Shifting hard intermittently. When put into park after reverse it feels like you've been rear ended. Every shift after that is jolting and you may as well sign up for whip lash. It's like being with the worst manual shifting driver ever. It will do it at random times of year and of day. The problem stops just as quickly as it starts. Sometimes the check engine light will come on but not always.

I've taken my car in for over 4 yrs for this issue just to have them say there's no code that gives them a reason why so they did nothing. Today (it's not covered under warranty anymore) they said the heat sensor on the transmission. Unknown yet if it will truly fix the problem as they still have the car and time will tell.

Yesterday after driving around all day, I got into my car at the store and when I shifted into drive, it shifted really hard. It shifted hard into every gear down to drive. After getting on the road, it shifted hard when I gave it the gas speeding up. After slowing down, it shifted down gears hard with a thud. All the way home it kept thudding when speeding up and slowing down and again when shifting back to park once I hit the driveway. Today so far, nothing. I have been on 6 short trips around town today and so far nothing. I'm just wondering what tomorrow will bring.

Update from Aug 20, 2018: Had the car fixed after it started acting up again. It was a heat sensor on the transmission. It was covered under my warranty. I have had my car for 6 years and almost 60,000 miles. Since I'm the original owner, it's covered. They charged Kia $220. So far it is working fine. Before getting it fixed, it worked fine some days and other days it would shift hard. The last time it started acting up, the engine light came on. They also replaced the transmission fluid and gasket. They must have had to drain the fluid to replace the sensor. I hope this helps.

Update from Sep 30, 2021: I still have my Kia Soul ! and it now has 91,000 miles and runs fine. It's a 2012.

I bought this car in January of this year and everything's been great until all of a sudden I get back in my car after driving it all day and the transmission acts like it's having trouble shifting or being thrown into gear hard. It does this for a little bit and then it quits and the car is driving fine again until a week later same thing and then it drives good. It's done this 5 times now and it's really annoying.. I take very good care of my car and have all fluids changed when needed.. IDK what else it could be. I have seen other people with the same model complain about this very same issue.