Question Kia Soul, or ????

JOII

Active member
Ill try not to make this lengthy, but I struggle with that some times :p

We need a new main vehicle, soon. Right now we have a 2003 Chevy Trailblazer which is slowly dieing and the repairs far exceed even the private party sale price. We WANT a large SUV or minivan, but at the time cannot afford one. What we are thinking of doing is buying a smaller vehicle now, using it as our main vehicle for roughly two years (or longer if necessary), then once our secondary vehicle needs replaced (03 2 door Chevy Cavalier), we would use the car we buy now as the secondary and at that point be in a good place financially to buy the larger vehicle. Does that make any sense? It does if I typed it out right :p The car we do buy would be a long term solution (first as a primary vehicle, then secondary) as we do not trade in cars and keep them till they are paid off and run down ;)

The requirements:
under $20,000 (preferably much under)
good gas mileage (35+ would be great)
Fit three across - 2 boosters, one FF. It doesn't need to be easy, our three across in our Trailblazer right now is a pain so I am used to it ;)
Preferably a hatchback
Must have rear seats that fold due to my husband needing to do occasional hauling (nothing ridiculous or large enough that these vehicles couldn't handle, but it is an important feature to him)
Moderate trunk space. I know I wont get huge in these vehicles though.
Id like three head rests in the rear because we will own this long after my kids are in backless boosters/seat belts.

Any way right now we are looking at a Kia Soul mainly, but have also considered a Honda fit or Chevy Sonic Hatchback. Any thing else I should be looking at? Is one of those more preferred over the other? Any personal experiences?

ETA: Also just added the Nissan Versa Note Hatchback as a possibility
 
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SavsMom

New member
Maybe a Scion xB, Toyota Matrix, Ford Focus Hatchback (love the look of the new one 2012+).

I'm pretty sure that getting 3 across the back of the Sonic won't work - they are super small.
 

otto

New member
You might also look for a Hyundai Elantra Touring. If we'd seen it before we bought our Soul....

We have a 2010 Kia Soul, and it started as our primary vehicle as well. Three across should work fine, the back seat was one of the widest in a hatchback I could find at the time. Only 2 headrests, though. Gas mileage isn't as high as you want, I would say assume barely what they advertise as EPA estimates, and lower for the 2010s. Does fairly well in the snow. Low maintenance costs so far; we have about 60k on it, and have only done oil changes so far, and replaced the tires once. Fairly bumpy ride, but I hardly notice it unless I've been driving something else for an extended time. You can fit a fair amount in the back, note that the seats don't fold down flat, if that matters to you. Fits my 6'2" husband pretty well. We still fight over who gets to drive it to work, so that's probably a good sign.

If you've got other questions, I can probably answer them for you.
 

kaylamom

New member
We love our Honda Fit! It has more room than you would believe! I easily fit three kids in back, though not in carseats. But we had my 18 year old very tall, oversized son, a 14 year old and a 12 year old back there and they all had plenty of room. I love how he back seats fold down in different configurations and it fits quite a bit even with back seat being used. We use this car a lot as our second car and runaround car to save on gas. We use the Honda Pilot for trips when we need more room for comfort.
 

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