2022 Kia Carnival SXP Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide

MotorTrend

Kia's reentering one of the most competitive

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 This is the all new first ever 2022 Kia Carnival.

00:09 It is a minivan that from about here forward

00:14 looks an awful lot like an SUV.

00:16 The question is how good of a minivan is it?

00:20 And more importantly, is it good enough

00:23 to steal customers away from the traditional minivan big three?

00:27 Let's find out.

00:29 (upbeat music)

00:31 Minivans are hard and I'm talking about making them.

00:37 Think about it.

00:38 It has to be incredibly functional yet incredibly safe.

00:41 And almost every single body panel has to open up

00:45 in a rather severe way.

00:47 The minivan has to handle the same

00:48 whether there's just one person behind the steering wheel

00:51 or you're hauling a family of eight.

00:53 I've had a number of automotive engineers tell me

00:55 that it's a lot easier to build a great supercar

00:59 than it is to build a great minivan.

01:01 And that's why traditionally there have only been three.

01:05 Yeah, sure, every once in a while there's a Nissan

01:07 and Kia used to make the Sedona,

01:09 but the market is defined by the Chrysler Pacifica,

01:13 the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna.

01:17 Kia has been on the outside looking in,

01:20 thinking to themselves, what can we do to be different?

01:23 How can we stand out?

01:25 Meet the Carnival.

01:27 Kia's design team has been on a tear

01:31 over the last few years and the Carnival is no different.

01:34 I mentioned before, it looks like an SUV.

01:37 Hey, guess what?

01:38 People buy SUVs.

01:40 So that's a good thing.

01:41 But then it's also just so different.

01:43 I mean, first of all, look at this grill.

01:44 This is a concave grill.

01:46 I'm not sure I've ever seen that.

01:48 I know I've never seen it on a minivan,

01:50 yet somehow here it works.

01:52 Lots of bright work.

01:54 It looks very premium.

01:55 I think if you kind of focus in on some of the details,

01:58 they're a bit much, but the 50 foot view,

02:01 this is a handsome minivan.

02:03 And that's a sentence I don't think anyone has ever said.

02:06 Coming back down the side of the thing,

02:08 black wheels always look good.

02:10 The greenhouse is rather traditional

02:12 for having such an avant-garde front end, but it works.

02:15 Now, what's the real problem with minivans design-wise?

02:18 Well, if you have a sliding door,

02:20 you have this groove right here, right?

02:22 And it just looks like a giant panel gap.

02:24 There's nothing you can actually do about it,

02:27 but you can distract the eye.

02:30 Put a giant, shiny metal piece right here

02:33 and it bling blings your vision to that

02:36 rather than to this line.

02:38 Coming out back, this is actually

02:40 the most premium looking part of the Carnival,

02:43 but what I really like are the fonts.

02:46 I love the redesigned Kia logo.

02:48 It totally works.

02:49 And then having Carnival in cursive,

02:51 it's a tiny, simple little thing.

02:54 The Italians used to do it all the time,

02:56 but what it really is is good design.

02:59 I don't know if you've sat in a lot of minivans lately.

03:03 I have, and let me assure you, this interior is fantastic.

03:08 And I don't just mean on its own.

03:10 I mean in comparison to the rest of the segment.

03:13 Minivan interiors are typically awash in cheap plastics,

03:17 bad leather, no design whatsoever.

03:20 The Carnival is the opposite.

03:22 There's just a little tiny bit

03:23 of textured rubber right here, very little.

03:26 Everything else is covered in leather,

03:28 covered in metal, beautiful design work.

03:30 And then you get to these seats.

03:32 Look at these things, just unbelievable

03:35 they were able to sneak this into a minivan.

03:37 And then let me show you my favorite minivan feature.

03:40 If you're a parent, you've been here.

03:42 You have a kid strapped into that seat right there

03:44 and they're kicking the back of it.

03:45 Watch this.

03:46 You just hit these controls right here.

03:48 Seat mounted controls that move the seat forward.

03:52 It's game changing.

03:53 You know, this touch screen right here,

03:55 it's high quality, it's from a more expensive segment.

03:59 It's bold, it's bright, it works.

04:00 And I know it's a gimmick,

04:02 but displaying the radio station inside of vacuum tubes,

04:07 if you're a music geek, if you're an audiophile,

04:09 it's just the coolest thing in the world.

04:11 So from where I'm sitting, this interior is fantastic.

04:15 But what about the rest of the Carnival?

04:17 (upbeat music)

04:20 Yes, it's pretty nice back here too.

04:24 Look, I'm in my second row captain's chair.

04:27 I'm fully reclined.

04:28 The footrest is up.

04:30 It's the same high quality seats and leather

04:32 that you'd find up front.

04:34 Minivan enthusiasts, and those people do exist.

04:37 They're gonna say things like,

04:38 "Oh, the seats don't fold flat into the floor.

04:41 "Not enough cup holders."

04:43 And all this other nonsense, but forget about them.

04:45 Just look at me right now.

04:46 I mean, this is fantastic.

04:49 Plus two screens, not all minivans have two screens.

04:52 Two screens, Netflix, Twitch.

04:54 You know what other car has Netflix and Twitch?

04:56 A Tesla.

04:58 The Carnival is king.

04:59 Up until this point, I've been very complimentary

05:04 about the Carnival.

05:05 However, performance.

05:08 Okay, look, under the hood,

05:09 three and a half liter naturally aspirated V6,

05:11 it makes 290 horsepower and 262 pound feet of torque.

05:16 Those are pretty good numbers.

05:17 It's the most horsepower in its class.

05:19 It's tied for most torque.

05:21 However, the Kia is very heavy.

05:24 It's front wheel drive only,

05:25 so the acceleration numbers aren't so good.

05:27 I know no one's really drag racing a minivan,

05:30 but the Pacifica and the Sienna

05:32 are both available as all wheel drive.

05:34 And if you live where it snows,

05:36 that is a top of mind purchase consideration.

05:39 The real problem though, when it comes to performance

05:41 is the ride and handling.

05:43 Doesn't just affect the Carnival,

05:44 it kind of plagues Kia as an automaker.

05:47 It just doesn't ride that well.

05:49 Once they figure out how to do that,

05:51 and believe me, they will, everybody should look out.

05:55 Now, when it comes to fuel economy,

05:56 the Carnival is decidedly average.

05:59 19 miles per gallon around town

06:01 and 26 miles per gallon on the highway.

06:03 Safety, guess what?

06:07 It comes standard with almost every single

06:09 automatic safety feature on the market,

06:11 including lane keeping assist and lane centering.

06:15 Value is where the Carnival absolutely kills it.

06:20 The base price of this thing is just over $33,000,

06:24 which is pretty competitive

06:25 with what the other minivan makers are up to.

06:27 However, this is the Carnival SX Prestige,

06:32 and it costs a bit more than $47,000.

06:36 To get a comparably equipped Honda Odyssey,

06:38 you're talking nearly $49,000,

06:41 and the Chrysler and the Toyota are well over $50,000.

06:45 Think back to this thing's interior.

06:47 We're not sure how Kia does it, but they do.

06:50 If there's one thing I want you to know

06:54 about the brand new 2022 Kia Carnival,

06:58 it's that it is almost cool, and I mean almost.

07:03 Look, the late great fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld said,

07:06 "If you wear sweatpants, it means you've given up,"

07:09 and honestly, that's how I feel about minivans.

07:12 However, you look at the design and the style of this thing,

07:15 both inside and out, and it's almost enough

07:18 to turn a minivan skeptic like me completely around.

07:21 And then, when you factor in the value proposition,

07:25 if you really do need a minivan,

07:27 there are very few reasons not to pick the Kia Carnival.

07:31 To see vehicle rankings and a complete buyer's guide,

07:36 please visit motortrend.com/cars.

07:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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