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Soul Rough Rride |
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sonofpincher 
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Joined: 18 Sep 2011 Location: Lancashire UK Status: Offline Points: 26 |
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 Topic: Soul Rough RridePosted: 29 Dec 2011 at 2:45pm |
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Has anyone managed to improve the teeth-rattling ride of the Soul? Without risking the fantastic Warranty, of course! I like my Soul2 Diesel Auto for various reasons, but the suspension gives me the worst ride I have experienced in a couple of million miles of motoring in vehicles from vintage to commercial! Kia don't want me to change the 16" alloys for 15" steels with larger section tyres - which might make a small improvement - but are there different dampers out there?
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tempest
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Joined: 02 May 2010 Location: north wales Status: Offline Points: 1637 |
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Posted: 29 Dec 2011 at 4:48pm |
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Nope your stuck with it....think yourself lucky you didnt get the 18 inch wheel version....lol....the car you have has the best ride of the Soul range.
The best you can effect is to swap the wheels for some very very lightweight ones that are the same size, with the best quality tyre you can afford in a sensible higher profile size. Koni used to do some adjustable dampers with stiffness settings...dunno if they fit the Soul Tho. A final option would be to fit dampers that Kia themselves used to fit on the first Souls in this country - before Lotus fiddled with the suspension and firmed it up. The original Soul had a softer ride and slightly sloppier body control.
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maddog
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Joined: 11 Feb 2011 Location: HAMPSHIRE UK Status: Offline Points: 86 |
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Posted: 29 Dec 2011 at 7:48pm |
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Get a gel seat pad! £18 off ebay and works a treat.
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Enjoy today. We will be dead for a long time.
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sonofpincher
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Joined: 18 Sep 2011 Location: Lancashire UK Status: Offline Points: 26 |
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Posted: 09 Jan 2012 at 11:55am |
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Thanks for the info. Tempest. Whatever happened to Comfort? Suspension designers seem to have forgotten all the last 100 years of effort to insulate the vehicle occupants from the rough roads - and they have got rougher. So Lotus's "improvements" to the Soul were to "firm up the ride" I'm obviously way out of line, but I would like a smooth ride to the Supermarket and while touring, and would willingly do without "handling" engineered to give me the fastest time round Silverstone! I have been driving for over fifty years, and know that I had a smoother ride in my BL Maxi, even though the rest of the car was inferior to a Soul in every way. Ah well, as you say, I will have to put up with it until my back gives in!
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tempest
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Joined: 02 May 2010 Location: north wales Status: Offline Points: 1637 |
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Posted: 09 Jan 2012 at 12:22pm |
I totally agree with you and have knocked the ride quality on my Soul on several occassions. Unfortunately people read too much into the Car magazine road testers who spend all their days ragging cars round a smooth racing circuit in the name of employment! (yes a hint of jealousy there!)... and then report back on the finite elements of handling and judge the car accordingly (not that handling or cornering prowess ever enters the equation when going to the supermarket...or work....or school...or pretty much anything in the real world). But these peoples opinions are valued and the car is adjusted to cater for them, so they can offer a favourable impression to the buying public. The sooner cars have a "comfort" button instead of a "sport" button - the better. |
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Dave R
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Joined: 28 Feb 2010 Location: YO15 Status: Offline Points: 864 |
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Posted: 09 Jan 2012 at 5:47pm |
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The old Maxi had a very good ride,had a few myself and also had the 1800 which was even a better ride ,we had company cars from BL and used to take bets to see if it would get from the London office to home when collecting a new car without breaking down. I don't think the ride is to bad on the 18" wheels though it does depend on which tyres are fitted to the Soul, I had a very hard riding two seater before so the Soul was not as hard as that car.For the height of the Soul the handling is good and it looks good on the larger wheels.Most of the road tests I have read have mentioned the hard ride but quite a lot a modern cars tend to have lower profile tyres now which tends to stiffen the ride. I have also driven millions of miles in all sorts of cars but only for 46years and when you think of the rubbish that we put up with in the past modern cars are incredible.
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Dave R
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tempest
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Joined: 02 May 2010 Location: north wales Status: Offline Points: 1637 |
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Posted: 09 Jan 2012 at 11:23pm |
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1800 landcrab..... what a car.... always loved the wolsley version with its leather interior...1885 was it called....transverse 6 cylinder engine too!!!....lol...nothing but trouble.
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SYLO77
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Joined: 29 Jan 2011 Location: COTSWOLDS Status: Offline Points: 317 |
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Posted: 10 Jan 2012 at 4:20pm |
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Me old man had a Triumph 2.5, that used to feel like you were on a ship all the wallowing about but it was lovely and comfortable to drive, now the 2000 handled like a dream and went where you pointed it, loved that car but I were a young un then.
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Dave R
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Joined: 28 Feb 2010 Location: YO15 Status: Offline Points: 864 |
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Posted: 10 Jan 2012 at 6:10pm |
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The two maxis I had were 1750 with the twin carbs which took some setting up ,we used to change the company cars at 40k and I drove 60-70k a year so many new cars passed through my hands.1800's ,a couple of dolly sprints, Rover 2000s but never had a Truimph 2.5. Most were a load of rubbish regarding quality but when we moved from BL to leasing we had a far wider range of cars to choose from. I have had beemers,VW,Fords etc to hyundia and I have found that in general the Kia soul is as good for quality as any I have had,there are some issues such as some soft plastics used but taking it as a whole they are very good.
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Dave R
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picasso
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Joined: 18 Jan 2012 Location: Maldon Essex Status: Offline Points: 78 |
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Posted: 19 Jan 2012 at 10:02am |
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Agree with you completely after having a Citroen Picasso before with the armchair
front seats and floating suspension this was a real "wake up call" but I am going to stick with it and when the existing Hancook tyres wear out get some Michelin or better quality tyres. The only thing that stops me buying a better spec soul is the size of the wheels there is less rubber between the wheel and the road = rough ride so if I change it will be a Soul 2 again. |
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