New 2014 Kia Soul arrives in European spec. Frankfurt 2013 debut

The new Kia Soul for 2014 has been revealed ahead of a debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. Bigger and better equipped.

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The Kia Soul is almost the personification of a car designed for a purpose, looking more like a van for passengers than a family car.

And that isn’t going to change much with the 2014 Kia Soul, but this time the Soul gets based on the latest Cee’d and grows in size, so it should be a more appealing drive.

With more modern car underpinnings, the new Soul should ride better and be more dynamic, with better suspension and a stiffer body shell making the Soul a very practical family car, but one which at least offers a little joy in the drive.

The new Soul isn’t massively bigger than before, but it does offer a longer wheelbase as well as more leg, head and shoulder room and a slightly bigger boot – up by around 4 per cent to 354 litres.

Under the bonnet is the same choice of a 1.6 litre diesel or 1.6 litre petrol as the outgoing model, but with tweaks to make them a bit more parsimonious and a bit less emitting.

Inside, Kia tell us the cabin’s come up a notch or two in quality (although they’ve not sent us any photos), with a more driver-focused design, better quality materials and a lack of hard, scratchy plastics.

There will also be more upmarket features (depending on which model you choose and how much you want to dig in to the options) including LED lights, Keyless, push-button start, Cruise, Leather, heated and ventilated seats and a panoramic glass roof.

The 2014 Kia Soul will debut next month at Frankfurt and go on sale in the UK in early 2014.