The New 2025 Kia Carnival MPV Features, Pricing, and Specs
The New 2025 Kia Carnival MPV Features, Pricing, and Specs
Stylish exterior design, V-6 well-matched to minivan functions, refined ride.
The Carnival’s SUV-like styling cleverly hides its minivan-ness, making it cool enough to pass the suburban-family sniff test.
That wouldn’t suit our needs as we intend to travel as a whole pack and have plenty of luggage space requirements.
Overview
Minivans are some of the most practical family vehicles on the road today;
However, they don’t have the cool factor of SUVs; consequently, they often don’t get the respect they deserve. Furthermore, this lack of recognition can lead to misconceptions about their capabilities.
It’s a shame, but Kia has gamed this system with the 2025 Carnival, and given it SUV-inspired styling that serves as suburban camouflage.
This clever automotive code-switching helps the Carnival blend in among the crowd of three-row crossovers in the school pickup line —
until its sliding side doors motor open to let your kids into the waiting faculty.
On both long-distance road trips and short errands about town, the 287-hp V-6 engine delivers smooth power and decent fuel economy;
which are excellent places to park for longer trips, but they can’t be removed, hampering the van’s ability as a cargo vehicle.
Carnival MPV Features, Pricing, and Specs
The Innova, on the other hand, is a rock-solid car whose reliability is bullet proof.
The Crysta has a decent boot space of 300 litres, yet the interior felt a bit dated and a bit expensive (though the premium on brand reliability is understandable).
We also felt body oscillation in the new Crysta, which is typical of ladder on frame chassis,
and the automatic transmission had a slight rubber band effect/gear shift lag during the test drive of the car.
New for 2025
Kia introduced the Carnival to the US market in 2022 itself, but decided it was time to enhance the styling.
The 2025 model features updates to its grille, headlamps, taillamps, wheels and lower body panels, which look inspired by the company’s new EV9 electric three-row crossover.
Inside, the centre console has been slightly revised and the climate control panel is now separate and mounted on the dashboard instead of part of the console.
which now includes a more robust voice assistant that can perform more functions than before.
After a lot of confusion and contemplation, we finally narrowed down our choice to the Kia Carnival.
The quality of the materials used can really be felt as it comes to India via the CKD route, and we are crazy for quality products.
Contemplation between base variant and other variants:
After discounts, the price difference between the base variant and the middle variant is about
Rs 7.25 lakh, for which the middle variant offers the following safety, functional and cosmetic upgrades:
Price and Which One to Buy
The 2025 Kia Carnival is priced starting at $37,895 and goes up to $51,995 depending on trim and options.
The EX trim comes with several convenient features that help justify the cost of upgrading,
including a power-operated rear liftgate, in-cabin intercom, and a voice-control system that allows rear-seat passengers to command the Carnival’s infotainment system.
However, we are now stuck in the dilemma of choosing between the base variant and the middle variant i.e. Carnival Premium vs Carnival Prestige.
We intend to use the Carnival mostly for long drives, tours and on the highways and we will rarely use it inside the city.
Engine, Transmission, and Performance
The Carnival is powered by a 3.5-liter V-6 engine that puts out 287 horsepower; an eight-speed automatic transmission is standard.
We’re impressed with the Carnival’s balanced ride and handling, which is smooth when cruising but also balanced in corners.
0–60-MPH Time
The refined V-6 engine provides brisk acceleration and propels the Carnival to 60 mph in 7.0 seconds at our test track.
Fuel Economy and Real-World MPG
Fuel-economy ratings from the EPA for the Carnival are 19 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, and 22 mpg combined.
For more information on the Carnival’s fuel economy, visit the EPA’s website.
1. 6 airbags (compared to 2 airbags on the base variant).
2. Electronic Stability Control
3. Roll Over Mitigation (Unclear if there will be a pronounced body roll on the base variant.
None of the Kia dealers were able to provide a test drive of anything other than the limousine variant and hence we were not able to feel it first hand)
4. Cornering Brake Control
5. Front Parking Sensors
6. Brake Assist System
7. Hill Start Assist
8. Dual Sunroof
9. In-built Window Blinds
10. Powered Tail Gate
11. There is no clarity on whether the base variant gets traction control or not.
This leaves us confused whether the base variant has the traction control mechanism but the ability to turn it off is missing or the base variant lacks traction control.
12. The Prestige variant has an ESC on-off button. (When ESC is on, both stability control and traction will remain intact).
Interior, Comfort and Cargo
The Carnival’s dashboard and front-seat area are both modern and convenient.
A large center console offers plenty of room for small items, while an optional
Mercedes-style dual-screen infotainment system with a digital gauge display gives you easy access to the van’s connectivity features.
The upscale SX Prestige trim comes with leather upholstery and can be ordered with reclining second-row seats with pop-up footrests.
While these “VIP seats” offer passengers a way to spend hours in comfort on a long road trip, unfortunately,
they can’t be removed or folded into the floor like rival minivans, which limits the Carnival’s maximum cargo space.
A panoramic sunroof is optional and provides a large opening over the second row so kids can get some fresh air.
In our testing, we fit 14 carry-on suitcases behind the third row of seats and a total of 48 suitcases when all seats were folded down.
That’s a lot of cargo space, but it should be noted that both the Pacifica and Odyssey proved slightly more roomy.
Infotainment and connectivity
While a single 12.0-inch infotainment screen is standard, dual 12.3-inch displays spanning two-thirds of
the Carnival’s dashboard are optional, with one serving as a digital gauge display
and the other performing infotainment duties.
A voice assistant is integrated into the infotainment software and passengers can verbally ask the car to
perform tasks such as opening a window, adjusting climate control or navigating to a destination.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both standard.
The Carnival’s cabin has seven USB ports and two regular power outlets are also provided.
The rear-seat entertainment system adds two 14.6-inch monitors at the back,
allowing passengers to stream content on the go; a 12-speaker Bose stereo is also available.
Safety and driver-assist features
Enhancing Peace of Mind on Every Journey
Kia offers several standard driver-assist features, including lane-keeping assist, automatic high-beam headlamps and blind-spot monitoring,
all of which help the Carnival compete with the Pacifica, Sienna and Honda Odyssey.
For more information about the Carnival’s crash-test results, visit the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) websites.
The key safety features are likely to include the following:
Other questions/clarifications:
Additional Inquiries:
Apart from the confusion in choosing the appropriate variant,
we tried to talk to a lot of people including Carnival owners, dealers,
KIA customer service support and did a lot of research on the following aspects:
Standard automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection
Standard lane-departure warning with lane-keeping assist
Available adaptive cruise control with lane-centering feature
Both my brother and I are very sensible drivers and we take care of gentle usage of the car
and do not let the car rev beyond the comfortable limit of 2000 to 2500 RPM for gear shifts.
While we have managed to use the Polo for almost a decade,
with its rock solid vehicle stability
(despite not having any of the safety features mentioned above),
we are concerned about whether it is worth upgrading to the Carnival Prestige variant by Rs 7.25 lakh (over the Carnival Premium’s price of Rs 27 lakh)
and stretching our budget to Rs 34.5 lakh, which includes a host of safety features and a full load in the car including a child and two senior citizens.
This will also be a one-time purchase in this price bracket and hence we are concerned
whether we will lose much by opting for the base variant of the Carnival and not stretching our budget.
The Kia’s warranty beats its rivals, with the powertrain policy extending to 10 years or 100,000 miles. However, unlike the Sienna,
the Carnival does not come with any complimentary scheduled maintenance.
We are not concerned about cosmetic upgrades like dual sunroof/sub blinds being offered on the Prestige
variant and hence this does not become a deciding factor in any way.
Limited warranty covers five years or 60,000 miles
Powertrain warranty covers 10 years or 100,000 miles
No complimentary scheduled maintenance
(a) Ground clearance: The Carnival comes with a ground clearance of 180mm.
On loading 7 passengers and proportionate luggage in the boot,
180mm will reduce even further and we are really concerned about the under belly abrasion on
speed bumps, needless to say about the road conditions in India.
Unlike the Crysta, the Carnival is built on a monocoque chassis and has one of the longest wheelbases.
However, the Carnival comes with independent suspension all around (McPherson strut at the front and multi-link at the rear)
and the underbody is completely covered and sealed (except for the engine bay and the exhaust pipe channeling from the front to the rear of the car).
So, it can absorb the impact to some extent,
even if the car sustains a few scratches in bad road conditions/heavy speed bumps. (b) Spare parts availability:
As mentioned above, the Carnival comes via the CKD route.
We have heard from many Carnival owners that any order for spare parts needs to be shipped from
outside India and the waiting period in this regard is really worrying (if it goes beyond 2 to 3 weeks).
Apart from the import of spare parts, the model currently sold in
India is being phased out globally and a new Carnival is being introduced.
This leads to another dilemma whether spare parts for this old generation
Carnival will be available after 5 years of ownership. (We want to keep the car for a long time).
We would be grateful if fellow members of this community could guide us in
choosing a suitable variant of the Carnival and clarify concerns about ground clearance and spare part availability.
