Texas Soul EV owners

[ralyon]

Hailing from Houston although there are no dealerships here. I had to get mine from Austin and I see San Antonio also has them local.

 

[Lithim]

Greetings electronauts,

Houston does sell Soul EV's at Community Kia in Baytown (just east of Houston). The last time I looked at their website they had four vehicles. Two base models and two EV plus models.
They are all 2015 models.
Stay charged my friends.

 

[ralyon]

Aw man, that sucks. I drove all the way out to Austin because the Kia website and one of the 2 local dealers I talked to said that was the closest. The other dealer said they only had them in California and NY. They even have the blue one I would have rather gotten than the grey one I ended up with.

 

[technick]

Sorry about the mix up on getting correct information about Houston EV dealers. I think I remember you from a while back. I believe you visited my dealer to get your EV its state inspection. If so, I am one of the two EV certified technicians at that dealer. If it wasn't you, then know that there are two EV dealers in the Houston area, Community and DeMontrond. Congrats on your new ride. Feel free to drop in or shoot me a PM here if you have any technical questions.

 

[ralyon]

That was me, not sure you would get to many people crazy enough to drive 3 hours to get a car. You guys at DeMontrond Kia, Huyndia and VW have been great to work with. I had gotten a used VW Beetle TDI manual from the Huyndia dealership 8 years ago and had brought it to the VW dealer a few times for maintenance (I did most of it myself). Wish you could teach the guys over at Buick how to treat customers though. After getting ignored a few years back we ended up buying our Enclave at B&M. Now it's a pain to take it there for maintenance.

Also, I hope you guys get a DC charger soon as I do drive by on occasion. I called last week to check when the power was out and they said you still only have the L2 chargers. Had to drive all the way up to the HEB on Rayford as the one at Walgreens on Cypresswood is currently broken.

According to the Houston Electric Auto Assoc. I'm the first one to register a Soul in Houston. You guys ever want to check anything out, I'd be happy to stop by.

 

[technick]

Too funny! You spoke to Chad and he called out back to the shop to ask me about our charging stations. Chad is a good guy. Yes we only have L2 AC chargers at the moment. I honestly can't say if we will be getting any L3 DC chargers in the future. If the EV demand is high enough we may be able to push for it as we already have 480v level service for the buildings.

Too bad we can't just use the tesla superchargers across the street!

I saw you message. Give me a minute to pull up the schedule in KGIS and I will let you know if there is anything more to expect.

 

[ralyon]

Yeah, the problem with being a pioneer, by the time everyone else catches up, things tend to get changed up a little bit.

Definitely let me know if you get any EVs in. Most of the people I show really like the car (especially since I have the fun 'n' sun). If I know you have them, I'll make sure to point them your way.

 

[ralyon]

So I finally saw another Soul EV owner in Houston. It was a Blue/White at Fairbanks and Beltway. I honked and waved, but don't think I got his attention. Hope to see him here soon!

 

[FtWorthKat]

After reading about my EV options, I decided the Soul EV was worth driving down to Round Rock to purchase. I felt it would probably be the easiest for my English Mastiffs to climb into the back, like they did before with my old Jeep Liberty. Leaving the dealership shortly after midnight, I slept in it for my first charge at a free charger at a children's hospital in Temple. It took most of the next day to get it back to Fort Worth, stopping at level 2 chargers along the way. I don't think there are too many Soul EVs up here in DFW, because several times I've stopped at Nissan dealerships to charge and even though they allow non-Nissans to charge, employees keep trying to chase me away from the chargers before they realize my Soul is also an EV.

Just a few days after purchasing it I got a flat and my local Kia dealer's service tech told me he hadn't seen one before mine....cueing the realization that I just leased a car that could end up needing warranty service that nobody local is qualified to perform. Facepalm! Not the most comforting thought...

 

[mtmelton]

I am currently in the market for one as well and can only seem to find them in the Austin area as well. They seem hard to find around baytown/houston area.

 

[FtWorthKat]

You may want to be aware that I am having great difficulty getting warranty service outside of Austin. My car's driver window motor went out, which both Kia and the dealership say is like the gasoline Soul. However the DFW dealerships say they can't get reimbursed for warranty service because they aren't "Soul EV certified" so they tell me to take it back down to Round Rock for service. Freaking ridiculous. Kia customer service tells me the dealerships can do warranty service and get reimbursed but don't want to because not being "Soul EV certified" could make them liable in case of problems. Originally I believed Kia, but after the 2nd dealership told me the exact same thing from someone high up, I'm now inclined to believe them. I was told that getting "Soul EV certified" is very expensive because it requires them to put in 2 chargers including a fast charger. If I required major warranty service in the future that I thought a local dealership could handle, I would consider suing them because it seems to me like they are creating unnecessary barriers to avoid honoring warranty claims.

 

[FtWorthKat]

As it turns out, I needed major warranty work in December after the onboard charger stopped working. Although the car could still be driven (and probably charged with a level 3 charger) that was a large enough issue that Kia was willing to transport my vehicle to Round Rock and back for the warranty work. So both the minor non-working window motor and the major non-working onboard charger were resolved. My local Southwest Kia provided a loaner car for the week, but presumably I only got that because they have the same ownership as the Round Rock dealership.

So the bottom line is that if you live outside of range of an "EV certified" dealership, you may be responsible for taking the vehicle back for warranty work if your car is drivable, but if it needs major warranty repairs then Kia transports. It's in the warranty really, but even if someone read that before buying, it would not be clear that most dealerships aren't "EV certified".

 

[KeeperArtemus]

So the bottom line is that if you live outside of range of an "EV certified" dealership, you may be responsible for taking the vehicle back for warranty work if your car is drivable, but if it needs major warranty repairs then Kia transports.

Hello FtWorthKat. I am from far north Dallas and am looking to purchase a used Soul EV+. Do you have any more experience with getting yours serviced? I suppose that is a big concern that I am overlooking due to my excitement of owning one. Have you talked to other dealerships in the time since you posted last or is SouthWest Kia still the best bet for getting service?

How is your overall experience of owning one in DFW? Has the battery held up well? The used ones are generally the 2016 model year. What is the warranty? I read that the battery is covered from degradation below 70% for 10 years or 100,000 miles. Any insight or anecdotes you wish to share would be greatly helpful!

 

[LegoZ]

KeeperArtemus I am in DFW and just had a warranty claim. Hufffines Kia said they would be able to service the car until I got there and then they told me they couldn’t touch it. :/ I called Southwest Kia and was told they had an EV certified technician at each location in DFW but then found out they could only perform warranty work at the location in Dallas. The depressing part is I’ve only had the car for a week.