Kia Soul ! vs. Hyundai Elantra GT?

The Kia Soul has a better reliability record than the Elantra.
But how are the cars in 3 or 4 years?
Be careful of the wind and road noise in the Kia Soul and Elantra.
Look at a Toyota Corolla better reliability than the soul and Elantra and the Toyota will be worth more on trade.

Arizona: the Elantra GT is a significantly different car than the Elantra sedan. It's essentially the European-market Elantra (called i30 there).

This said, the reliability record of the 2013 hasn't been great. The 2014 has probably been better, but we have a small sample size for it.

California: I'd go with the car you like the best.

Would the Honda Fit or HR-V meet your criteria? They should be fun to drive, practical, and reliable. And they should have good trade-in/resale value in a few years too.

On the less practical side of things, would you consider a Scion FRS/Subaru BRZ or Mazda Miata? Both are signiciantly smaller than the cars you've mentioned but would be much more entertaining to drive. Unsure of how reliable the FRS/BRZ twins have been but Miatas should be strong.

KIA and Hyundais both have HORRIBLE resale and long term feel changes.

How long are you looking to keep it? How many miles a year do you drive?

Look into the GOLF, MAZDA3, and FORD FOCUS. All 3 are inexpensive for what you get, hold their value, made to be fun to drive (Toyota and Honda's are appliances, not a driver's car), and will be inexpensive to maintain.