2020 Kia Soul earns Top Safety Pick+ with optional equipment

The 2020 Kia Soul is a Top Safety Pick+ when equipped with certain headlights and optional active safety technology.

To earn the top accolade from the insurance industry-funded IIHS, a vehicle must score a “Good” rating in all six crashworthiness tests. The 2020 Soul’s results marked an improvement over the 2019 model year when the hatchback scored an “Acceptable” rating for the passenger-side small overlap front crash test.

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Further, all Top Safety Pick+ awardees need to score an “Advanced” or “Superior” rating for front-crash prevention technology, and overcome the most difficult part for so many vehicles: earn “Good” rated headlights. The 2020 Soul does both, albeit with optional equipment.

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That’s often the case with the Top Safety Pick+ models costing more than affordable trims on sale. For the 2020 Soul, there are two optional active safety technology packages, and one comes with pedestrian detection. Both earned a “Superior” rating in tests. With the optional safety tech selected, buyers must then choose either the EX trim or GT-Line Turbo model. The latter features LED projector headlights as standard, while the headlights are optional on the EX trim. All three other headlight options on various 2020 Souls are rated “Poor.”

Buyers will spend thousands of dollars more for Soul with the proper equipment that matches the models tested for a Top Safety Pick+. The boxy hatchback starts at $18,485 but climbs to $23,685 before other options.

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