Auto News 5

San Diego -- On the one hand, there’s the Volkswagen Beetle and Mazda Miata. When it came time to redesign these icons, they were done right. On the other hand, the second generation Scion xB was botched. Unable to come up with a suitable rodent counterpart to match the darling hamsters in Kia Soul commercials and thoroughly trounced by the South Korean in sales, the xB soon will say sayonara. Coming from nowhere in 2009 to bust the compact crossover segment, the Soul has enjoyed annual sales increases. Kia sold 112,000 units in 2012. This is despite the fact that the car was crotchety and compromised.