tight spot. I hope they either have a recall to fix the shifting (assuming it's not just a required "feature" of the 9-speed due to gearing) or someone makes an aftermarket fix to shift to power quicker. Took my wife out for a test-drive after I got it and the very first thing she said to me was "this is a slow car". I really wish it just had a simple 5-speed, it'd probably be a lot more fun to drive in terms of acceleration & removing the lag than the 9-speed it has now. I didn't get a chance to test-drive a Renegade with the manual transmission to compare, unfortunately, but I'd imagine the problem is non-existent in that one.

Personally, I don't really consider the Renegade an SUV, which may offend some people here. I call it the same as my Soul - a half-wagon. Wikipedia says the correct term is "subcompact crossover SUV", which is a real mouthfull. To me, it's a fat Wrangler haha. After riding in it, my friend called it a Gentleman's Jeep - didn't beat you up riding in it on the highway or for long periods of time, yet is still fairly off-road capable. I took it out on a trail & had a blast with it this weekend, which is something I'd never ever do in the Soul for obvious reasons. My only real regret is not waiting for a Trailhawk! Gotta figure out how to add tow hooks & all of the other goodies to my Latitude now