RIP Kia Soul: The Last Affordable Weirdo Just Died
Pour one out for the Kia Soul, folks. After 17 years of being automotive's scrappiest underdog, production officially ended in October 2025. And with it goes one of the last genuinely affordable new cars you could buy without selling a kidney.
The Soul died at $23,121—making it one of only five new cars you could still buy for under $25,000. That's not just cheap by today's standards, that's practically mythical. For context, the average new car now costs over $48,000, so the Soul was basically automotive charity. And now it's gone, because apparently we can't have nice (affordable) things.
The Soul wasn't alone in its demise. October 2025 turned into an absolute massacre for anything remotely interesting or affordable in the automotive world. Seven models got the axe this month, and the casualty list reads like a eulogy for variety itself.
The Acura ZDX—dead after just one year. ONE YEAR. That's got to be some kind of record for fastest cancellation of a premium EV. Honda and GM teamed up to build this Ultium-based electric crossover, threw incentives worth nearly $30,000 at it to move inventory, and still couldn't make it work. Production ended with barely 20,000 sold, which is absolutely pitiful for a vehicle that shared bones with the still-living Cadillac Lyriq and Honda Prologue.
The Nissan Ariya got "paused" for U.S. production, which is corporate speak for "it's dead but we don't want to admit it yet." After three years on sale and only 3,210 units sold in Q3 2025, Nissan pulled the plug to focus on the new Leaf. Translation: we're hemorrhaging money and need to cut our losses.
Cadillac's CT4 and CT5 sedans also bit the dust. The CT4 ends production in June 2026, while the CT5 gets until the end of next year. Why? Because Americans would rather die than buy a sedan. Cadillac sold just 4,000 CT5s in Q3 2025—pathetic numbers for what was actually a pretty decent luxury sport sedan. But hey, crossovers are king, and sedans are for losers, apparently.
But let's get back to the Soul, because its death stings the most. This wasn't some overpriced luxury experiment or half-baked EV compliance car. This was a legitimately useful, actually affordable vehicle that normal humans could buy and enjoy.
Kia sold over 1.5 million Souls in the U.S. since 2008. That's not a failure—that's a cultural phenomenon. Remember those hamster commercials? The ones where CGI rodents in tracksuits drove Souls through post-apocalyptic wastelands? Those ads were genuinely great and turned a boxy Korean hatchback into something people actually wanted.
The Soul offered something increasingly rare: personality at a price point real people could afford. It was boxy when everything else was blob-shaped. It was practical without being boring. You could get one with a manual transmission (at least in the early years). It came in actual colors, not just fifty shades of grayscale. And most importantly, you could buy one without taking out a second mortgage.
As of October 2025, there were still 7,450 Souls sitting on dealer lots. If you want one of the last affordable, quirky new cars available, now's your chance. Because Kia's filling that entry-level spot with the new K4 sedan starting at $23,185—a sleek, tech-forward, thoroughly boring replacement that signals where the brand's heading. More premium, more expensive, more like everything else.
October's discontinuation spree tells us everything about where the automotive market's headed, and it's not good news if you're not wealthy. Affordable cars are dying. Interesting cars are dying. EVs without massive government subsidies are dying. Sedans are basically extinct. What's left? Expensive crossovers, expensive trucks, and expensive EVs that only pencil out if you're leasing.
The EV cancellations—ZDX, Ariya, the Ram 1500 REV—all happened right after federal tax credits expired on September 30th. Turns out when you take away $7,500 in subsidies, people suddenly realize they don't want to pay premium prices for vehicles with compromised practicality. Who could have predicted that? (Everyone. Everyone predicted that.)
But the Soul's death is different. This wasn't about tax credits or market conditions or shifting consumer preferences. This was about profit margins. Kia can make way more money selling $45,000 Tellurides and Sportages than $23,000 Souls. The math is simple and brutal: why bother with affordable when you can go premium?
The automotive industry just killed off one of its last genuinely affordable, genuinely interesting vehicles, and nobody in a corner office seems to care. The Soul sold over 40,000 units through Q3 2025—not blockbuster numbers, but respectable for an aging design. It had 7,450 units on dealer lots waiting for buyers. And Kia killed it anyway.
So what do you buy if you want something affordable, practical, and not aggressively boring? The Nissan Versa at $17,190, which is automotive punishment disguised as transportation. The Mitsubishi Mirage if you hate yourself and everyone in your life. Or you suck it up and buy used, which is what most people will do anyway.
October 2025 will be remembered as the month the automotive industry collectively decided that interesting, affordable cars aren't worth the trouble. The Soul deserved better. We all did. Now excuse me while I go watch those hamster commercials one more time and ugly cry into my keyboard.
