Other body or interior problem on the 2010 Kia Soul
1 crash 1 fire 1 injury 3 of the 14 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2010 Kia Soul report other body or interior problem at a median of 5,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 500 miles and a quarter after 5,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 20,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 21,775 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
90% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 225 miles | 456 miles | 2,600 miles | 4,950 miles | 22,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash, 1 a fire and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $200–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2010 has 14. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I just purchased a new 2010 kia soul. I am very careful and take excellent care of my cars, but I have to say the door panels on this vehicle tend to scratch up with the slightest touch of even a finger nail. It is unbelievable how horrible it gets with normal wear, and I consider myself obsessively careful with my cars and its almost impossible to not scratch these panels. Horrible workmanship to the point that it must be some sort of defect. Has anyone else complained about this ? My purchase date was 9/18/09 and my interior door panels look 5 years old and abused. Also, the front end on this car rumbles like something is loose, very sloppy sounding front end when going over bumps. Steering feels fine but the noise and rumbling is unbearable. Very poorly put together and rattle feeling. *tr
Factory installed windshield chips and cracks from the edge easily and often. I had the first window replaced at about 5,000 miles and that window was a genuine kia window installed and now it has two small chips and a crack from the edge of the glass and one big chip at 8,000 miles. I have not changed my driving and have never occurred this many window defects. I believe the window to be not properly annealed or treated in the furnace or it is just too thin. *tr
Our new soul+ was purchased in august 2009 new. It was almost immediate that scratches and scuffs were coming out on the interior panels. The slightest scuff or even just scrating with a fingernail was enough to make a permanent scratch. Very poor quality panels and after speaking with other owners on a soul forum...I am not alone. *tr
Also reported on the 2010 Kia Soul
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other electrical problem
Other visibility problem
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other body or interior problem happen on the 2010 Kia Soul?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 500 miles and a quarter after 5,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2010 Kia Soul?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed