Buyer Research

2024 Kia Soul — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $15,000–$21,000. This is one of the more reliable vehicles in its class — here's what to watch for anyway.

Deciding between model years? Compare the 15 Kia Soul years we've written up →

Kestrel Take

Twenty-nine complaints and, unlike the 2023, not one recall on record — the 2024 sits outside the VIN range of Kia's 2.0L piston-ring recall, and outside the 2023's cluster, oil-pump and airbag recalls too. That is a thin record and it is not a reliability rating; it means few people have filed, on a car that is barely two years old. What has been filed is worth reading: a third of it is electrical (a gauge cluster that comes up blank, a horn that dies, doors that will not lock), and the engine and powertrain clusters hold two stalls at low speed and one car that burned to the ground at 2,700 miles. The engine is the same 2.0L design as the recalled 2021–2023 cars, so check the oil level cold even though no recall says you have to. Do that, watch the cluster through a few restarts, and take a two-lane road to see how the lane-keeping behaves, and this is a roomy, cheap-to-run small car bought with eyes open.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 29 owner complaints for the 2024 Kia Soul, and no recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. 31% of them are about one thing — electrics and electronics. That much concentration is a genuine pattern rather than background noise, and it is the first thing to check on any example you look at.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2024 Kia Soul

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Instrument cluster boots blank, horn goes silent, doors refuse to lock — the electrical clusterMedium

Nine of 29 complaints, and three separate faults inside them. The digital gauge cluster starts up black — speedometer, fuel gauge and every warning light gone — and stays that way through restarts; the 2023 Soul got a software recall for exactly this, and the 2024 is not in it, so a blank cluster here is a dealer diagnosis rather than a free fix. The horn stops working outright, sometimes under 10,000 miles; one owner writes that Kia extended the horn assembly's warranty, so ask a Kia dealer whether this VIN carries that coverage before paying for one. And the door locks stop responding to the fob and the auto-lock, with the door-open chime sounding in park. At the car: cycle the ignition three times and watch the cluster come up each time, press the horn, and lock the car from the fob with the windows down so you hear the actuators.

Repair cost (estimate): $0–$600 for a horn assembly or a cluster software reload; $600–$1,400 if the cluster itself is replaced

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (9).

Stalls at a stoplight or at 20 mph with nothing on the dash, and one engine-bay fireMedium

Four engine complaints and two powertrain ones tell a small but sharp story: the car shuts off while sitting at a light and needs several tries to restart, or loses power at 20 mph on an access road with no warning light, and one 2024 caught fire in the engine compartment at 2,691 miles and burned completely. Six reports is too few to call a pattern, and there is no recall on this year — but the 2.0L Nu engine is the same design Kia recalled on the 2021–2023 Soul for piston oil rings that cause oil burning, seizure and fire. Nobody has said the 2024 is affected; nobody has said it is not. So check the dipstick cold and look for a low level on a recently serviced car, let the car idle five minutes with the air conditioning on and watch for a stumble, and pull codes with a cheap scanner. A stall on the test drive, however brief, is the whole answer.

Repair cost (estimate): $150–$600 to diagnose an intermittent stall; $5,000–$8,000 if it turns out to be the engine — about 44% of what this car is typically worth

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the engine (4), the transmission and drivetrain (2).

Driver-assist cascade: every ADAS warning at once, a front camera code, and lane-keeping that fights the wheelMedium

The lane departure and forward collision clusters describe two things. The first is the whole driver-assist suite — forward collision avoidance, lane following, cruise — switching off together mid-drive with a wall of dash warnings and a front camera fault logged in the Kia Connect app, in any weather, day or night. The second is Lane Following Assist pulling hard enough against the driver that one rental customer counted eight tugs toward trucks in two weeks. The first usually ends in a windshield camera recalibration or a camera module; the second is the system misreading lane edges, and the button on the wheel turns it off. On the test drive, take a narrow two-lane road with oncoming traffic and feel for a pull; then check the app or the dash for any stored camera fault. None of the six reports ended in a crash, but ask the seller directly whether the ADAS warnings have ever all lit at once.

Repair cost (estimate): $0–$400 for a camera recalibration; $600–$1,200 if the windshield camera module is replaced

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under lane departure (3), the driver-assist and automatic braking systems (3).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Gauge cluster that comes up blank or flickers on any of three restarts
✗Horn that is silent or sounds wrong when pressed
✗Oil below the add mark on a cold dipstick with a recent service sticker
✗A stumble or shutdown while idling in park with the air conditioning on
✗Steering wheel that tugs on its own when oncoming traffic passes
✗A wall of driver-assist warnings appearing together on the drive

Good Signs

✓Gauges up and steady through three ignition cycles
✓Horn sounding normally and door locks responding to the fob from across the lot
✓Oil at the full mark cold, with dated receipts on Kia's interval
✓A steady idle through a long stoplight with the air conditioning running
✓Lane Following Assist that holds the lane calmly with traffic passing
✓A clean scan for camera and engine codes with the engine warm