The new 2022 Kia Carnival continues Kia’s recent onset of impressive cars that perform above the pay grade, offer aggressive exterior styling, luxurious and roomy interior, well balanced on road performance, and boasts excellent value in a small but competitive fragment.
While most of the attention is still on the Telluride, the Carnival is possibly the more intelligent buy typically for families that do not need the extra ground clearance or the all-wheel drive.
Exterior Styling
Kia lets to borrow a top-of-the-line Carnival SX Prestige in its hero color Astra Blue, a deep metallic color.
All Carnival SX and SX Prestige models have 19-inch gloss black wheels and satin chrome accents on the exterior. It is the most noticeable on the eminent C-pillar trimming that also features a textured pattern which is continued on the interior trim for a cohesive design.
The Carnival is simply the most aggressive-looking SUV available today with its exposed headlight elements, a taller hood, thin rear light bar, SUV-like profile. The Kia Carnival SX and SX Prestige also come standard with roof rails that feature a floating back end, making it easier to tie down cargo on the roof.
The SX Prestige comes with full LED headlights and an LED taillight bar. The turn signals, license plate lighting, and reverse lights are bright on all the models. The SX Prestige’s signature daytime running lights turn double as the front LED turn signals. A small element within the lamp stays white when the rest of the light turns amber.
Luxury For Your Family
Kia’s 2022 Carnival is optimized for interior comfort.
The Carnival takes it to another level; there is a lot to talk about here.
After opening the standard power sliding rear doors from the key fob, the Carnival SX offers several features.
You are welcomed into the Carnival by the extra luxurious second-row VIP lounge seats. The driver’s chairs have an extensive range of movement, enabling you to adjust each seat manually outboard or inboard, back or forward to the desired position. It also provides reclining seatbacks, power tilting and extending leg rests power tilting seat bottoms, and flight-styled wing headrests. Each seat has dual armrests that can be lowered or raised.
Inside the Carnival, you will feel like you are in your private jet while enjoying the second row. If you are taller, you can use secondary power controls for the passenger seat adjustment, allowing you to stretch your feet.
Carnival offers three-stage heated and ventilated seats, allowing you to stay at the desired temperature. It is assisted by a rear seat automatic climate control panel and four different air vents.
After adjusting your seat to the perfect position, you can switch on the built-in dual rear-seat entertainment screen to stream YouTube, Netflix. You can plug in the gaming console to the HDMI ports or mirror the smartphone to enjoy unlimited entertainment possibilities. Depending on your position, the screens take a beating, and you can adjust to point downwards or upwards.
Kia Carnival also gives you the freedom to control the outside world’s view from the back. With a secondary power opening sunroof, manual sunshade cover, one-touch power windows in the doors, sunshades for all rear side windows, you can keep the light out on sunny days.
Kia Carnival ensures that all your electronic devices stay charged at all times. It features no less than nine USB power outlets and two household-styled outlets.
There are also phone slots between the cupholders in the first and second rows, and the third-row cupholders are in between additional storage locations.
Kia delivers plenty of storage in the Carnival, but it is not class-leading. With no pass-through storage area in the center console in the first row shallow cubbies at front doors, it only offers bottle holders on the sliding rear doors.
You will surely love the kids’ mode on the rear entertainment screens of the Kia Carnival. It has Baby Shark videos and games built-in, and it also provides access to YouTube kids. You can connect either monitor by Bluetooth to the Bose Audio System to play music through the speakers or connect a Bluetooth headset for private listening. You also have the liberty to link two screens together so that all rear passengers watch the same thing if desired.
Talking about driver goodies, the Carnival SX features a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster which is unique.
When configurability, you can choose between classic and dynamic modes. The traditional way displays traditional round gauges, which change the theme when you change the drive mode. The active mode delivers a more open feel and a landscape that changes to match the time of the day and weather in the current location. The gauge cluster also offers Kia’s turn signal camera feature. Those cameras are used in the ultra-crisp 360-degree parking camera system.
Safety Features
Kia has packaged several software features with the new Carnival. The car alerts you if the leading vehicle has departed after being stopped at a red light. The gentle reminder prevents drivers behind the vehicle from getting frustrated if you were looking somewhere else when the light turned green.
A navigation-based feature also turns on air recirculating when driving through a known area with low air quality. After leaving the site, it turns back to outside air and switches on the auto defogging system. Drivers can control all the power functions on the VIP lounge seats, including the heated or ventilated seats from the driver’s seat, seat positions.
Driving Performance
Knowing about the priorities of the Kia Carnival, we were not expecting much from the driving experience, but we were thoroughly impressed.
The 3.5L V6 provides 290 horsepower; its outdated 248 lb-ft torque does not give you a feeling of speed. However, it provides power instantly through its 8-speed Automatic Transmission. The Carnival handles it incredibly nicely.
It corners flatly and offers to push hard around bends at speed without any complaints from the tires. We were not expecting it with the size and height of the Kia Carnival.
Kia Carnival has an intelligent cruise control system that is better than other Hyundai or Kia Cars with older versions. Even in the most aggressive setting, the Carnival smoothly brakes without leaving more significant gaps in traffic as it takes advantage of the navigation-based Highway Driving Assist. With the help of it, Carnival stays centered in the lane. It also adjusts the target speed dynamically to the speed limit.
The gas mileage is relatively low. Kia Carnival is rated at 19 mpg city/26 mpg highway; we saw it closer to 15 mpg due to pushing it more complex in the real world.
Practicality vs. Luxury
The trim levels of the Kia Carnival are designed so that the choice to make stands between practicality and luxury.
The Carnival SX offers various features not available on lower trims, including the digital gauge cluster, dual sunroof system, leather seats, LED taillight bar, full LED headlights, 360-degree camera, turn signal cameras, 12 speakers, Bose audio system, heated steering wheel, etc.
If you want these luxury features of the SX, you will need to live with the VIP lounge seats, which sounds like a great thing.
However, those features reduce the overall practicality of the car. For example, there is no rear-mounted mechanism to access the third row. You will have to either walk between the driver’s chairs to the third row or reach over to the power seat controls, which stay on the inboard side of the seats to adjust them forward.
Furthermore, you can remove the second-row seats altogether for a flat load door with 145 cubic feet of space in lower trim levels. But the VIP lounge seats cannot be removed, which means that cargo space is limited to only what passengers fit behind them in the forward position. Hence, for more prominent families or who need to carry around a lot of luggage regularly, it will be tough to justify the extra cost for the SX Prestige, even with all the additional features you will enjoy.
Be ready to compromise when you have to buy your Kia Carnival.
Pricing Value
Kia has branded a lot into the new Carnival MPV. The SX is an authentic luxury experience. The product planners at Kia America knew they had to keep the price value reasonable.
The base model LX starts at $32,100, which is on par with the Toyota Sienna, and cheaper than the Honda Odyssey.
The fully loaded SX Prestige comes in at $46,100, while the Odyssey comes in at $47,280 and Sienna over $50,000.
Therefore, you will not need to justify any extra expense if you want to buy a Carnival. However, as it is a tough market, you should not expect to pay less than MSRP.
Conclusion
Kia Carnival SX is the first minivan you should seriously consider. It is impressively put together and is very attractive. The SX seats eight and SX Prestige seats 7, so if you have a big family, the SX will work better for you. If you have any queries about the new 2022 Kia Carnival’s unique features, visit our Westside Kia dealership or contact us. We proudly serve you and make sure you check out our new vehicle specials.
2022 Kia Cars 