Like several nice babysitter, the Kia Carnival gained’t hold secrets and techniques from mum and pop.
This family-friendly bus has a particular app that permits house owners to maintain tabs on when the automobile is pushed, the place it went and how briskly it travelled.
It’s a nightmare for sneaky teenagers – they gained’t get any mercy from Large Brother within the storage.
Linked companies are a part of a operating replace for a automobile on the high of its class.
The revised-for-2024 Carnival advantages from a light facelift that features new LED operating lights that stretch inward from its headlamps.
Each mannequin within the vary now has a 12.3-inch infotainment system and a widescreen digital dashboard – there aren’t any analog dials in entrance of the motive force.
Highly effective V6 petrol and long-ranged four-cylinder diesel engines have been bolstered by a brand new hybrid choice.
However one of the best change is likely to be to the suspension, which was fastidiously revised on Australian roads.
Final 12 months’s mannequin wasn’t fairly proper – too imprecise to steer, and too smooth within the rear, it felt massive on the highway and a bit nautical within the again.
Modified suspension performs a uncommon trick in bettering the Carnival expertise for each driver and passengers.
Normally it’s one or the opposite.
With the upcoming hybrid not accessible to check, we drove current fashions and have been reminded by their charms.
As earlier than, the V6 petrol model’s 216kW and 355Nm figures make for easy progress. It’s a easy unit that sounds candy, although double digit actual world gasoline economic system is nothing to crow about.
The diesel prices about $2000 extra, however it’s a greater wager thanks to six.5L/100km economic system backed by 148kW/440Nm energy figures that get the job executed with out fuss.
It’s surprisingly quiet on the highway, thanks partly to a turbocharger that retains revs down.
Each variations solely drive the entrance wheels – an all-wheel-drive choice could be a winner for slippery surfaces.
Then once more, if an incredible automobile is “match for function”, then the Carnival is an Olympic athlete.
Few automobiles nail their supposed transient so properly as this individuals mover that – get this – strikes individuals like few different automobiles on the highway.
Having outlasted the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Tarago, Chrysler Voyager and Holden Zafira, the Carnival is again from one other coaching cycle and able to run on the high of its class for an additional decade.
House works within the eight-seater’s favour.
There may be greater than sufficient room for adults in all three rows, together with an enormous boot that may carry loads of luggage.
There are cup holders and energy retailers in all places you look.
Entry to the again seat is much better than what you will see that in seven-seat SUVs, and anybody who has left a be aware on a fellow driver’s windshield to apologise for dinging a door will perceive that sliding doorways are a winner for teenagers.
Notably the facility sliding doorways discovered on high-grade fashions.
The identical goes for a digital rear imaginative and prescient digital camera that permits drivers to regulate the highway behind them, even when the van is stacked to the roof with passengers and their gear.
The good mirror is just accessible on range-topping GT-Line fashions, which can be the case for a brand new head-up show that helps drivers hold their eye on the highway.
As ever, there are vital variations between entry-level and high-grade fashions that begin at about $54,500 drive-away and run past $80,000 on the highway.
The digital dashboard on the usual Carnival is a bit like a fundamental Kindle in comparison with the customisable, full-colour iPad of premium variations.
Cheaper fashions make do with an old-school “T-bar” automated gearlever, whereas posh fashions get a contemporary rotary controller.
Posh variations justify their asking worth with a Bose stereo, fake leather-based trim, multi-zone local weather management, wi-fi telephone charging and heating for the seats and steering wheel.
In addition they have smarter driving help options, together with extra superior lane preserving help and auto emergency braking techniques, in addition to a secure exit help perform that may cease children entering into the trail of visitors.
However the usual automobile has the fundamentals lined, together with eight airbags with aspect influence safety for all three rows.
It would even name for help following a crash, due to an “SOS” system supposed to assist get first responders to the positioning of an emergency.
Typically it’s good to have a automobile to inform on you.
VERDICT
Higher to drive, with contemporary tech and revised appears to be like, the Kia Carnival stays the choose for shifting individuals.
4 stars
KIA CARNIVAL
PRICE From about $54,500 drive-away
WARRANTY/SERVICE 7-yr/u’ltd km
ENGINE 3.5-litre V6, 216kW/355Nm
SAFETY 8 airbags, auto emergency braking, energetic cruise management, lane hold help, rear cross visitors alert
THIRST 9.6L/100km
CARGO 627 litres
SPARE House saver
