The Kia Soul has a surprisingly roomy front seat interior and it’s a fun car to drive. While I wish it had more rear cargo space, it works well for two or three people. However, it doesn’t work so well to mount a phone, GPS or tablet. There are so many curves and unconventional curves that I had a difficult time finding good places to mount a phone, GPS or tablet.
Kia Soul Mount Discussion
Our usual interior photo accompanies this article. DA few decent locations and several poor choices.
The windshield is totally usable for a phone mount. So are the vents. A mirror mount is also a good possibility.
Poor choices are the seat bolt as it is not readily accessed. The dashboard is sparse and will make a poor choice as well. Maybe a CD Player mount? Forget it. There isn’t a CD Player in a Kia Soul.
Cup holders on a Kia Soul are set too far back to be useful for mounting anything. Sometimes, you can use the cup holder location for a tablet. The location of the Kia Soul cup holders just aren’t going to work.
Phone and GPS Mount Locations in a Kia Soul
Let’s start with the windshield. We give this location a thumbs up as the best place to mount a smartphone or GPS in a Kia Soul. Our go-to mount for this location which is the Arkon MegaGrip Suction Cup Windshield and Dash Mount. The suction mount features a vacuum locked suction assembly attached to a pivoting arm. The phone can swivel into any orientation.
The mount also comes with an adhesive disk that you can stick to the dash to turn the mount into a console mount. Here’s the issue. The Kia Soul has the large black circular beveled disk right in the middle of the dash. It serves no purpose and it’s there for the design. Unfortunately, the concave shape means the dash disk will not work properly as the location needs to be flat. This mount will work fine on the windshield, not so fine on the dash. However the hardware is included with the mount if you care to give it a shot.
The same mount It’s an excellent mount that comes with a 2-year warranty. It’s more rugged and longer than the Garmin mount you received in the box.
Feel free to also use this mount for a Garmin GPS as removal of the cradle will expose a 17mm ball common to most Garmin GPS cradles.
One of our favorite places to mount a GPS or smartphone is the air vent. The middle air vents in the Kia Soul have a lip just beneath them which makes it difficult to mount anything on the center vents. If mounting a phone, the bottom of that lip pushes the phone forward, so forget about anything that needs portrait mode.
Consider the Andobil Air Vent Mount. This mount can be used to hold most phone models with or without a case. The ball and socket design facilitates a 360 degree rotation. The included cradle opens to accommodate phones up to 3.75 inches wide. The mount uses a unique locking clip to securely attach to horizontal and vertical vents.
Apple iPhone owners can scope out the Andobil MagSafe Air Vent Mount which is the same mount but with a magnetic adapter that pairs perfectly.
The Andobil Air Vent Mount can also be used for a Garmin GPS too. All Garmin vehicle GPS devices made over the past ten years include a custom cradle that has a 17mm socket on the back. Remove the cradle from the Andobil mount and you have a 17mm ball. Just snap the Garmin cradle onto the mount minus the cradle and your GPS can be mounted to the air vent.
Lastly, for the rearview mirror, consider the SXhyf Rear View Mirror Phone Mount. The mount includes a bracket that attaches to the top and bottom of the mirror. The accompanying cradle attaches to an extension arm which can pivot to give you the best angle. A nicely made mount at a very fair price.
Mount Summary for a Kia Soul
This wasn’t easy. The interior design eliminated many of my go-to mounting locations. So bottom line: windshield suction mounts attached low on the windshield work best for a phone or GPS. The vent or mirror are also possibilities. Oh, and a tablet, sorry, no room to do that!