Kia Carnival proves to be a people mover like no other

Where vans used to be the big family mover of choice back in the day, the ever-growing SUV brigade has annexed that space too in the form of seven-seaters. But there’s an enticing alternative in the Kia Carnival.

The Carnival, which went by the name of Grand Sedona before, is a family mover like nothing else offered locally. Featuring seven or eight seats, the Kia Carnival is something between a van and an SUV.

Featuring the best attributes vans have to offer these days, the Carnival is still styled like the SUV siblings in its stable with the Korean carmaker’s distinctive “tiger nose” front grille design.

Kia Carnival adventure

The Citizen Motoring had a Kia Carnival as house guest shortly after its launch at the beginning of last year. While spending most of its time in and around Johannesburg, we were very impressed with the fuss-free and comfortable way it went about its business. It took school runs in its stride and effortlessly swallowed every piece of sports equipment, school case or shopping bag that came its way.

Last month, Kia gave us another opportunity to experience the Carnival, this time under completely different circumstances. A relaxed weekend getaway to the Lowveld in the mid-spec EX+ model.

In “only” tasking the Kia Carnival to move four adults and their weekend luggage, it was so far from being utilised to its maximum capacity that a smaller car could have also got the job done. But nowhere close to the level of comfort we got to experience in the Carnival.

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Seating eight is great

The EX+ comes standard with an eight-seat layout. There are three seats in both the second and third row which offers a variety of configurations. One of them is removing the second row and putting it back facing the third row, something you find on fancier vans.

Very generous leg and headroom in the back is complemented by four USB ports, sunshades and adjustable automatic climate control.

One of the things that makes this car so practical is its van-like electric sliding rear doors. With parking spaces seemingly getting narrower every time they build a new mall, loading and unloading rear passengers is so much easier with no doors to swing open. The sliding doors are complemented by an electric tailgate which is standard on the EX+.

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Space to boot

What the Kia Carnival manage to do much better than seven-seater SUVs, is to offer generous bootspace with all the seats in place. Bootspace is no less than 1 139 litres on offer behind the third row, a space our four suitcases of luggage hardly made a dent in.

The first leg of the weekend, a 400 km Friday afternoon trip from Johannesburg to Graskop on mostly pristine toll roads, presented very little challenge for the Carnival. Its tried and tested 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine, which sends 148 kW of power and 440 Nm of torque to the front wheels via eight-speed torque-converter automatic transmission, worked a charm.

With the revs per minute hardly threatening 2 000 rpm travelling at the national limit, the Kia Carnival returned an impressive fuel consumption of 7.3 litres per 100 km to our overnight spot. But don’t think just because it can be frugal that it can’t hustle when required.

The four-pot mill turned out to be quite responsive during some spirited driving through the twisties along the endless forestry plantations on the last stretch to Graskop.

After some activities at the breathtaking Graskop Gorge Lift Co. on the Saturday morning, the Carnival set off on a relaxed 150 km trip to Kapama Private Game Reserve outside Hoedspruit.

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Kia Carnival passes test

We opted for a scenic route taking us past some of the Lowveld’s finest tourist attractions like God’s Window. From there, spectacular views like the Three Rondawels along the scenic Blyde River Canyon helps you appreciate the Kia Carnival’s large rear windows. Which, as Kia points out, can open unlike some vans.

As more than half of the 460 km back home to Johannesburg on the Sunday was before we got onto the N4 at Belfast, the stretch past Ohrigstad, Lydenburg and Dullstroom was quite daunting. A combination of badly maintained road surfaces and poorly behaving drivers made it meant that it was anything but plain sailing.

But the 18-inch alloy wheels clad in 235/60 R18 rubberware took the unavoidable pothole knocks remarkably well, with the 3 090 mm wheelbase helping the Kia Carnival’s suspension soak up the road’s imperfections to get its four occupants back home safe.

Good fuel economy

Once over the trauma caused by reckless oncoming traffic over pothole-ridden roads, nothing but fond memories remain of our 1 000 km road trip. With the overall fuel consumption coming in at 7.8 L/100 km, we almost managed to complete the trip on one 72-litre tank of fuel.

If we must point out one thing that bothered us about the Kia Carnival, it would be the 4.2-inch information display between the analog dials in the instrument cluster. A bigger display does come standard when you upgrade to SX derivatives.

The Carnival EX+ is a spacious, comfortable people mover which strikes a perfect balance between having enough power while not breaking the bank at the pumps. It’s the logical choice for those caught between an SUV and a van. In fact the only one.