JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng – At CAR we aren’t any strangers to the Kia Carnival. Previously we’ve awarded it our Top12 Finest Purchase in its class. It’s an award that was nicely deserved. The most recent model, the fourth technology, have just lately been launched in South Africa, and through a number of days’ journey in and round Gauteng, we had the chance to check it in 2.2CRDi SX Restricted guise…
Why the Carnival?
At across the identical time because the rise of the SUV, MPVs (multi-purpose vans) made their look. This might be seen as a extra fashionable strategy to the standard kombi. The MPV was additionally an idea that appealed to massive households (and transport companies) who not essentially wished to drive a kombi, though an MPV most often was not a lot smaller.
That’s the place the brand new Carnival continues to tick all the proper bins. It’s certainly extra “car-like” within the cabin and from behind the wheel than a kombi. Make no mistake, it’s nonetheless an enormous car (it’s in spite of everything 5 155 mm lengthy, having grown by 40 mm over the earlier technology), however when you climb inside the advantage of this exterior dimension is instantly seen.
Let’s begin on the rear. With all of the seats folded up, there’s a deep baggage compartment. Must you need to eliminate the rear seats, they’ll merely be folded away into the ground, resulting in a flat baggage house as much as the second row of seats. Within the third row of seats tall adults will discover it marginally difficult to take a seat, however that second row of seats are pure luxurious. You possibly can tilt the again relaxation for a extra relaxed seating place, whereas every seat has entry to a USB port. The second row of particular person seats can be individually moved forwards or backwards and the stroll between the second-row seats to the rear seats are tremendous straightforward owing to the vast hall. Then there may be additionally the sliding doorways which might be opened and closed from the important thing fob.
Behind the wheel
It’s on the entrance the place Kia has actually pulled out all of the stops. Not solely is it a trendy place to search out your self in, however each single aspect and have of the automobile has been nicely thought out and is inside attain of the driving force, and the passenger. As we needed to attend to a number of appointments all through the times we spent with the Carnival, our Apple Automobile Play and Android Auto labored completely whereas we navigated by means of Google Maps.
The infotainment display screen’s high quality is of a top quality, together with when it streams the visuals from the exterior cameras to the display screen. The gear selector, which is a round unit, is straightforward to make use of whereas there are even cooled and heated seats.
It’s the gasoline consumption and experience high quality that have been two of essentially the most spectacular parts of the automobile for me. Fitted with excessive profile tyres and a pliant suspension setup, bumps and street irregularities have been nicely taken care of. Providing 148 kW and 440 N.m, it is usually no slouch, even for such a big car. Small throttle inputs make use of the obtainable torque and at freeway speeds the engine settles at a low pace owing to the eight-speed transmission. It’s now that the cabin is very quiet.
The two,2-litre, four-cylinder turbodiesel engine barely intruded on any dialog we had whereas any exterior noise was very nicely damped. Our common gasoline consumption determine moved between 7,7- to eight,0-l/100 km. The consequence was a complete vary of as much as 950 km on a full tank of diesel.
Abstract
Being based mostly on the identical chassis because the Hyundai Staria, one must take one’s hat off to Kia (and Hyundai) for approaching the design and agenda for every of those vehicles so otherwise. The mixture of ordinary options, a frugal turbodiesel engine and an ideal mix of fashion and luxurious, the Carnival stays top-of-the-line vehicles to think about on this phase.
*Quick details:
Mannequin: Kia Carnival 2.2CRDi SX Restricted
Value: R999 995
Engine: Entrance-mounted, turbodiesel, 2 151 cc, inline-four
Transmission: 8-speed computerized
Energy: 148 kW @ 3 800 r/min
Torque: 440 N.m @ 1 750 r/min
Pushed wheels: Entrance-wheel drive
0-100 km/h: 10,7 seconds
High pace: 190 km/h
Gasoline consumption: 8,2 l/100km (mixed)
CO2 emissions: 177 g/km
Upkeep Plan: 6-year/90 000 km
*All claimed figures
Phrases: Wilhelm Lutjeharms
Photographs: Peet Mocke
