Introduction
It feels like it wasn’t all that long ago when I eagerly awaited my elementary schools annual spring carnival. Realistically, its been about 14 years but we’ll ignore that part! Having been to Disneyland, the rides were meh but hanging out with friends, eating way too much sugar, and playing the carnival games always made it so much fun. I always played my favorite “win a goldfish” game, and was so happy to put that poor, dropped too often, stuck in a little bag goldfish in my fishbowl. Not to mention that being able to spend my parents money on entertainment makes me reminisce of my youth.
But a lot has happened since then. Middle school came and went, and high school saw my first ride! A 2001 gray Honda Odyssey… “Ugh!” was my initial reaction to my mom and dad when they said I can take that car to school. A bit ungrateful in hindsight, but what high schooler wants to be seen driving around a minivan right? And things haven’t changed for me to be honest. I’d happily take a fuel economy and practicality hit of an SUV or crossover than drive a minivan. Despite the fact that entrants from Honda, Toyota, and Chrysler are more spacious and practical.
Kia Carnival Exterior
But along comes the 2022 Kia Carnival, freshly redesigned, rebadged, and renamed for 2022. It’s striking and SUV like design stands out from the crowd. Squared off lines, a flat hood, and a chunky front end even confused my parents and cousins who said, “Is this an SUV?”. When the answer was no the answer was always “Sure looks like one!”. The design team at Kia wanted to change the perception of the minivan (or Multi Purpose Vehicle [MPV] according to Kia), gave it SUV styling, and based on my families impression, they absolutely hit the mark.
In my eyes, this is actually a minivan that I would be willing to drive. And primarily because of its class defying design. If you look at the Odyssey or Sienna, with their highly sloped hoods, and rounded body lines they look like minivans, while the Kia does not. I really like the lighting elements found on EX and SX trim levels such as the twisty front DRL and rear light bar. The color options are very SUV like as well with gloss black wheels, a grayish paint they call “Ceramic Silver”, and “Astra Blue” which is a very nice blue color. My tester was “Flare Red” which is a nice maroon color. A couple misses include a kinda ugly grill on LX and EX trims and I’m not sure how I feel about that plastic sail on the C-Pillar. I would’ve liked to see the sliding door rail tucked away as well.
Kia Carnival Interior
First off, I want to say, I love the interior color palettes Kia is going with lately. This new 2022 Kia Carnival can be had with an interior color called “Tuscan Umber” which is this wonderful, clay colored, orange-brownish leather, and pairs wonderfully against Astra Blue exterior. Unfortunately, it can only be had on SX and SX-Prestige trims (SX-P), but if you can swing it, definitely worth it. My car came with black genuine leather interior (genuine leather is only on SX-P trims) which was fine, seats are supportive and comfortable on long trips, but the leather could be softer.
I really liked the Carnivals interior design. You won’t find any wood in here! Instead you get a metallized textured plastic and piano black finishes throughout the cabin, which is fine with me, and gives the Carnival a modern and hip appearance. The digital dash on SX-P’s looks strikingly similar to Mercedes’s dashboards, but that’s not a bad thing. Huge screens, easily legible in any lighting condition worked a treat, and the graphics and touch responses were crisp. However, like I mentioned in my Sorento and K900 review, I wish Kia did more with the digital dash, particularly in the infotainment integration front. The Carnival is the first Kia to integrate haptic controls in the center console and they worked well to my touch, a vented wireless charger is a nice addition, and the Bose audio sounded good enough.
But starting in the second row is where the SX-P really differentiates itself from other trims, and its competitors. Reclining captains chairs never failed to wow, or draw complaints in the comfort department. Slide-able forward and back, left and right, motorized tilt and leg supports gave riders a first class airline experience. For taller people, you will have to move the seats inboard and back otherwise your feet will hit the seat in front! No other car has these features in its class or at a similar price point, at the moment. The Odyssey doesn’t come close, the Pacifica has pillows, and the Sienna offers this reclining second row captains but at a considerably higher price. If you don’t need these wonderful lazy boys, opt for the SX trim or lower which gives you a center seat for 8 seats total. The Pacifica does win points for its Stow-and-Go second row which the Carnival lacks.
EX, SX, and SX-P trims come standard with the rear seat entertainment system (RSE) and is optional for LX and LX Seat package trims. It is Kia’s best RSE yet, but is still flawed in many ways. Integrated is a kids mode featuring Baby Shark, iOS and Android mirroring, podcast viewing, YouTube, and Netflix apps. All of which require a WiFi connection which is fine until you realize…it’s a feature the Kia doesn’t have!! As kids and today’s world becomes increasingly connected and internet dependent, why is this not a feature! So to maximize the RSE, you have to utilize your own WiFi hotspot which means buying a portable WiFi setup to keep in the car as most smartphones are not designed to be extensively used as a hotspot. And the kids mode can only be activated from the rear screens, which means that the parent driving has to pre-set the mode before hopping in the front seat, and furthermore, the kids mode can’t be locked either.
Third row seat comfort is great, and fold away easily. I wish the side windows in the back were bigger though, as the tiny windows can make the third row feel a bit tight, even though leg room and head room are generous. What is also generous is the interior space. It’s squared off design means that interior space rivals and actually exceeds that of a Suburban. That’s impressive that you can get that space without sacrificing much in the way of fuel economy or driving experience.
Driving Impressions
Driving the Kia Carnival feels, unsurprisingly, crossover like. If you have ever driven a Telluride, you’ll feel right at home (Read my review here). The new 3.5 V6 is powerful, with 290 horsepower, and never leaves you hanging or feeling like you’re going to get run over…ahem Sienna with your hybrid CVT powertrain. Equally smooth is the 8 speed automatic which shifts smoothly and quickly, and like the Telluride, it is not afraid to call in downshifts when you give the car some right foot. Rated at 19/26, fuel economy is perfectly average for the class and my experience showed the fuel economy ratings are spot on.
The Carnival rides with a bit of firmness, but it’s on the firm side of comfortable, rather than the comfortable side of firm. It’s a tiny touch too firm for my liking and I think the Telluride has a better suspension tune overall. But, thanks to its firmer set up, handling is surprisingly fun with good body control through turns. Steering is still numb, but is accurate and nicely weighted.
A couple quibbles popped up though. First is the brake pedal, which is quite soft. The car itself has good braking power, but the soft pedal erodes confidence for such a large vehicle. And surprisingly, this V6 lacks the smoothness and overall refinement of the Tellurides V6 (the Telluride uses a 3.8 liter V6, while the Carnival uses a 3.5 liter V6). The Telluride’s V6 is buttery smooth, whereas the Carnival has a bit of coarseness at low revs, reminding me a bit of a 4 cylinder, kinda tractor-ey (If 4 cylinder power is your thing, check out my Sorento review). I’m not sure why this is, but it further diminishes what is an overall, very refined vehicle.
I found that the Carnivals driver assistance features worked very well, particularly the lane centering and adaptive cruise. Driving the Carnival from LA to San Diego and back was a breeze thanks to these features, keeping the Carnival centered and appropriately distanced, and coming to a stop smoothly. I never felt like I needed to override the system, which is a big complement. Further improving confidence is the dashboard will show you the lane lines and the car in front, Tesla style, when the radar cruise is activated.
Conclusion
The Kia Carnival is a minivan that gets a lot right, but could be better in some areas, or use more polish in others. The exterior styling is high school me approved, and elementary school me would love this carnival ride. I think the exterior and interior design is fantastic, the technology is mostly excellent, it’s spacious and comfortable, and drives pretty good too! But the RSE could use refinement, as could the Carnival’s V6 and ride comfort. The one thing that could really elevate the Carnival would be a hybrid option and all wheel drive (okay so this was actually two things). A hybrid would benefit the Carnival immensely, especially as electrification becomes the new norm, and the Sienna and Pacifica both offer these variants. And all wheel drive is the new standard for today’s crossover craze. Kia markets the Carnival as a multi purpose vehicle, and given its SUV styling, no all wheel drive is a strange omission. Overall, I’d have to say that if the Carnival had AWD, this would be my favorite Kia, surpassing even the Telluride. In its class however, this would be the minivan I would choose all day, every day.
