Nissan Rogue vs Kia Soul

The Rogue is Nissan’s entry into a crowded compact crossover SUV segment that includes well-known models like the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Subaru Forester, and Toyota RAV4, to name a few. The 2024 Nissan Rogue debuts refreshed styling and gets a tech overhaul highlighted by Google built-in apps, marking their first appearance in a Nissan.

Verdict: New tech features may be the headline, but an impressive powertrain and interior are what really make the 2024 Nissan Rogue stand out.

The Kia Soul demonstrates that good ideas mean nothing without good execution. Launched for the 2010 model year, the Soul instantly drew attention with its distinctive boxy styling, but unlike the similarly-styled Honda Element and Scion xB, the Soul has managed to stick around.

That’s because the Soul has style and substance in equal measure. It’s both a practical car and a good value, just one that happens to be more interesting to look at than most other vehicles sharing those traits. Now in its third generation, the Soul is an excellent compromise between car and crossover, boasting the tidy proportions of the former and the upright driving position of the latter. So it makes sense to cross-shop it against both small hatchbacks and the gaggle of tiny crossovers that have hit the market since the Soul first appeared.

The current-generation Kia Soul was introduced for the 2020 model year and gets a number of notable updates for 2023, including more standard driver-assist features, small styling tweaks, and a revised lineup of trim levels including base LX, S, EX, and GT-Line models; the X-Line and Turbo variants have been discontinued. We drove a Kia Soul GT-Line for this review.