2nd time in 2 months my 2020 Kia Soul had to be towed to the dealership due to transmission issues! This time again I was out and about with my 80 year old mother - thankfully I was able to get her home safely before my vehicle stopped accelerating.

I’m beyond pissed and disappointed in this vehicle. I previously owned a soul w/ no issues and loved the car. I now have Zero confidence in this car. I'm waiting for service to investigate. I was told it could be an electrical issue - and I'm waiting for a call back.

I do have to compliment The Kia Roadside Assistance - they are on the ball and all of my interactions with them have been superb!

Vehicle is brand new. Two weeks after very limited mild driving, at exactly 636 miles the vehicle started shifting erratically at stops, not wanting to upshift, bogging, and the service vehicle lamps illuminated up.

I immediately returned to the dealer. After the dealer tested the vehicle, they confirmed that it had suffered catastrophic transmission failure.

We were out of our car for almost 2 months, while we waited for another transmission to arrive from overseas.

I purchased the Soul based purely on previous reviews on reliability. However, I now understand that the car was completely redesigned for the year 2020 including a new body style, 2.0 engine, and the previous 6 speed transmission was replaced with this new CVT type transmission.

Until last week I had no clue what a cvt transmission even was. However, I now have learned that this new technology has been problematic in various other vehicles, mostly Nissan and Chrysler, and has destroyed numerous other brands in unreliability, and is very expensive to repair, often exceeding $3500. The dealer assured me this is a fluke, but after closer investigation with this trope of transmission I am not so sure.

Nevertheless, my wife and I are quite alarmed and very discouraged. We intend to pay on this car enough to bring the balance down some, and trade it on a different brand.

Armed with this new knowledge, I will forever avoid any car with a CVT transmission. I am somewhat disappointed that Kia has chosen to use this obviously untested transmission in our new car. We bought a Soul for reliability, and has transmission failure before our very first oil change. This is our 3rd Kia, but unfortunately it will be our last.

Based on all the complaints on this site and other sites, I am experiencing a transmission failure. I just had the car in for the engine recall and it checked out good. The very next day I drove the car for about 25 miles, noticed my rpm constantly going up and down erratically. The check engine light came on. I turned around and went back to the dealer in Tucson. Advised it was my gas cap that caused the issue. Gas cap replaced. I was informed by service guy that the check engine light would go out after driving the car for 40 to 50 miles.

I drove the car for over 70 miles, light still on. Parked the car in the garage for the evening. Next day I had an appointment in Tucson. The light was still on, and upon driving the car on the freeway and getting off, I was coming to a stop, and upon turning to go forward, the car would not move. It took a lot of throttle to get it to eventually go forward. Very erratic rpm and transmission operation.

I got to my destination. Upon restarting the car, it appeared to run smooth, but the transmission was still sluggish. Went online, made an appointment to take car in on 22 July and I'm taking it to the Tucson dealer this morning for evaluation. Over the past few days, the check engine light would come on and go off. The car would perform good and then after a 25 to 30 mile drive, it would act up upon stopping at a stop, barely moving forward, only after pushing the gas pedal down, with the rpms going very high. Update to follow once assessment is completed this morning. I'm not a happy camper right now!

Dec 31, 2019, heading out to NYE party, we were 20 miles from home. Our 2020 KIA soul with 20,200 miles on it began to buck, one second you would have acceleration the next you did not. We pulled off the side of the road and called Kia. They did send a tow truck and towed it to a dealership. I did not mention we had just moved from Florida to North Carolina and had only been in the area since September.

Not knowing what the problem was, when they finally opened after New Years day, they diagnosed it as a transmission failure and that they had had several already come through. In fact the service department manager walked me down the maintenance line and point to 4 2020 kia souls waiting for transmissions. It took them 30 days to get my car back to me. The dealership was very gracious and Kia put me in a rental until mine was fixed.