{"id":3443,"date":"2011-07-01T17:28:42","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T21:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=3443"},"modified":"2011-07-03T21:47:25","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T01:47:25","slug":"a-new-keithmobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2011\/07\/01\/a-new-keithmobile\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Keithmobile?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could it be? Is it possible? A new Keithmobile – the first new one in 7 years?<\/p>\n

\"amanda's<\/a><\/p>\n

Ha ha, no, actually this is NOT a new Keithmobile – the faithful Keithmobile-D (my Mitsubishi Outlander) is still around, and we can’t have more than one Keithmobile at a time, now can we?<\/p>\n

However, this IS a new car – our first “second” car – and since we still have the Outlander, that kind of makes this “Amanda’s car.” And boy, does it suit her!<\/p>\n

This is a 2011 Kia Soul<\/a> – which you might recognize instead by it’s insane TV commercial featuring a bunch of singing (rapping) hamsters<\/a>. Yeah, that <\/em>car.<\/p>\n

Specifically, this is a Soul+ (because apparently Kia felt that using names or even letters for trim levels was too boring, so instead we get symbols – there’s the “+”, the “!” and… the “Sport.” Real creative there.)<\/p>\n

You can look up all the particulars online if you care, but suffice it to say that this is the perfect second car for us. The Soul is a nice cruising car – comfy and quiet on the highway, with good gas mileage and a kick-ass sound system (8 speakers, including a subwoofer) which also has a true iPod connection (that is, not only can you play your iPod, but the info about what song is playing shows up on the radio’s screen, and you can skip songs using the steering wheel mounted controls).<\/p>\n

Most amusingly, the upgraded audio package includes what can only be described as “mood lighting.” There are LED lights around the speakers in the doors which can glow in one of 5 different colors (red, blue, yellow, green, purple) – and they can either just cycle through the colors slowly, or they can “pulse” in time to your music!<\/p>\n

I drove this car a while back<\/a> as a rental, and thought that it might work well for us as a second car, and after doing some research, we decided that it would be perfect. It sits 4 people comfortably and has ample space in the back (especially with the seats folded down), plus it has that nice “not too high, not too low” driving\/seating position which we like.<\/p>\n

Oh – and that spine-shattering stiff ride I talked about in my original review of this car? Well, apparently Kia listens to what people say, because they’ve definitely fixed it in the 2011 model. The ride is firm, but not nearly as bad as it used to be. So kudos to Kia for fixing that one big problem!<\/p>\n

The Soul is not<\/em> all-wheel-drive, however, so it will probably spend some time sitting in the garage come winter, but for most of the year (at least around here) it will do quite nicely. And it’s nice to finally have 2 cars in the family!<\/p>\n

Truthfully though, the Kia Soul is a very nice little car – not too big, but not too small, either. If you’re looking for a practical car with a bit of style that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, you can’t go wrong with one of these. Hey, I bought one, after all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Keithmobile? Say it ain’t so! (It ain’t so.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[102,273,274],"class_list":["post-3443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars-and-trucks","category-personal","tag-cars","tag-kia","tag-soul","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-Tx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":363,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/01\/30\/car-and-driver-outlander-xls-awd\/","url_meta":{"origin":3443,"position":0},"title":"Car and Driver : Outlander XLS AWD","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 30, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I trust Car and Driver's reviews, and this one of my pretty little Keithmobile-D does it justice. If you're lazy, let me sum up their review thusly: \"A likable small SUV at a reasonable price for owners with sensible expectations.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/06\/24\/the-amazing-keithmobile-d\/","url_meta":{"origin":3443,"position":1},"title":"The Amazing Keithmobile-D","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The one, the only, Keithmobile-D (that's the 5th Keithmobile, in case you're counting - I use the same letter naming scheme as the Enterprise from Star Trek). It really is a good looking car. And it's still going strong after 5 years. My faithful companion on many an adventure... often\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"the amazing keithmobile-D","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3189\/2605679901_cb249f2e8e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5864,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2022\/11\/10\/things-i-wish-the-keithmobile-had\/","url_meta":{"origin":3443,"position":2},"title":"Things I wish the Keithmobile had","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"All the things I wish the Keithmobile had (but it doesn't).","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2003\/11\/08\/outlanding\/","url_meta":{"origin":3443,"position":3},"title":"Outlanding","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 8, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Went exploring today in the Outlander (Keithmobile-D) for fun this afternoon. I was looking for a place to watch the Lunar Eclipse from, but there's so many \"no tresspassing\" signs these days that it was hard to find anywhere to go.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4700,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2015\/06\/22\/behind-the-wheel-my-mid-80s-k-cars\/","url_meta":{"origin":3443,"position":4},"title":"Behind the Wheel: My Mid-80’s K-Cars","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"My first 3 cars were all mid-80's K-Cars, and since they were all so similar I figured I'd just lump them into a single review rather than try and do them individually. 1985 Plymouth Reliant This was my very first car, and though I only had it about 2 weeks,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1985 plymouth reliant","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2015\/06\/1985-plymouth-reliant-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4561,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2014\/10\/17\/behind-wheel-2003-mitsubishi-outlander\/","url_meta":{"origin":3443,"position":5},"title":"Behind the Wheel: 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"To keep this \"Behind the Wheel\" series going I thought I'd mix things up a bit and give some thoughts on cars I've actually owned, as opposed to ones I've just driven for short periods of time. We'll begin this little mini-series with my current car, a 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"the amazing keithmobile-D","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3189\/2605679901_cb249f2e8e_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}