Yahoo Autos 2022 Kia Carnival First Drive Review | The stylish one
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When we write about minivans, it’s easy to focus on the Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey and Chrysler Pacifica, while mostly ignoring the other option out there: the Kia Sedona. It’s older than the other three, each of which has recently seen a refresh or, in the case of Sienna, a complete redesign. Now, Kia is changing the game, sunsetting the Sedona while launching the much splashier 2022 Kia Carnival minivan to replace it. The Carnival is hard to overlook, with its unique design and rich list of available content. With its introduction, we can no longer suggest you simply pick from the other three based on your needs. If you’re looking at buying a new minivan, you’d do yourself a disservice to continue ignoring Kia.
The Carnival’s styling is interesting, and the longer I looked at it, the more I came to like it. It doesn’t exactly look like a minivan. Give it some bigger wheels and a bit more ride height, and it begins to look a lot like a crossover. Specifically, as Autoblog West Coast Editor James Riswick pointed out, it really resembles a Chevy Traverse. Kia does, after all, mostly refrain from using the word “minivan” to describe the Carnival, instead referring to it officially as an MPV, or multi-purpose vehicle (which, coming full circle, is a term many markets have used for years in lieu of the word “minivan”).
And the Carnival definitely looks unlike the competition. The grille on our SX Prestige tester was made up of blocky chunks of material surrounded by a mesh of negative space. The hood, with its pair of sculpted lines and the first use of the new Kia logo, terminates in a horizontal line above the grille. That line extends above the headlights, and a character line brings it rearward to the horizontal rear lighting. Blacked-out A-, B- and D-pillars contrast with the chunky chrome C-pillar with its vanishing-diamond texture in this trim level. The shiny bumper valences and side skirts are a nice touch, and our tester’s black wheels completed the sporty appearance.
But the lowered stance and sliding doors are indicators that the Carnival is indeed a minivan, just like the Sedona it replaces. It rides much closer to the ground than that Traverse we compared it to above, which translates to easier ingress/egress, easier loading, and a more carlike ride. Of particular note is the cut line for the sliding doors, which lines up with that character line that extends rearward from below the hood. “Rather than shy away from the cut line for the doors, our designers embraced it,” said Joseph Choi, advanced project planning and strategy manager at Kia. We still wish Kia would have committed further to distancing from the minivan look and tucked this line away somewhere less conspicuous.
Inside, the Carnival is darn near palatial. In the top SX Prestige trim ($47,275 with destination), it features leather seating for seven occupants. The first and second rows are both heated and ventilated. That second row has a few party tricks, including the ability to slide the seats both fore-and-aft and side-to-side. These “VIP Lounge” seats also feature a one-touch button to put the chairs into “relaxation mode” — a deep reclined position complete with the deployment of leg rests. Those leg rests can be extended using another button, with the extra step ensuring you don’t squish your legs if you happen to be sitting too close to the seat in front of you. There are two power-sliding sunroofs to give a view of the sky, or you can enjoy videos on apps like Netflix or YouTube on the optional rear-seat entertainment system, with individual screens located on the front seatbacks. You can raise the manual sunshades on the windows for more comfort and privacy while you take a little nap, too. The third row is not so bad either, with sunshades and a center armrest with cupholders. While many of these features are shared with other minivans (the Odyssey's side-to-side moving seats, the Pacifica's dual-screen infotainment screen, the Sienna's second-row leg rests), none offer so many distinctive and likable features in one place.
The SX Prestige trim also features a pair of 12.3-inch screens up front — a digital instrument cluster and an infotainment touchscreen, side by side in the same wide housing. The rest of the trims get analog gauges with a 4.2-inch TFT display between them. There’s a wireless charger for your phone, and numerous USB ports for each row of seating as well. The SX ($42,275) and SX Prestige have 115-volt inverters — one on the back of the center console and one in the rear cargo area — for accessories with a standard two- or three-prong plug.
