2012 Kia + on 2040-cars

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Kia Soul getting turbo power, possible AWD

It's been a long time coming, but it appears we might finally see a turbocharged Kia Soul next year. Kia officials reportedly confirmed the hotter Soul to Motor Trend recently, and also stated that the company is (still) investigating the use of all-wheel drive for the next generation of its boxy hatchback.
The turbo Soul will arrive with the same 1.6-liter four-cylinder found in the Forte, rated at 201 horsepower and 195 pound-feet of torque. According to Motor Trend, Kia wanted to launch the hotter Soul this year, but didn't have the retuned steering or suspension calibration, as well as the larger brakes, ready in time. Transmission pairings weren't discussed, but Kia does mate both its six-speed manual and automatic units to the 1.6T.
As for all-wheel drive, this isn't the first time we've heard reports on this front, and it seems like a pretty natural fit, to us. Adding AWD would allow the Soul to better compete with vehicles like the Nissan Juke and the upcoming Chevy Trax and Jeep Renegade. But as of right now, a four-wheels-driven Soul hasn't been given an official go-ahead.

Hyundai, Kia announce buyback plan for angry Korean investors

Hyundai's controversial decision last September to move its Korean headquarters to an expansive (and expensive) new facility was met with a swift backlash by shareholders. After making the biggest land purchase in South Korean history, the company's share price took a nine-point nose dive.
Now, in a bid to get back in the good graces of its stockholders, Hyundai and its subsidiary, Kia, will make a $615-million stock buyback plan. Reuters claims this is the first time in ten years that Hyundai has made a buyback offer with the explicit purpose of pumping up share prices.
The total deal bumped up Hyundai's share prices 5.7 percent while Kia is up two percent, although neither company has fully recovered from the battering that followed the headquarters announcement. It's unclear what else it will take for Hyundai to recover the ground it lost during the land deal.

2014 Kia Soul SUV Styling Pack adds some aggression

Last month, Kia released a few photos of the European-market 2014 Soul ahead of its Frankfurt Motor Show reveal, and we happened to notice that the hamster box looked a bit different - a bit tougher. That's because Kia is adding an SUV Styling Pack to the car's options list, which includes the blacked-out lower fascias, wheel arches, side skirts and painted roof seen here.
At the time, we polled Autoblog readers if they thought bringing the optional visuals to SUV-happy North America was a good idea, and the voting split 70.3 percent in favor, 21.4 percent against, and 8.3 percent undecided.
At the present time, Kia representatives tell us that it has no plans to offer the SUV Styling Pack in our market, so you'll have to take a better look at it with our new gallery to decide whether its absence from North American order sheets is a tragedy or not.