NHTSA Investigating Kia Soul with Faulty Steering

After so many complaints over Toyota's faulty brakes, every single report that pops out and tells us about some kind of glitch affecting a certain model deserves our full attention. The last star that might be involved in the recall frenzy is Kia's boxy and awkward-looking Soul, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has started an investigation after a consumer complaint of steering loss.

It appears the total number of complaints comes down to one, but taking into account its severity, the government safety watchdog is taking the case very seriously.

According to latimes.com, the affected Soul was driven for only 4,300 miles and was only 2 months old. Citing the consumer's complaint, the NHTSA explained that the steering shaft decoupled from the steering wheel and interfered with the braking mechanism.

The South Korean carmaker is now collaborating with the NHTSA to resolve the issue and also investigates the manufacturing process to determine whether the issue can be resolved straight from the production lines. Additionally, the carmaker cannot confirm if the issue might also exist on other vehicles, or this was only an isolated case.

"Although the investigation is based on a single incident that did not result in an accident or injury, the entire Kia Motors organization — including our supplier base — is reviewing manufacturing processes with the goal of quickly determining if there is a manufacturing cause and preventing the issue from reoccurring," Kia said in a statement according to the aforementioned source.

autoevolution has also tested Kia's Soul, so you can read our review here.