Roomy and adaptable, approachable and safe — the minivan is a marvel of suburban utility. The challenge is that most people you should not actually want to be noticed driving a person, so lots of shoppers skew toward cooler-wanting SUVs. To battle this, the main players in the class have pushed minivan structure in a direction which is perhaps best explained as “sci-fi bullet train” with combined outcomes.

Kia’s remedy to the challenge of uncool perception is to dress its new 2022 Carnival “multipurpose automobile” in SUV cosplay. The result is a minivan that offers all of the advantages and facilities of its classmates, while standing aesthetically aside with activity utility fashion.

The Carnival wears an upright, boxy structure with a entrance stop shaped extra like Kia’s Telluride than the Sedona it replaces. Facts like the L-shaped, chrome C-pillars crack up the minivan’s profile and, along with the sculpted wheel arches and dark decreased sills, assistance pull the eye upward to create the physical appearance of a taller, extra rugged journey. At very first look, the Carnival appears to be virtually particularly like a total-sizing SUV from most angles, but then you observe the reversed handles and tracks for the sliding doors and, all of a sudden, the minivan-ness of the silhouette becomes obvious.

The Carnival is the very first Kia to dress in what I’ve taken to calling the brand’s new “K-backwards-N” brand.


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VIP seating

The Carnival’s energy sliding doors open to reveal a roomy interior which is available in 7- or 8-passenger configurations. The typical 8-seat setup features a 40/twenty/40-break up next-row bench with a heart part that can fold in excess of to create a desk-like armrest for the outboard seats. The bench can also slide much ample forward allowing entrance seat passengers to easily arrive at a vehicle seat. The next row can also be totally eradicated when you want to access the Carnival’s optimum 145.one cubic feet of cargo capacity.

Improve from the base LX to an EX or SX design and the cloth upholstery is replaced with synthetic leather-based. Phase up to the top spec SX Status for genuine leather-based trim and a pair of energy-adjustable VIP seats in put of the next-row bench. These magnificent buckets immediately recline or return upright at the contact of a button, and they characteristic heated and cooled surfaces and can even deploy footrests for optimum rest. The Status setup elevates the Carnival from a properly appointed loved ones hauler to a quite magnificent shuttle with extra passenger place, extra cargo capacity and simpler entry than a taller SUV can present. With the third row folded flat, I can slide the VIP seats much ample back again for a total recline and leg extension, even with the entrance seats in a at ease driving place. Try executing that in an Escalade.

Kia’s minivan isn’t the only a person to present reclining captain’s chairs, but these are a contact extra luxe than most.


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The 7-seat SX Status isn’t with no its compromises, however. The nonremovable VIP seats mean this trim maxes out at 86.nine cubes of cargo capacity powering the next row, and getting to the third row is extra of a squeeze.

Talking of that typical third row, there is plenty of legroom back again there for two typical-sizing grown ups, and ample shoulder place for 3 children. Pulling a strap promptly folds the sixty/40 break up bench flat into the Carnival’s ground and a solitary pull lifts it back again up, leaving a continue to-amazing 40.two cubic feet for cargo.

On the possibilities checklist, you may uncover Kia’s wise energy tailgate, which immediately opens the hatch when you tactic the rear of the automobile with the vital in your pocket. I usually uncover this characteristic incredibly irritating, but Kia will have to have improved its detection logic from previously purposes. I professional virtually no false-favourable accidental openings throughout my tests, and the tailgate now immediately closes when you walk absent, creating loading groceries or other cargo a really palms-cost-free procedure.

Backseat tech

The Carnival can be outfitted with a twin-screen rear seat leisure setup. Each features USB and HDMI inputs that can be shared with the other screen. Each can link to a cellular phone or Wi-Fi hotspot to energy applications like Netflix or mirror a smartphone’s screen. There’s also a colorful Kid Mode interface that serves up little one-helpful content material. Bluetooth connectivity enables customers to hear working with virtually any headphones they by now possess, relatively than relying on low-good quality pack-ins.

The Passenger Digicam and Passenger Communicate features assistance the driver to look at and talk with occupants in the next and third rows.


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An optional broad-angle Passenger Digicam on the Carnival’s ceiling displays a bird’s-eye look at of next and third rows on the multimedia screen, total with night time vision. This update is effective very well in tandem with the Passenger Communicate characteristic that amplifies the driver’s voice in excess of the Carnival’s speakers, so they you should not have to shout to converse to folks in the third row. 

When equipped with the optional Passenger Voice Recognition tech, next-row passengers can also challenge commands to the dashboard UVO process. This is practical for getting place recommendations from grown ups in the VIP seats, but is also defeatable when you want to continue to keep a van total of young children from requesting Infant Shark for the fifty-leventh time.

Front seat tech

Up entrance, Kia’s hottest-era UVO infotainment life in the dashboard. An 8-inch screen is typical, but EX, SX and SX Status types all update to a twelve.3-inch screen. Both way, Android Car and Apple CarPlay connectivity are also typical with USB — but not wireless — connectivity. UVO packs its intuitive interface with one of a kind features like voice memo recording, Seems of Mother nature (like relaxed waves, a forest or bustling cafe) and a peaceful mode that boundaries media quantity and disables the rear speakers — practical for when children are dozing in the back again.

The customizable star shortcut button on the dashboard — a compact characteristic that you may uncover on Kia’s other UVO devices — is joined by a next customizable button on the steering wheel, allowing drivers to map features like the Passenger Digicam or Passenger Communicate to a solitary press.

There are up to nine USB ports (7 are typical) for charging cellular equipment distribute across the Carnival’s 3 rows.


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LX, EX and SX trims all characteristic standard bodily gauges and a compact four.3-inch data screen. The SX Status updates to a twelve.3-inch fully digital instrument cluster with four consumer-selectable themes, together with a dynamic placing that improvements along with the time of day. The digital cluster also integrates Kia’s Blind Place View characteristic, exhibiting a camera feed of the adjacent lane when the corresponding convert sign is activated. 

DriveWise security suite

Kia’s DriveWise sophisticated driver-aid process suite is typical on all Carnival types. That will get you entrance, rear and lane-modify collision detection, forward automatic unexpected emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane-maintaining aid, blind-location monitoring and a rear camera. DriveWise also rolls in driver attention monitoring and a sonar-based rear occupant alert that helps prevent unintentionally leaving a little one or pet in the parked automobile.

The EX trim adds park distance warnings, enhanced collision avoidance that can also detect cyclists and Highway Driving Assistant, Kia’s umbrella technological know-how that rolls in navigation-based adaptive cruise control that is effective in quit-and-go website traffic and enhanced lane-maintaining steering aid. Upgrading to SX brings a encompass look at camera process on line. Finally, the total-unwanted fat SX Status completes the security suite with the aforementioned blind-location camera tech.

Effectiveness and performance

The only powertrain available in the 2022 Carnival is a 3.five-liter V6 paired with an 8-velocity automatic transmission and entrance-wheel push. Regardless of wanting like an SUV, all-wheel push is not an alternative. On the dazzling aspect, 290 horsepower imbues the Carny with fairly superior hustle for a minivan, and the 262 pound-feet of torque is ample twist to tow up to a 3,five hundred-pound trailer.

Managing is soft, but at ease. The Carnival isn’t the most sleek dancer on a twisty highway, but the minivan manages to continue to be off of its possess toes very well ample that it feels safe. The steering is responsive, but human body roll and understeer are apparent at velocity. This is, of system, great. Regardless of Toyota’s marketing for the new Sienna, I you should not assume that any individual procuring for a minivan is wanting for “activity-tuned dealing with.” Extra importantly, the Carnival does a wonderful job absorbing bumps with poise and speaking its boundaries to the driver very well and early ample to continue to be out of difficulties.

The EPA estimates 19 miles for every gallon metropolis, 26 mpg highway or 22 mpg merged from the 2022 Carnival. That’s on par with other entrance-push, V6-run minivans in this class. The several push modes — Ordinary, Eco, Intelligent and Activity — will have some result on the Kia’s general performance and performance equilibrium, but in excess of the system of 3 times, tests the two the SX and SX Status trim concentrations in a wide variety of conditions, my typical of 21.7 mpg was virtually location-on with all those estimates.

Kia’s betting that the Carnival will uncover a household in the grey space involving minivans and SUVs.


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Pricing and competitors

The 2022 Kia Carnival begins at $33,275 (together with its $one,175 place demand) for the base LX design and tops out at $47,275 for the fully loaded SX Status. Insert $two hundred for ground mats and $495 for the top quality Astra Blue paint to arrive at an as-tested price of $47,970. I only at any time want to be picked up from the airport in a Carny with VIP seating from now on, but for people wanting to optimize place for people and cargo, the sweet location is the 8-passenger SX design beginning at $42,275.

The Carnival is priced and appointed competitively against the Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna. On the other hand, Chrysler and Toyota present all-wheel push, hybrid and plug-in hybrid configurations that raise the price ceiling but also provide sizeable general performance and gasoline economy advantages. Also think about that the Carnival’s activity-utility fashion has the probable to tempt a couple people on the fence absent from a new SUV acquire, so a person could make the situation for it becoming an oblique competitor to one thing like Kia’s possess Telluride as very well.

Kia can get in touch with it an MPV and fashion it like an SUV, but what issues is that the Carnival is a damn superior minivan. Kia’s designers have pulled off this stylistic double-choose with aplomb. With the 2022 Carnival arriving in dealerships now, the automaker can only hope that shoppers assume it can be as awesome as I do.