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The Kia Vital spirit is the latest access into the burgeoning box-car market-place, following the beaten path blazed near the Scion xB six years ago and before long to be trod on near the Nissan Cube. And like the youth-targeted Scion, the Vital spirit comes with a over-abundance of bells and whistles for a conveyance priced admirably lower down $20,000.

But while our top-of-the-line Sport-trim trial conveyance (sticker charge $18,345) came with bonus audio, Bluetooth and other electronic accoutrements, it's not on standard with what you'll discover in, state, a contemporary BMW .

Or arguably a fully equipped Ford Focus.

Audio: The Vital spirit Recreation comes criterion with the Audio Upgrade Packet that includes eight speakers (along with a 7-inch subwoofer), an outer 325-watt amplifier and a big center orator. The system's tone was becoming, but wanting in latchkey areas. Bass from the subwoofer in the shipment space was essentially nonexistent. I wasn't certain it was working appropriately, since I couldn't perceive it smooth of while established at the invest in of the conveyance with the raise gateway ajar, much less from the driver's place. I had to place a hand above the grille and touch the vibration to affirm that the sub was really pushing atmosphere. But the big break for the center orator in the summit of the crash is a ideal site to globule in a little aftermarket sub and join some in-your-face bass to the organized whole. In adding to its want of short finish, the Sport's organized whole suffered in other areas representative of OEM setups, namely taut midbass and unclouded highs, with the previous sounding fouled and the latter too bright.

iPod Integration: For integrating an iPod into the audio organized whole, the Vital spirit Recreation uses a two-pronged string that plugs into both the aux-in jack and USB harbor at the seat of the center pile, and is a $30 choice. Music on an iPod is accessed  via the quite clunky controls on the single-CD skull element. It's not the most intuitive interface, but after a week with the motor vehicle I comely much had it wired. It's no Sync and, different from that organized whole establish in similarly priced Ford 's, the Soul's rig requires attractive your eyes away the way and a hand away the disc.

Bluetooth: But the Soul's Bluetooth hands-free phone organized whole does possess Sync-like uncomplicatedness, if not features. After effortlessly pairing my BlackBerry 8300 and having the organized whole automatically download its speech volume (which was a shock since the owner's handbook didn't tell of this purpose, I pressed the voice-activation button on the steering disc and gave the organized whole a hard original trial. I asked it to shoutstand-by chairman of the board rewrite man Paul Seredynski, figuring it was a hard designation for the organized whole to understand. But it then asked me if I wanted to shoutstand-by Paul at dwelling-place, labour or on his chamber. Less evocative is that the organized whole doesn't acknowledge access to a phone's speech volume other than near speech command.

Tech Extras: The Vital spirit Recreation comes criterion with sail, power windows and doors, distant keyless access, steering-wheel audio controls, three months of Sirius moon receiver and an aux-in jack for plugging in an MP3 contestant and USB harbor for playing music files on thumb drives. Our trial conveyance also had a trifling but merriment characteristic that, using a twitch on the crash, allows lights nearby the front-door speakers to wink to the strike of the music or substitution shades at routin intervals.

Disco lights for your orator may be a device (and something the aftermarket offered a decade ago), but it's a fine instance of how buying an thrift motor vehicle like the Vital spirit no longer means having to give up chilly features. The rod has been raised near cars like Scion and near systems like Sync, and automakers at present understand that to entreat to the youthful buyers shopping the class they possess to carryture tech to the table.

The 2010 Kia Vital spirit Recreation offers completely a spread, although it left-hand me deficient more.

IL Tech Ratings (10 is superlative: 2010 Kia Vital spirit Sport

Audio: 6

iPod Integration: 7

Bluetooth: 8

Ergonomics/Extra: 6

Total Mean Record: 6.75