Kia Carnival personal experience

 After the success of the Seltos kia motors had decided to launch the Kia Carnival MPV which is right now available in the Indian Market starting from 24.9 lacs ex showroom for the base premium variant and 33.95 lacs for the top end limousine which gets all the bells and whistles in the Kia Carnival lineup.

Is it an eye catcher??

The kia Carnival looks very much striking from the outside and is the most stylish van in the Indian Market under a cheaper price where SUVs like Fortuner, Endeavour ,etc. enter this price segment.From the outside the Carnival gets many bells and whistles due to Kia's outstanding fascia where you get to see dual projector headlamps and LED foglamps surrounded by chrome treatment like the tiger nose grille on the front.When you observe the limousine variant there is an option of 18 inches chrome  alloy wheels which unfortunately do not get wider tires so going off-road is something which is of course not possible in this car as it is just a car made for long travels around the plains.

Looking at the side profile the  Carnival sounds much like a minivan due to larger dimensions which are more than an MPV . It's length and width are much more than the Innova Crysta and would also sound spacious from the outside than many of it's rivals.Being larger car it is not something that you can drive around traffic lights or to manouvere around cities.

Whenever someone observes the Carnival from the rear it will make a great road presence but talking about my opinion the taillights of the Kia carnival reminds me of the Kia Rio hatchback from the rear that is available in the foreign Markets and would soon also enter the Indian market .The trunk gets a chrome treatment which of course doesn't seem to be overworked.

How's premiumness from inside??

The cabin of the Carnival feels very premium especially when you hold the steering which is leather wrapped and also you can easily control audio.There is option of a dual tone interior with piano Black surround however if thr automatic climate control was digital then that would have been better for this premium MPV but still there are several features like dual sunroof, electric rear door,UVO connect and some other goodies which are on the offer. On the top end limousine variant there was an option of a VIP seven seater which will make you feel like a VIP due to it's comfortable seats.Comfort is something which it never miss out on.The Cabin of the car will also not feel claustrophobic due to beige treatment inside and due to larger width and larger wheelbase There is greater amount of headroom and legroom on offer and people like me who are 5 feet and 8 inches tall will also get decent under thigh support for long trips whether it's second or third row.

What's under the hood??

Under the hood the Kia Carnival gets a 2.2 litre diesel engine which generates 197.2 hp of power and 440nm of torque which is 10nm less than Toyota Fortuner diesel automatic but 20 nm more than Toyota Fortuner diesel manual.The 2.2 diesel is mated to 8 speed automatic transmission due to which there would be no lack of extra gears on highway in comparison to Fortuner that gets 6 speed automatic.

Safety and assurance

In terms of safety features Kia Carnival offers several kinds of safety features like 6 airbags,ABS with EBD, Traction control system,Hill lanch assist,etc . however from the base variant my expectations from kia is to increase standard safety features from the base variant itself because the standard like dual airbags,ABS with EBD and disc brakes are also offered on lower segment cars as standard and for being expensive car this needs more safety.There is a 3 year warranty which is offered with the car so if a person needs something premium then my advice is to prefer either the mid or top variant but those who travel with family of 9 people are the only one who are advised to go for base variant.