Kia Carnival first drive review: Comfort gets another name

The Kia Carnival has been given an upgrade! It is a significant one — the MPV gets a generational upgrade (plus a facelift, because the pre-facelift version of this gen didn’t make it to India) with big changes to styling, interiors, a significant upgrade to features on offer and more space on the inside. The Carnival doesn’t have any traditional rivals, it sits about the Toyota Innova Hycross, and well below the Toyota Vellfire, going up against entry-level luxury offerings in terms of price.

2024 Kia Carnival styling

Kia has tried to borrow from their SUVs here, the EV9 in particular, with the face. The nose is far more upright, and the lines are more angular. The tiger nose grille is massive, and the wide front end has an aggressive-looking face. I think it looks handsome like this. Less utilitarian, more desirable. It is from the side that you see the sheer size of this car — it is longer, taller and wider than before. The wheelbase is some 30mm longer, the front overhang has been shortened and the rear overhang lengthened to make more space inside. The 18-inch wheels suit it well and it has a nice stance. The rear is again drawn from the SUVs with vertically stacked lamps and chunky bumpers.

2024 Kia Carnival interior and features

In the front, the cabin is a nice place to be. The new twin 12.3-inch curved display is front and centre. A head-up display also sits behind the instrument cluster. The AC controls are digital, though there are knobs for temperature control — just like the EV6. Being such a wide car, you have plenty of space in the centre console — a wireless phone charging tray plus more space for an extra phone, cupholders, and a massive under-armrest storage area. The front seats are electrically adjustable, heated and ventilated, and the driver's seat gets a memory function. There’s also a 360-degree camera (you need it), and a 12-speaker Bose Audio system too. Throw in Level 2 ADAS and 8 airbags, and you know you will be well taken care of — it isn’t spartan in here by any measure.

2024 Kia Carnival second and third row

The armchairs in the second row are the Carnival's biggest party trick — they’re wide and comfy, with great lumbar support and plush cushioning. They can be moved in all sorts of ways. Two levers allow you to slide them longitudinally and laterally in the cabin. These are physical controls, though, I would have liked buttons here. The backrest and the ottoman are controlled electrically, and fully reclined with the ottoman kicked out making for a very comfortable seating position. But the Carnival isn’t done — another button lifts the seat base upwards, putting your feet as high up as your chest. I was almost horizontal while doing a 100kmph! Unreal. This seat is also heated and cooled, you get boss buttons to get the front seat out of the way, and a separate zone climate control for the back. However, the climate control settings are close to the B-pillar, just behind the driver’s head. So if you’re sat behind the co-passenger, there’s no way you’re reaching it without a proper stretch. The older Carnival had this too, and I don’t know why they didn’t fix it for the new generation.

In the third row, I concluded that it was nowhere close to as comfortable as the second row but it was probably the best third row in the business. This row seats three abreast, but it isn’t too wide so two would be more comfortable here. With the second row set to a mid position, I had a couple of inches of free knee room in the third row. Plus there was a genuinely useable boot behind me. Which blew my mind. But that’s what a smartly-packaged 5.1m long car with a 3m long wheelbase gives you.

2024 Kia Carnival engine and performance

I twist the intricate gear selector into drive and set off. Hmm, familiar. The engine is a 2.2-litre diesel and you’d be fooled into thinking it's the same motor, considering peak outputs are the same as before — 190bhp and 441Nm. However, Kia has changed it from a cast iron block to an aluminium block. The engine comes mated exclusively to a 6-speed manual. There’s a bit of lag when you set off, but then the turbo spools up around 2000rpm, builds strong boost and pulls hard. The Carnival is massive and yet Kia claims a 10.7s 0-100kmph time. Which is quite impressive. This is where all that torque comes into play, along with the slick transmission that keeps you in boost. There is a bit of diesel clatter that does enter the cabin, more so when you’re pulling hard, but at low-mid revs, it isn’t too intrusive.

2024 Kia Carnival ride and handling

What seals the deal for the Carnival is the ride comfort. It rides with real finesse over our roads. We drove it on the highway as well as interior roads, and at no point did it feel incapable of dealing with our conditions. It rides flat, and completely stable on the highway, dealing with high speeds well and with none of the bounciness that you would think a softly sprung car has. Smaller imperfections are ironed out, and it rounds off bigger bumps superbly. Even on smaller roads where road conditions are generally not as good, the Carnival takes the edge of the bumps well. You’ve got to slow down for the bumps, take them too hard and the whole chassis shimmies and shakes, but if you take it at slower speeds, it is very comfortable.

Another big change is the update from hydraulic to electric power steering. It adds a layer of sophistication to the driving experience — requiring less effort at lower speeds and feeling much more slick at high speeds. It weighs up well and gives you good confidence. The Carnival is no corner carver, but it does handle a lot better than a car of its size should. It feels predictable and safe, even when corners are taken a little quicker than they should be.

2024 Kia Carnival price and verdict

This leaves us with the question of price — at ₹63.9 lakh, it finds itself relatively alone in the MPV space. The Toyota Innova Hycross tops out at ₹31 lakh, half of the Carnival’s price and the Vellfire starts at a cool ₹1.22 crore, double the price of Carnival. There’s a lot of talk about the Carnival being expensive, and it is when compared to the older Carnival. But that was a CKD, this is an SKD and four years have gone by since the older one launched in India. Cars are a lot more expensive than they were in 2020. For the level of comfort that it offers, the Carnival can still be considered good value. No MPV or SUV at this price, not even the Hycross, offers this level of comfort in the second row or the third row. For the purely chauffeur-driven, it is a no-brainer.