Nine years after first gracing us with its all-around quirkiness, the Kia SOUL is now in its third-generation, and it looks as quirky as ever. The all-new SOUL was unveiled at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show with a fresh new look, albeit one with a more modern slant to its design. It’s still the SOUL, though, which is to say that it retains its upright and boxy look. It’s still very much the square crossover we’ve all had in our lives since 2009. Give Kia credit, though, for giving it a fresher design. To add to the new design, it's also longer and wider than the outgoing model. That's a win-win in our book.

There’s something admirable in Kia’s determination to keep the funky box fad alive. I don’t know why it insists on keeping it relevant, but judging by the look of the third-generation SOUL, Kia’s not about to give up this corner of the market. Don’t get me wrong; the all-new SOUL looks great. It’s great in the same way bubble tea is great. You think you’ve had enough of it, but when you see it again, you can’t resist ordering another one. The new SOUL makes it even more difficult for me to dismiss it completely because I actually like its design. It’s still very much a square ride, but it’s always been like that, almost to the point that it’s become one of its most enduring design characteristics. Give it to Kia for keeping the SOUL real. At least we know that it’s riding by its identity all the way to the sunset.

As far as the design changes go, there are a lot of them, particularly in the front section. Yes, I just compared the SOUL to the Camaro. Shoot me now. It’s true, though, particularly the thin LEDs under the lamps that curve up as it approaches the horizontal bar in the middle. Speaking of which, that’s another new design element to the third-generation SOUL. The bowtie-like grille in the earlier model is gone, replaced by the horizontal bar that Kia says gives the SOUL a full-width look. No arguments there, too. Move to the bottom part of the new SOUL’s front fascia, and you’ll see a more aggressive bumper than what its predecessor had. The grille in the bottom of the bumper is larger, and the pair of large, rectangular lighting pods replace the tiny round ones in the second-generation model. A bit less obvious are the sharper cuts and edges on the bottom of the bumper. That’s as clear a distinction as you’ll see between the new SOUL and the old one.

The side profile of the new SOUL sticks to the design integrity of its predecessor, but it is worth mentioning that the fenders don’t protrude as much as they did in the second-generation model. Move to the rear, and the changes are just as clear as they are in the front. Let’s start with the taillights. Remember the SOUL’s taillights that looked like the “phone” icon on all of our mobile phones? The round park lights of the old mobile are gone, too. In their place are horizontal slits. Even the lower bumper on the SOUL looks more prominent than the ones found on the model it’s replacing.

In terms of overall size, the third-generation SOUL is actually longer than its predecessor by 2.2 inches. It now measures 165.2 inches compared to the 163 inches in the second-gen model. The vehicle’s wheelbase also grows by 1.2 inches, measuring 102.4 inches now compared to 101.2 inches before. Width and height measurements, however, remain unchanged. The SOUL is still 70.9 inches wide and 63 inches tall.

For all the design changes made to the third-generation Kia SOUL, it’s impossible to notice all of them without understanding that at its core, the SOUL actually didn’t change much at all. Give credit to Kia for sticking with this design philosophy. I’d like to think that even those who first thought the SOUL was nothing more than a fad are slowly warming up to its unique identity.

2020 Kia SOUL specifications

Further reading

Read our full speculative review on the 2019 Kia SOUL.

Read our full review on the 2017 Kia SOUL Turbo.

Read our full review on the 2014 Kia Soul.