2012 Kia Soul: Car Seat Check
Known by my kids as the "hamster car" because of its entertaining commercials, the 2012 Kia Soul is a small, boxy wagon that can easily handle a couple of child-safety seats. It's not quite wide enough to fit three car seats, but an older child should be able to fit in the middle seat between two car seats. That's a lot of room for a bargain-priced vehicle.
For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat.
The front seats are adjusted to a comfortable position for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver's seat, and the infant seat and convertible seats are installed behind the passenger seat. We also install the infant seat in the second row's middle seat with the booster and convertible in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit. If there's a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.
Here's how the 2012 Soul did in Cars.com's Car Seat Check:
Latch system: There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the Soul's backseat. The seat cushions cover the anchors, making it a little difficult to get at them with rigid Latch connectors like those on our Britax Roundabout convertible. The three tether anchors, which are on the seatbacks, are easy to use.
Booster seat: Our high-back booster seat fit well in the Soul. However, the seat belt buckles are floppy, which can be difficult for younger kids to grasp when buckling independently (or trying to).
Convertible seat: Once we removed the head restraint, the forward-facing convertible fit well in the Soul. The rear-facing convertible also fit well.
Infant-safety seat: This seat also fit well, with just enough room for it. We also found that our infant seat's traditional Latch anchors, which look like hooks, worked much better with the Soul's Latch anchors.
How many car seats fit in the second row? Two
Editor's note: For three car seats — infant-safety seat, convertible and booster seats — to fit in a car, our criterion is that a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.
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It's not too bad considering not many parents have more than two children requiring car seats.
THANK YOU!! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. We are about to buy one of these cars but I wanted to know about the LATCH system first. You guys are awesome! Keep up the good work!
Glad to see this, but a little disappointed. I want to get a soul, and we have a 2 yr old and are expeting twins. We have a mini-van but this will be my "get to work" car and may act as a backup in emergency. Wife said she won't say no unless we can't fit 3 seats.. I'm hoping 2 rear-facing (Chicco keyfit) can fit on the outsides and the front-facing can fit in the middle..
Can anyone tell me if the britax chaperone will fit in the 2012 Kia soul?
I have 3 girls in car seats (2,5 and 8) and they all fit in my Kia Soul! I use a diono radian, a brutal frontier and a britax roundabout (in that order!) works perfectly!
Maybe you could try to combi coccoro seat. It works as an infant seat, rear faces until 33lbs, and you would be able to fit three in the soul.