Kia Carnival 2021 review: Si petrol

The Carnival hits the market in not one, not two, but four trim levels. Already offering an awesome amount of choice for what could be a quite niche product, we’re testing one in mid-grade Si guise with the V6 engine option.

Wearing a drive-away price of $55,790 (Kia doesn’t deal in before on-road MSRPs any more) this Carnival undercuts Toyota’s gigantic new Granvia (starts from $64,090 MSRP) by a significant margin, while sitting above the slightly smaller, soon-to-arrive Honda Odyssey update, which will wear an MSRP of $51,150 for an equivalent top-spec Vi LX7.

It has a12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen.

You can probably tell from the images that the Carnival’s new design language wouldn’t look quite as amazing without such standard spec items as the full LED front lighting and 18-inch alloy wheels. Other impressive spec items include a 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen, 4.2-inch supervision cluster (notably no digital dash, though), wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support with built-in navigation, an eight-speaker audio system (up from the base Si’s six), dual-zone climate control for front passengers with a third single-zone area for rear passengers (including third-row vents in the roof), leather trimmed wheel and shift-lever with less-good base cloth seats, and keyless entry but no push-start ignition.

The Carnival ahs dual-zone climate control for front passengers with a third single-zone area for rear passengers.

Apart from some odd omissions, then, the Carnival Si is pretty well equipped and sits comfortably between its rivals. The two things that really detract are the lack of push-start ignition (seriously, how many cars don’t have this now?) and the fact that the base cloth seats are spongey enough, but have a particularly average design. All Carnivals also have healthy active safety suites, but we’ll cover that off in the Safety section of this review.

Very. Have you seen the size of this thing? Even then, it’s possible to make poor use of all that space. That’s hardly something Kia is known for, though. As you might expect, almost every thought has been given to maximising the usefulness of the Carnival’s cabin, and there are surprise finds, like the USB ports on the backs of the front seats for second-row passengers.

The front seats are manual adjust in the case of the Si, but have a huge range of movement, thanks to long rails and a tall roof. The steering also has telescopic adjust, although the way the instrument binnacle is placed might limit certain adjustments.

The front seats are manual adjust in the case of the Si.

There are a whopping nine cupholders and four bottle holders in the Carnival’s cabin, with two cupholders in the centre console and two bottle holders in the doors, mirrored for second-row passengers. The third row, meanwhile, scores three bottle holders (two on one side, one on the other).

Front passengers can also make use of a large centre-console box, and two bays to suit phones or wallets, one under the climate controls, which also houses three USB ports, and one in front of the console box.

The cabin has enough length and width to make the entire middle row useful.

Second-row passengers have access to their own climate zone, accessed via a panel on the right hand side roof, plus the aforementioned USB ports on the backs of the front seats. Adjustability is good for this row, too, with long rails.

The key advantage of the Carnival is being able to sit eight adults in relative comfort. The cabin has not only enough length for everyone to have healthy knee room, it has enough width to make even the centre seat in the middle row useful.

The key advantage of the Carnival is being able to sit eight adults in relative comfort.

Accessing the third row could be a little easier, with some manual sliding and adjustment needed for the second-row seats. It would be nice to see a one-press release here, but the Carnival is still a stellar offering for the amount of space on offer.

Where the Odyssey and Granvia fall short, the Carnival still offers a cavernous 627-litres (VDA), larger than most mid-size SUVs, with all the seats up. Interestingly this space is a bit narrow but deep, as the space-saver spare wheel is stowed under the right-hand side sliding door; a notable advantage of the Carnival’s front-drive layout. With the third row stowed, you get a huge 2785L space, and still have room for five people!

Even the boot is absurdly large.

The Carnival has an uncharacteristic-for-a-people-mover 3.5-litre V6 non-turbo engine, producing a whopping 216kW/355Nm. Power is not something any V6 Carnival owner is going to complain about.

The Carnival has a 3.5-litre V6 non-turbo engine.

All of that thunder is sent through the front wheels alone (alarming, I know) via an eight-speed torque converter automatic transmission.

Those concerned about the potential fuel implications here can always choose the alternate 2.2-litre diesel engine option.

The fuel consumption of such a large engine pulling a car with such a big footprint is intimidating. It’s rare to see consumption figures hit double digits, but the Carnival gets pretty close, with an official combined figure of 9.6L/100km. Its ‘urban’ official is all the way up at 13.2L/100km.

Over my week of varied testing, I was pleasantly surprised to land on a figure of 12.3L/100km during driving I’d consider to be mostly urban. This is still high for today’s standards, but again, if fuel consumption is a big factor for you, it’s probably worth considering the diesel, as it clips the official combined figure all the way down to 6.5L/100km.

The Carnival has a reassuringly large 72-litre fuel tank, and this petrol V6 version will happily consume entry-level 91RON unleaded fuel.

Kia’s stellar seven-year warranty continues to lead the pack, ahead of the industry-standard five years, and here in the people-mover space it is without rival.

Kia’s stellar seven-year warranty continues to lead the pack.

Also included are seven years of roadside assist and a capped-price-servicing program.

Regardless of engine option chosen, the Carnival will need to be serviced once a year or every 15,000km, whichever occurs first.

The service schedule for our V6 varies between $324 and $779 per yearly visit, or a total cost over seven years of ownership of $3596, averaging out to about $449.50 per year. It’s not the most affordable ownership prospect, but it's certainly not unprecedented in this class, or for a V6 powerplant.