No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2015 Kia Soul
2 fires 2 of the 27 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 no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Kia Soul report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 23 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,597 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
26% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29,803 miles | 44,500 miles | 75,000 miles | 89,000 miles | 118,400 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, 2 a fire is 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–$1,800 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2015 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 kia soul. While stopped at a traffic light, the vehicle would not accelerate when the accelerator pedal was depressed. The contact heard a loud noise and had to shut off and restart the vehicle in order for the loud noise to stop. The vehicle also failed to start properly. The failure recurred multiple times. The oil warning light and other lights illuminated intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing; however, the mechanic stated that they were unable to locate a failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The approximate failure mileage was 2,000. ...updated 01/05/17 *bf updated 10/18/2017*cn
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 kia soul. While stopped at a traffic light, the vehicle would not accelerate when the accelerator pedal was depressed. The contact heard a loud noise and had to shut off and restart the vehicle in order for the loud noise to stop. The vehicle also failed to start properly. The failure recurred multiple times. The oil warning light and other lights illuminated intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing; however, the mechanic stated that they were unable to locate a failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The approximate failure mileage was 2,000. ...updated 01/05/17 *bf updated 10/18/2017*cn
In dec 2014 I leased a new kia soul. I was really happy with the car for quite some time and then it randomly wouldn't start at odd intervals. This happened while parked at my daughter's dance studio, having driven there to pick her up (jan 2016). I had it jump started then so I could get home. Had to have it jump started again the next morning so I could drive kids to school and drive to the dealer. Dealer charged the battery and car worked fine until nov 2016 when I drove from home to walmart, did some quick shopping before work, and the car wouldn't start when I came back out. I had kia roadside service jump the car, drove it to the dealer (was late for work) but the dealer returned the car to me saying they couldn't duplicate the issue. Again in nov 2016 on thanksgiving, car would not start in my garage. I had kia roadside service jump start it and was able to drive to my mother's 2 hours away. I parked the car there and after sitting for a couple of days, it started fine. Took it to the dealer who again could not duplicate any issues. At that time I would not take the car back without a new battery, for which kia did…
Also reported on the 2015 Kia Soul
Other engine problem
Catalytic converter failure
Excessive oil consumption
Other fuel system problem
Overheating
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 27 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2015 Kia Soul?
Across 23 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2015 Kia Soul?
27 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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