Tell me about your Kia Carnival.

[DaintreeDream]

So we have to buy a bigger car. I love my car, but we have no option but to sell it

We are thinking about a Kia carnival, I prefer a people mover rather than a 4WD as we currently have a 4WD and I have to lift all of our children into their car seats and so I thought that in a people mover they would be able to walk to their seats and then I can help them from there. I also need a car that will fit 4 car seats.

So tell me what you love about your carnival!

[bellany]

Everything. Well the leg room, the boot space, the ability to drop seats down and take seats out, the power.
Down side is it eats fuel, but I'm told my driving does that lol
I wish it had a cd stacker lol
Otherwise I love it.
And when I move house I can take seats out drop the back row and use it as a van.
Eta I have a 07 0r 08 grand carnival. (Can never remember the year lol)

[~ Mylitta ~]

Everything. Well the leg room, the boot space, the ability to drop seats down and take seats out, the power.
Down side is it eats fuel, but I'm told my driving does that lol
I wish it had a cd stacker lol
Otherwise I love it.
And when I move house I can take seats out drop the back row and use it as a van.
Eta I have a 07 0r 08 grand carnival. (Can never remember the year lol)

Yes, yes and more yes, lol. Mine's a 2011 model and we love it. Well, I love my Mazda 3 more, but it's totally impractical as a people mover for a family of 7 haha.

Oh, before I go on, make sure that what you get is a Kia GRAND Carnival. They don't make the original Kia Carnivals anymore, which is good because they were rubbish. Nothing but problems in those ones. Luckily the new Grand Carnival seems to have fixed all those problems! As a people mover there's not a lot I could ask for that it doesn't give. Yup, a cd stacker would be nice, but it's an mp3 player and DVD player in ours which means you can have lots and lots of music all one one cd/dvd. You can also pop in a movie dvd and watch it on the screen for the sat-nav, lol.

Besides the huge amount of room everywhere in the car, my favorite thing about it is being able to take seats completely out of the car. In the middle row we have two rear-facing seats on the left side seat and the middle seat, and then we have completely taken the right side seat out of the car. My son sits on the right side of the back row in his forward facing seat. This means that I don't have to fold a seat for him to get in the back to his seat, and I can climb in and stand in the car (where the removed seat would usually be) to do up his seat belt and also pop my bub in the middle seat in the middle row. My pram fits in the boot easily with the back row seats all up, but I tend to have the other two back row seats folded down (they go flat into the floor!) so the pram just goes in next to my son using up all that extra space so that shopping can go in the "hole" in the boot space behind his seat (which is great because then it can't slide all around the car).

Actually, the only thing I don't like is that there is nothing between the middle row foot area and the front seats that stops objects from rolling/sliding from the back of the car to the front. With little kids I worry that they will throw something on the floor that might slide to the front and under the brake pedal or something silly. Probably extremely unlikely, but I wish there was just a little ridge in the floor or something like that that made it harder for stuff to get to the front area.

It probably uses quite a bit of petrol, but I'm not really sure because we have a fuel card and it's paid for through our lease company, so I never actually know how much we pay for petrol. I doubt it would be more than most of the other people movers out there though.

If you are looking at different people movers though for the purpose of actually moving people, then I would recommend staying away from the Ford Territory. We had one and hated it. The back row is ridiculously small and really only fits young kids. One of my DSS's was only 9-10 when we had it and even he couldn't fit comfortably in the back row by himself. Plus lots of the plastic in the car (like around the doors) seemed to shrink over a year or so.

In conclusion, if I was driving just myself or one kid around I love my Mazda the most. But for a people mover I really love the Kia Grand Carnival

[bellany]

I have one seat out as above too. Means I can change nappies in the car too lol.
And funny you should mention the thing about stuff sliding pp as I have had a drink bottle slide into the driver area once, not under the pedal but it was a bit worrying

[DaintreeDream]

Thank you ladies, we currently have a Mazda (Tribute), which is what I have to sadly part with

Oh and on the Ford Territory - I would never buy one

[Floweryfields]

I had a KIA, not a carnival but another KIA and it was a bit of a lemon once it got to 4 years old (and past warranty). A mechanic at the time, told me that carnivals have a lot of issues with timing belts (expensive) however that was only a certain model. Will you be buying new or newish? If so that fault will not be a problem in the newer models.

[bellany]

Mine has a chain not a belt as I heard the same thing. I think its the 06 and earlier from memory.

[Jas]

we have one and like it for a huge family car lol but baby number 4!!!!! WOOOHHOOOO!!!! Congrats

[Tegam]

I love that my IMAX is so much bigger than the Kia.

Please go have a look at one before you make a decision

[Fleur]

I love my Kia.. we have an 05 Carnival, not a Grand Carnival, just a regular one and never had a problem with it. I think that it was the 02 models and earlier that had timing belt problems? we had ours done at 90K, about 6mths after we bought it (second hand).

We chose it for the roomier boot, it seemed to have a bit more than other people movers we looked at. I also loved that there was a rear door on each side so no climbing over people. And the space between and around seats means that when we are all on a long trip there is room to pack around the seats. The seats coming out was a bonus, never thought initially that I would make use of that but we certainly have.
DH will be needing a new car at some point and we are at this stage pretty decided on another Carnival, maybe a Grand this time for the extras.

[~ Mylitta ~]

If you go a higher model than the standard (if finances permit) it has automatic doors that you can open using the key remote-. I didn't think it would be that handy but I use it all the time. I often open the far side door so DS can get in while I'm popping DD1 in. Saves all of 30 seconds, but sometimes 30 seconds comes in handy with lots of kids hehehe

[LuluHB]

If you go a higher model than the standard (if finances permit) it has automatic doors that you can open using the key remote-. I didn't think it would be that handy but I use it all the time. I often open the far side door so DS can get in while I'm popping DD1 in. Saves all of 30 seconds, but sometimes 30 seconds comes in handy with lots of kids hehehe

I saw a woman do this at the shops once when it was pouring with rain and from that day on I've fantastised about having a muppet bus ;-)

[Footsteps]

huge congrats on the pregnancy huni xxx

[~ Mylitta ~]

I saw a woman do this at the shops once when it was pouring with rain and from that day on I've fantastised about having a muppet bus ;-)

"Muppet bus"! Hahahaha!

My hubby calls it my "breeder mobile" lol