Kia has started selling the updated Carnival. Now he looks like he drove through a “swarm” of octopuses

A truly bizarre appearance with “tentacles” of lights reaching halfway to the body was given by Kia to its key MPV with a mere facelift. We have no idea if anyone will like this, the car has arrived for sale anyway.

The fourth generation Kia Carnival is no longer available in Europe, just like the previous one. It is perhaps a shame, as data from car dealerships indicate that at least the Czechs have not turned their backs on MPVs. On the other hand, it is necessary to ask whether it was mainly low prices that attracted customers to second-hand vans. Something like that should be forgotten about with new cars, however the Koreans are proving that at least in their homeland and in the USA they can offer even the big MPV Carnival for acceptable amounts. And this applies even after its latest modernization.

The fourth generation of this model debuted in 2020, when it switched to the N3 platform. As a result, it grew to 5,155 millimeters in length and 3,090 mm in the wheelbase. You can count on seven seats as standard, but in most markets where Carnival is offered, you can also opt for a nine-seater version. In the case of Indonesia, however, the brand went even further and offers the car with 11 seats. Such a design is then the only one that, for example, Thais can buy.

So the Carnival is a really big and practical car that recently got a big facelift. He focused mainly on the front and rear parts – in the front, the radiator grille was enlarged, but mainly after it, giant vertically oriented lights were added instead of the previous horizontal ones, which resemble a flattened octopus, reaching so far into the “depths” of the body. This led to an optical expansion of the car, which also applies to the rear – the previously solid bar connecting the lights is now split in the middle. The shape of the lamps themselves is vertical again, and once again they look like the car has driven through a cluster of octopuses.

Other numerous innovations can be found inside, as Kia has come up with a completely new central tunnel and console. The original massive eight-speed automatic selector, which is the only choice for any gear, has been replaced with a more elegant circular rotary. A number of buttons also received a parachute, although the most used functions can still be selected without having to rummage through the menu of the multimedia system. Its screen is connected to the instrument panel.

It is also possible to count on a new head-up display or the semi-autonomous Highway Driving Assist 2 system. Kia further improved support for online multimedia upgrades, as well as playing with the car’s digital key. As far as the space under the hood is concerned, the “parallel hybrid” is a real novelty. It pairs a turbocharged one-six with an electric motor, and you can count on 245 horses, which claim 7.1 liters of fuel every 100 km.

In addition to this engine, the 3.5-liter six-cylinder engine (294 hp) and the 2.2-liter turbodiesel (194 hp) also return to the game, with which the modernized Kia Carnival starts at 34.7 million won (approx. 603 thousand CZK) in the case of the nine-seat version. while the more luxuriously conceived seven-seater model already costs from 41.69 million won (CZK 725,000). If customers want this variant with that hybrid, they have to pay 62.5 million won (1,086,000 CZK). Perhaps, except for the last case, the prices are still attractive, at least by current Czech and European conditions.

The nine- or seven-seater Kia Carnival underwent a facelift, which mainly gave it bizarre new lights. A new hybrid also headed under the hood, but with it, the MPV is clearly the most expensive. Photo: Kia

Source: Kia

Petr Prokopec

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