The Kia Soul'Ster is a nice looking, but ultimately useless concept car based on the well designed and totally functional four-door, segment-bending Kia Soul. Think of it as a smaller, front wheel drive, urban version of the Jeep Wrangler. The Soul'Ster gets the camino-treatment as the rear doors and roof are chopped off and a slanted roll top fabric roof with extremely limited head room. The styling is very common with the Soul, but the characteristics have been stretched or pinched for a more aggressive look with the concept.

It does get a set of rear seats which are cantilevered from the center console and a funky-fresh interior treatment the interior kids will like. It comes complete with all of todays expected in-car distractions like A set of beefier tires mounted on fancy one-off wheels finishes things off and squarely puts it into the California scenester target demo. They served us fish tacos and Corona after the press event was over, if that's any indication of where this concept is aimed at. Despite all that, what we have here is essentially a shrunken version of your friends old Ford Bronco with less space and none of the capabilities.

KIA MOTORS AMERICA SHOWCASES THE SOUL’STER CONCEPT AT
2009 NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW
Open-Air Concept Heats Up the Show

Distinctive design portrays style, practicality and efficiency
Kia Motors America design team delivers another high-style concept

DETROIT, Jan. 11, 2009 – Bringing a sunny beach feeling into Cobo Center on a cold day in January, Kia Motors America (KMA) arrives at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit with the Soul’ster open-air concept, a variation of the highly anticipated Soul, arriving at Kia Motors retailers this spring. With young buyers’ budgets in mind, the Soul’ster is an efficient front-drive car based on the production model Soul, recently introduced at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show.
“Soul’ster delivers something new, intriguing and relevant to today’s buyers – a fun, affordable convertible for active people who like to share good times with friends,” said Tom Kearns, chief designer, KMA. “Defying categorization and providing utility and practicality, the Soul’ster exhibits distinctive design cues and satisfies multiple consumer needs.”

Stylin’ Soul’r Yellow Design
A two-door concept with roadster roots, the brightly colored Soul’r yellow Soul’ster projects a hip industrial look with screw borders, reminiscent of a rivet design found on a fighter jet. The windshield is shortened for a sportier and hunkered down appearance. A two-piece top enables passengers to expose the front and back seating areas independently, using elbow-grease technology. The roll bar serves a dual purpose and includes a place for the slider tracks, while providing protection not found in traditional convertibles.

With a unique face, Soul’ster has a tough but refined character. The toughness is expressed through details like the anodized skid-pad insert, which matches the fender vents, roll bar header and wheels.

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Soul’ster’s attitude incorporates lighting that shines through with an amber glow under the headlamps. The side vents, side-mirror turn signals, unique LED headlamps, fog and tail lamps incorporate blue shades.

The energetic, distinctive look carries from front to rear with dual chrome exhaust and polished aluminum exhaust tips featuring carbon-fiber interior sleeves. The large 19-inch, five-spoke aluminum alloy wheels perfect the Soul’ster’s appearance. Regardless of Soul’ster being viewed from front, back or side, it offers innovative perspectives derived from the original Soul.

Inside Out
Once inside, Soul’ster takes even more progressive variations from Soul beginning with the new four-passenger seating design, a diversion from Soul’s five-passenger arrangement, lending spacious versatility for long summer weekends. The surprisingly flexible Soul’ster provides real seating for two in the front with comfortable seating for two more adults in the back. Fold-flat passenger and rear seats combined with ample headroom make this the perfect car for social outings outdoors and on the beach with friends. Making basic features hot, its crank-up windows are a purposefully key interior design element as are the dashboard-integrated audio speakers.

Adding to the edgy design scheme, the non-floor-mounted cantilevered seats project the illusion of being suspended in space when viewed from the side allowing for increased rear legroom. Storage compartments below each of the fold-flat rear seats, offer room for myriad cargo needs. In addition to the spacious cargo area, dual storage compartments also can be found in the rear and underneath the cargo hold area.

All Revved Up
With young buyers in mind, Soul’ster offers an agile, smooth and spirited ride. As with its Soul cousin, Soul’ster’s can be made available with a myriad of engine choices depending upon each market’s needs. A 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine is mated to a five-speed manual transmission, which produces approximately 120 horsepower. For those looking for a little more power, a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is available with either the five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic transmission, producing approximately 140 horsepower. Fuel economy for both engines is estimated at 30 or more miles per gallon. Other markets might choose the 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine producing 124 horsepower or a 1.6-liter turbodiesel.
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2009 Product Line
Kia Motors America offers a dynamic and diverse product line of 11 vehicles to meet the needs of all lifestyles. The 2009 vehicle line features the functional Rondo CUV and award-winning Sedona minivan along with a wide variety of popular passenger cars, including the refined Amanti full size sedan, purposeful Optima mid size sedan, versatile and compact Spectra and Spectra5, and sporty yet fuel efficient Rio and Rio5 subcompacts. The vehicle line also features the all-new and affordably luxurious Borrego, rugged Sorento and value-packed Sportage SUVs. The Soul will further complement the lineup when it arrives in dealerships this spring.

About Kia Motors America
Kia Motors America (KMA) is the sales, marketing and distribution arm of Kia Motors Corporation based in Seoul, South Korea. KMA offers a complete line of vehicles through more than 640 dealers throughout the United States. For 2008, KMA recorded its 14th consecutive year of increased U.S. marketshare. Kia Motors subscribes to a philosophy of building high value, high quality, safe and dynamic vehicles. Kia Motors prides itself on producing vehicles that are exciting and enabling and evoke the Kia tagline “The Power to Surprise.”

Kia Motors America is the “Official Automotive Partner of the NBA.” Information about Kia Motors America and its full vehicle line-up is available at its Web site – www.kia.com. For media information, including photography, visit www.kiamedia.com.

The Kia Soul'ster Concept is based on the new 2009 Kia Soul and features a small rear cargo bed in place of the two rear doors and rear hatch of the production model. The Soul'ster concept delightfully reminds of us the days of Geo Trackers and Suzuki Samurais, but in a much funkier package. Typical of concepts, the production car's standard lighting package has been replaced with much nicer LED units and the ride height has been dramatically altered. Dubbed an urban lifestyle vehicle, the two-door Kia Soul'ster could eventually make it to production given the right amount of positive feedback.

[via automarket.ro]

"we have interest in the pickup truck market and light truck market, but because of oil prices the market is declining. We don't think right now is the right time to introduce one to the market. We investigated when we built the Kia Georgia plant...but in this environment we were forced to give up thoughts of the truck...neither Hyundai nor Kia will produce one...for the U.S."

Georgia will be home to

"a new small car. We are planning to have the Georgia plant create...a C-segment car with the excess production capacity."

"if the platform is right, don't rule out a Hyundai either."