QOTD: What Car Do You Recommend Most Often?

Recommending vehicles, and having those recommendations go unheeded, is a key component of your role as an automotive enthusiast.

Whether you’re known as a go-to source for vehicle recommendations because of your encyclopedic automotive knowledge, because you’re a keen driver who once raced a Spec Miata, because you’ve brilliantly chosen five consecutive impeccably reliable midsize sedans, or because (like many TTAC contributors) you spend a week with new vehicles as they enter the market, you are relied upon by friends, family, and co-workers.

When asked, what new vehicle ends up topping your Most Recommended list? Forget Consumer Reports’ recommendations and Car And Driver’s 10 Best. If a friend asks you what new car they should buy, what car is it most likely to be?

Camry? F-150? Outback? Elantra Sport? Don’t say Golf SportWagen TDI.

Yesterday, not for the first time in the recent past, a new car buyer’s wishlist presented me with an obvious answer: Kia Soul.

Kia Soul. Kia Soul. Kia Soul. Over and over again, it seems as though the typical car buyer couldn’t do much better than a Kia Soul.

Combine the mid-grade 2017 Kia Soul’s $20,695 MSRP with the $1,000 UVO Package, the 27-mpg Soul presents an undeniably attractive value quotient. You don’t need to pay a premium for all-wheel drive — Kia doesn’t even offer it. Loads of rear seat space and impressive cargo volume make the Soul a viable midsize sedan alternative. Though by no means overpowered, the Soul isn’t a slow poke. The second-generation rides and handles well, too. Naturally, as a Kia, there’s a load of equipment. And back on the Consumer Reports front, Kia is now among the most reliable car brands.

I’m not recommending the Soul to everyone. If you want an affordable luxury car, the Audi A4 is tough to beat. The Mazda CX-5 and Honda CR-V are outstanding small crossovers. Families with a wide variety of needs are well served by a Honda Odyssey. Full-size pickup trucks from Ford, General Motors, and Ram will all surprise and delight in different ways. The short-lived Ford Mustang V6 is a shockingly effective sports car alternative. And the Volkswagen Golf GTI is perhaps the best all-around vehicle for performance car lovers.

Besides, my Soul recommendation comes with three caveats. Maybe the Soul was cool in 2009, but now that Americans have snapped up more than 900,000 of them, the high sense of style is lost in ubiquity. Second, Kia has yet to install positive steering feel in the Soul. And finally, manual transmission availability is limited.

Yet time and time again, the expectations of car buyers who contact me are best met not by a Mazda MX-5 Miata or Ford F-250 or Jeep Wrangler, but rather by a Kia Soul.

What new car do you recommend most often?

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars.