IT'S not often you get to drive a car designed by your namesake.

I didn't know mine even existed until I got an email from a guy in California telling me he had been invited to the Range Rover Evoque launch in Liverpool and seeing as he was 5,000 miles away I might like to go instead.

Shame that. He would have enjoyed it, as well as the Audi TT RS model he had to reluctantly pass on.

Amazing the world an email can open up when you put dot com instead of dot uk, or hotmail instead of gmail.

Mike Torpey is actually a senior designer at the Kia studio in Orange County, California, and the man whose brush strokes eventually resulted in one of the most interesting cars of modern times, the Soul.

Some describe it as an urban crossover, some a compact MPV, others a hatchback supermini; what's certain is that the Soul stands out from the crowd.

Boxy but bright may be an apt description of a car that in reality is far more than an affordable fashion statement.

We hear people rattling on about the Tardis factor - you're right it is usually nonsense - with phrases like 'small on the outside, big on the inner', but in the Soul's case it's spot-on.

This is one practical piece of kit, with 40-plus miles per gallon, as much headroom as many larger family hatchbacks and compact SUVs, acres of legroom and enough luggage space to open a small retail outlet.

The line-up has actually been around since 2009 and to ensure it remains fresh, Kia has rolled out a programme of Soul Originals, which include the tested Soul Hunter.

While the '1' and '2' models give people a tidily specced up standard Soul, the regularly updated Originals are customised and more bespoke limited editions.

These soul brothers may not be endorsed by the likes of Arthur Conley, Eddie Floyd or Percy Sledge, but they've certainly got the vibe - in the shape of a high-end sound system capable of being linked to digital music players.

This set-up features PowerBass - a technology that overcomes the difficulties of delivering crisp sound in, well, a car.

Listen to Albert King, Ike and Tina or Free blasting out 'The Hunter', in the Hunter and the bluesy onslaught hits you via an upgraded 315-watt external power amplifier with dash-top centre speaker and a boot-mounted sub-woofer. Serious Ju-Ju.

For 2012, every Soul features a new, more stylish, fascia and centre console while the Originals have a leather steering wheel plus metallic finish on the centre fascia and door handles.

Dash cappings are in black on all models except the Hunter, which comes in beige when buyers specify Forest Green metallic paint.

This car also has an electric sunroof and colour reversing camera, which are great, and black tartan trim, which definitely isn't.