Sector: Crossover Price: €16,990–€26,490 Fuel: 5.0–7.3l/100km CO2: 132–170g/km

The second generation of the Kia Soul has big shoes to fill. While the original didn’t carve out a huge sales footprint in Europe, it’s been a backbone of the brand’s style-focused reinvention globally with numerous design awards and a large fanbase to its name.

Particularly in the United States, where the Soul has a natural place in the market competing against Toyota’s boxy Scion xB and the Nissan Cube, and its vibrant advertising campaign featuring dancing shellsuit-wearing hamsters has helped make this a fashionable car for young buyers and one of the most popular models Kia sells.

So there’s been little effort made to soften the boxy, boar-like styling in its second generation. Instead, Kia has pigeonholed the new Soul more logically in Europe, positioning it as a B-segment crossover and a competitor for the ever-popular Nissan Juke, among others.

But this is a big step forwards in all other areas. There are no body panels shared with its predecessor, and the Soul has become a much sportier-looking car under the influence of design chief Peter Schreyer. It’s also now possible to add gloss black SUV-style body mouldings on the wheel arches and a colour-contrasted roof, to enhance its crossover appeal.

Under the new bodywork, the platform is shared with the cee’d rather than the Venga, and the cabin now matches the same soft-touch quality of the rest of the range. Fit and finish is much better than before, as is the excellent new thick-rimmed steering wheel, but without losing the Soul’s unique sense of interior style.

That generational step forward also brings Kia’s latest driving experience to the Soul. Ride quality is firm but comfortable, it feels more sure-footed than before and there’s been a noticeable improvement in high speed refinement, though this is blunted slightly by the choice of optional wheel upgrades.

Boxiness has its benefits, too. The tall cabin gives plentiful headroom for front and rear seat passengers, and the tailgate offers a wide, square opening into a boot space which now drops into an additional compartment under an optional false floor. With the rear bench folded, the Soul offers an almost class-leading 1,367 litres of capacity when stacked to its square roofline, and the backrest folds flush with the floor of the boot.

The sticking point is running costs. Kia’s entry-level engine is a 128hp 1.6-litre GDI petrol, which lacks the sparkiness of new downsized turbocharged units and, at 158g/km, their economy too. The 132hp 1.6-litre CRDi diesel is a much better choice – it’s more fun to drive too, but lacks the carmaker’s EcoDynamics fuel-saving technology and falls far behind the segment benchmarks with economy at 5.0l/100km and 132g/km CO2 emissions. Numbers like that won’t help broaden its appeal, even with large improvements elsewhere.

But in Europe perhaps there’s no need to. The original Soul found a niche with drivers who wanted something unusual to look at and practical to live with, and its replacement ticks the same boxes.

Verdict:

Improved in all areas without losing the practicality or style of the old car, it’s only CO2 emissions which blunt the potential of Kia’s quirky crossover in fleet.