Kia and Hyundai need to improve their plastics. Scratch prone surfaces makes their cars look worn out in little time. Not to mention their plastic back coverings from the front seats that look like cheap tupperware.
The one dealership that would comment on the this said it doesn't pass safety regulations. Something about the actual construction of the Carnival, since in 2010 Chrysler still had their Swivel and Go seats which were allowed. Kia hasn't responded of course. Really wanted to use this for long road trips with the 2nd row reversed but not sure if I'm comfortable with the safety aspect. Would love to know more details and to be convinced it's safe.
i was a car salesman for a time, without fail people would come in and say "I want something roomy and practical and with lots of seats and cargo space that's comfortable but still decent on gas", and when I'd say "well sounds like you want a van" they'd go "NAH I DON'T WANNA BE A 'VAN PERSON'", and to myself I'm just like you're already a van person you're just in denial.
I very rarely had customers come in looking for a van, with most saying, "Ugh, I'll never get a van!" but the rare few that would give a van a chance, that would take a look, ALWAYS ended up buying a van and would rave about how great it was every time I checked in with them.
@@FurballMK3 and they held their value decently, there is still some old caravans still kickin, although "checking in with them" may also not be part of this vans culture, as far as dealership experience haha, nice work!
Following his feature explanations is probably as tricky as learning how to configure the seats in all possible ways, but for a moment I thought he was explaining that you can flip the third row backwards so you can enter through the trunk and look out the back.
god my parents had one when I was a kid. Such a POS. I actually remember that dumb van because I took my first flight because it broke down in Houston on a vacation.
I'm starting to think Gloss Black is a strategic move to make cars immediately unappealing once owned so that you'll want to lease/trade in as soon as possible.
I mean it could be but each model seems to keep getting more gloss black which would eventually push certain people away to another brand at some point.
My parents just installed one of the dog cages to keep me out of the adult areas of the used ups truck they bought. I got a bowl of water now and then and they threw goldfish thru the cage openings at times. I turned out fine
Your review of the 2016 Kia Sedona five years ago made me purchase my first ever minivan and first ever Kia. Would never have looked at a Korean car before. Five years later it’s been the most reliable car I’ve ever owned, including my Toyota and Acura. Great features and value. I’ve seen the light. No longer a Korean car hater.
I've purchased my first car in the US back in 2016 as well. Kia Optima 2014 LX with 68k miles on it. It has 129k now and I put about 500$ in repairs in total and that was all last year since that day. I spent maybe 2k with oil change , brakes and tires all together. :) It started to burn oil last year tho, I'm changing oil every 3k now
Minivans get a bad rep. They’re literally the most useful types of cars other than full sized cargo vans. But those get a bad rep for being predator vehicles. I get a feeling it’s the big Truck lobby putting those stories out
In Iceland I believe, where weather is pretty brutal, they use vans that they modify. they look really nice, too. here's a guy in a sweet Sprinter van /watch?v=daSuDDDewrI
I don't know what was funnier the overlay of Russell Crowe from unhinged when Jack was driving or the two women trying to buckle C-3PO into the car seat from the Kia b-roll footage
Kia is working with big vinyl to integrate as much piano black plastic in all its models as possible. The company makes big kickbacks in the form of Arby's cash from certified vinyl wrap shops every time a kia's interior is wrapped.
I did a faux dry weave carbon vinyl wrap on my piano black. No more fingerprints or reflections. Well worth the time and effort, but you shouldn't have to do it. Hopefully, the next idiotic industry interior trend will be more practical than piano black or alcantara....
There's 4 cupholders available up front plus two large bottle holders in the doors, two more cupholders in the middle, and 3 on each in the rear. There's more than enough cupholders lmao
@@TheNondiscriminatory still seems light for the american market, with reusable yoga water bottles getting bigger and bigger, a door that could fit them would be nice and the grande mocha latte with a splash of soy, hardly looks like it would fit in the console, in all good fun. I am sure it will not have a hard time selling
@@janoycresnova9156 I got a honda Odyssey and an Audi RS3 with a tune, I don’t care about what people think and I have no kids, I use a minivan to simply haul.
Great review as usual by the SG team but a few corrections as I've owned my '22 Carnival SX for about 8,000 miles so far. 1) No, you actually can't reverse the middle row in the US. There may be a way to do this by modifying one of the latches, though it wasn't approved for our market for some reason. 2) MPG is better than rated and about on par with the Odyssey and Pacifica....I've done a couple of 2,000 mile road trips so far and averaged anywhere from 28.2 - 33 mpg per tank so not too bad. 3) The Carnival's dimensions are different than the other vans i.e. significantly higher ground clearance than the Odyssey (6.8in vs. 4.5in, which is terrible). Also the Carnival is a couple inches shorter yet still has the most cabin room, though the 3rd row legroom is a little less than the others. LAST: the first thing I did after buying was to debadge. The name is just plain dumb.
Thanks Mark. This is very helpful to one considering this vehicle. Especially the clarification on actual gas mileage. SG is great but I have never heard about the second row being reversible in any other reviews. Thanks.
@@paul38501 you bet and let me know if you have any other questions. There's a good facebook owners group and a chat forum too. No perfect vehicle of course but this was definitely the right minivan (or MPV) for my family at the right price
I had seen that mod in forums to switch them, I added a note in pinned comments. Thanks for adding to the info btw its very helpful for future buyers!!
Ok...I've been resisting this for a long time since I'm getting old af and am a newly minted grandpa, but you've convinced me. I'll watch Unhinged tonight.
I have zero interest in that segment, nor in the kia brand, but your videos are such a treat. Insightful, humorous, very well structured, sound is perfect, video is beyond professional quality, overall editing is perfect. And like every single time, your laughs are communicative. Keep going, I'll keep watching.
When my kids were younger, I had a mini-van as a company car. The sliding doors are great - the kids can get in and out on their own and you never have to worry about them dinging up the car next to you. Think of it as a public service
I was confused cause a minivan can be a seamen demon. Your seamen are all over the back seats in the form of little snot nosed kids and they’re all demonic
I've only owned one minivan in many years of driving. It was a Mazda "MPV" from the late 80's, early 90's. The only minivan at the time that offered AWD. I learned to love that vehicle when I was able to extract it from a deep, snow covered ditch on an isolated logging road in the Washington Cascades. Without the AWD, I think my wife and I would never have made it back to civilization. In subsequent years I wondered why automakers failed for years to offer AWD in the minivan category. No question that the Carnival is a major step up from the last generation Sedona. However, the absence of any form of AWD and a hybrid powertrain available on versions of both the Pacifica and the Pacifica will, I think, prevent the KIA from climbing out of fourth place in the four horse race that makes up the tiny category of minivans in the US market.
I saw a teluride on the road with the new emblem and if it hadn't been for TELURIDE plastered in large font on the front bumper, I wouldn't have known what the brand was. It's not that great.
Мне понравился коммент на Авторевю про КИ: Корейская Иномарка. :D For those who don't speak Russian: the new KIA logo lettering looks like cyrillic КИ (KI), which already beign disambiguated as "Korean Import" in Russian car community.
Never would I have expected the sentence "This is not a semen demon, Jack" to have been said here of all places but it was here and it was appreciated.
Every time I hear "MPV" I can't help but think of the poverty spec shitbox Mazda minivan from my childhood -- silver with grey everything interior. The Carnival is a luxury spaceship by comparison. So many good memories made in that MPV. I'm happy the kids in 2021 minivans have it even better than I did :)
KIA has been impressing me lately. The Telluride especially. Boogers everywhere though!! And that lounge seating looks amazing. Not sure it's a "gimmick". Teens everywhere who are forced to be humiliated for being seen in a minivan will love that feature.
Great review, you nailed key points. I leased a LX +, it’s utterly fantastic. I cross shopped the other players, I’m normally a “honda guy”, but the price, styling, and rear space usability was better for me. I brought my bicycles to each brands dealership to see how the 61cm road bike fits…. Kia won. I’m not sure of resale of Kia’s, but it’s a lease with warranty past my lease return date (unlike honda/Toyota unless u buy extended). Fuel mileage is way better than the F-150 it replaces, and I just keep a microfibre cloth in the door panel to wipe up the gloss black surfaces…. manufacturers quit the gloss black nonsense!!! Zero buyers remorse here. When you acknowledge the fact you need a van, make sure you check this one out. I was surprised. Anyway great review guys, your honesty is what gives u proper credibility amongst buyers!
I think the exterior design is great honestly.. If I had to have a van, this one looks really good. The interior not bad either despite the piano black.. I'd say overall solid effort from Kia on this! Wish everyone would keep the NA V6's ...
Just had one of these as a rental. I was very surprised with the power. Transmission was rather lazy, but responded pretty well in manual mode. Overall good interior and pretty comfortable. I definitely had a stripper model, so didn't get to try out lots of fun features. It drove more car like than I would expect, but I didn't like how little feel the steering had. I had a hard time keeping it just straight without any wandering. The lane keep assist would drive in the lane for you pretty well though. The steering was my only major gripe. I really like having sliding back doors. Made fitting in tight spaces and still being able to use them so much easier. Overall a solid vehicle. Definitely makes more sense than a lot of SUV options.
Looking at other comments I was reminded of a couple things. The driver door had wind noise around the window despite being under 50,000 miles. I also hate how massive the C pillar is and how small the back side windows are. Passenger side blind spot was particularly difficult to see. No blind spot warning on the trim level I had either. The touch screen was very responsive and I didn't mind really basic HVAC controls. Didn't notice anything extremely cheap or bad on the interior and I liked the seat fabric.
Regarding the piano black... I checked out the Sedona 2 years ago when I was car shopping. It was nice enough, but I had to pass because there were only 2 interior colors available: light grey, and light beige. For a minivan. I don't think Kia fully understands that minivans in the US are primarily used as kid-haulers.
It looks so usable for a family! Seriously don't understand how they don't have wraps for the gloss black by now, like dbrand style stuff. But for a family it's wayy better than dreary SUVs
Looks like a nice minivan overall. I like the new Carnival name. Not that I hated "Sedona" before. Best styling in its class. They really screwed up not incorporating door cupholders and using gloss black plastics though. Such bizarrely simple oversights. The ability to face 2nd-row seats rearward will be great for kids and teens on long trips. More like sitting in a living room than in a car. No doubt it'll be a value leader over Sienna and Odyssey.
I don't see how this will make me change my mind about my 2000 E39 wagon with its m54 engine that is fast, smooth and pretty good on gas 24.2mpg on average. Burns no oil, blows no smoke, loses no water. If only it was paired with the ZF 8 speed automatic. More than anything, transmissions have improved the most in the last 10 years.
I agree about unhinged. Fantastic! And I do say this vehicle Def changes things for some of the people that don't want a minivan because of the "its a van" but could actually use one. This is the answer. And the van people would buy this for the style. They're grabbing a huge market
Bought one off these a couple months ago. SX without the prestige pack. Replaced a 2016 Sedona. I’m pretty sure the American market carnivals cannot turn the second row seats around. That feature is conspicuously absent in the American market literature. I spent an afternoon trying to do it and couldn’t. It is WAY better to drive than the old Sedona. The Sedona had some jiggles in the body structure especially over broken pavement. The carnival is totally solid. It’s a lot lighter on its feet, eerily quiet and a lot perkier than the old Sedona even though it still isn’t going to win any drag races. It has noticeably more cargo space than the old one too. But it’s not perfect. They moved the button for the sliding doors from the overhead console to left of the steering wheel. That was pretty dumb. The Sedona has nowhere to put your sunglasses. The carnival doesn’t either. The Sedona had a lot of glossy black plastic. The carnival has more. The Sedona had a dedicated knob to control the temperature in the back. The carnival doesn’t. The Sedona had two glove boxes. The carnival has one and it’s pretty small. You have to go all the way up to the prestige to get a self dimming rear view mirror. Rain sensing wipers are not available. The tail gate on both will open itself up if you have the key and stand behind it but you have to stand there way too long while it beeps and beeps and beeps and finally opens. It has auto high beams but you have to turn them on every time; thus making them not automatic. The black wheels look stupid and they’re impossible to keep clean. You have to provide your own hot spot for the rear seat entertainment system. The wireless phone charger isn’t quite big enough to fit an iPhone 11 max with a case on it. These are all first world problems though. Over all it is a fantastic van and so was my old Sedona.
Great review! Been waiting for this for a while - the exterior is without a doubt the best looking in the minivan segment, but I agree that the interior looks sleak, but isn't practical. I've seen a ton of these on the roads already though, can't wait to review one myself!
@@JohnLee-db9zt Yep I was mainly talking from a family-oriented standpoint, in which SG points out that the piano black trim will catch lots of stains, etc. I also feel like the practicality of the vehicle isn’t what separates the Carnival from the Odyssey, Sienna, etc. - it’s definitely the exterior!
@@JohnLee-db9zt It’s not the most practical. Seats are harder to get out than Pacific and Odyssey. Lacks comparable storage space and usable trunk space. And the exterior is really bad in all the base trims until you upgrade on this
It really is amazing how badly they did the materials in the interior on this compared to the Telluride. The Telluride has gloss black on the lower part of the center console (around the cupholders and phone charger) but that’s it. There is no other gloss black anywhere - everything else is matte black, metal-look, or (nice) faux wood, and it stays looking pretty nice even after a week of use in between wipe downs.
Two reasons why I think the piano gloss black trim has been so prevalent is because customers associate it with a classy, higher end, product/feel, in the same way wood/faux wood trim was in the past, and because "Shiny!"
When it comes to minivans, once you know, you know. My wife and I (with 3 kids) shopped around all the three row SUVs because mostly I was reluctant to buy a minivan. We also tried a lot of 2-Row SUVs just for shits and giggles. Let me tell you this. You get a 3-Row SUV only if you fucking hate the child who has to sit back there. Unless you're getting some massive vehicle with a somewhat useable 3rd row like an escalade or that new wagoneer, forget about it. Even then, the minivan will still be more convenient in every possible way, and doesn't cost 100k. Anyway, once we test drove the car we ended up buying (A Sedona) it was obvious the absolute second you sat down in it that it is the SUPERIOR option for comfort, convenience, and utility. It's like an immediate realization that choosing anything else would be downright stupid. Then the day to day living with it became so clear. Getting groceries? Huge storage well in the back. Hauling large objects? Fold the seats down, now you have a truck. Getting drywall? It fits. Going on a road trip? There is no better option, period. Transporting children to school/daycare... again, the sliding doors and large space make it 1000x better than any other vehicle on the road, especially when it comes to car seats, and still having room for backpacks and all the other junk kids accumulate. Being able to stand in the doorway and mess with seatbelts, put shoes back on, or do any of the other million things you have to do to a child getting into/out of a car...again with the sliders it's amazing. Even though it's a large vehicle, compared to some compact car it still works better in parking spots and other tight spaces specifically because of those sliders! I look at these dads at daycare pick-up cramming their kids into a Civic Si, or even like a Rav 4 and (knowing that used to be me) I sympathize with them greatly. Literally everything you do in a vehicle that isn't just for fun or maybe towing a trailer or hauling gravel/dirt is better in a minivan...and guess what? 95% of the time your vehicle is an appliance anyway, so why not get the appliance that improves every aspect of your day-to-day living in a truly meaningful way? As long as I am driving kids around, I will never NOT drive a minivan. Even if this Sedona blows up tomorrow, I'll be getting another minivan. Obviously this may not apply to single people who are only driving themselves around, but to anyone with a family considering an SUV and not thinking about a minivan because of all the cliché reasons... just do yourself a favor and test drive a Carnival, a Sienna, an Odyssey or whatever else. Unless you're completely obstinate, you'll know immediately what all other minivan drivers already know.
My take is I would possibly do a faux carbon fiber overhaul of most if not all of the interior gloss black. Idk. I’d have to see how it would play with the other colors and materials. But to me the rest of the vehicle is worth it, and I’m open to modding most any of my own car’s interiors. I would definitely want to overhaul it somehow, even if it’s a matte black wrap or something. Reliability used to be an issue to me, but when I look at the answer to that (sienna), the ugliness of the front fascia and one of the heaviest in class having only a 4banger, I’m not sold on that. I’ll take ample power with acceptable mpg over underpowered with better mpgs. To bandaid it they have a great warranty, and the Sedona that it replaces I have heard nothing but good reports of reliability, but even if it has some issues it’s likely covered under warranty. Now people talk about the Pacifica being best but it’s just not going to be reliable, even though it has awd, power and looks. It’s made by dodge. Enough said. So out of all options, KIA is the sweet spot for me. If they went how Chrysler did and put electric motors on the same v6 for hybrid fuel efficiency but not sacrificing power and kept the crazy good warranty? It would probably sell like a telluride. Good vid!
My 2008 jeep grand cherokee has the exact same armrest problem, except my elbow misses the arm rest by a good 4-5 inches regardless of where the seat is. And due to the location of the parking break, you can't get an aftermarket armwrest either
Father of 3 kids under 8 here. Currently driving a 2014 Odyssey. This Kia looks great. Cargo room is on par with the other competitors, but the fuel economy is a deal breaker. I'd rather get good mileage while hustling my brood around town rather than looking more stylish. My next purchase will probably be the Sienna. Oh, and my wife drives a 2021 Telluride and she loves it.
This cabin mounted on 4WD Telluride chassis and susspension + heavy-duty interior matterials, full-surface rubber washable floor and back of the seats, rear gate in L shape opening in one single segment with roof above trunk, CNG/Propane (Hybrid) engine and it is what we need for family/bachelor business.
Guess you haven't sat in the new IS or LX? Granted most of their other models have minimal gloss black, but the faux brushed metal effect plastic really isn't the answer either... especially for something that's trying to be premium.
I had a work rental a while back and needed a minivan to move some network gear and other stuff around. They had a grand caravan and a carnival. I really wanted to try the carnival, but of course I got the GC. Stow and go is definitely still a leader though. If I'm not mistaken, I'd have to take the seats out of the middle on the kia
There's plus and minuses to stow and go. The flexibility is great but the thinner seat cushions and somewhat flimsy floor isnt great if youre in the second row for any long trips
Great review, I watched it when it came out, then I thought it has same lamda 3.3l and watched again today as I was researching smart stream 3.5l NA engine. I think you missed the opportunity to talk about smart stream 3.5l here though, it has port and direct injection, supposed to have better fuel economy than lamda 3.8l while making same power.
I ABSOLUTELY love the SUV approach to this minivan. I have 0 shame in being a van person or minivan person. but it does look good and vans are so good. I like this thing a lot but I also love the pacifica. I can't afford either but still.
The US version can't have all second row flip around but the middle seat. They install a plastic stopper in the track to prevent that. There is RU-vid video of people figure it out and remove them so it can be done.
