Party on wheels

We drive Kia’s second offering in the Indian market, the Carnival people mover and see if it will be able to replicate the success of its first - the Seltos.

- Yogendra Pratap

The Carnival is an MPV but with a contemporary and stylish design. It is perhaps also one of the biggest cars on Indian roads in terms of dimensions. To get an idea of its length, at 5,115mm it is longer than the Ford Endeavour by over 210mm and longer than the Toyota Fortuner by 320mm. In fact it is just shorter than the Mercedes-Benz V-class by 25mm. The best-selling MPV in the country, the Toyota Innova is, at 4,735mm, a full 380mm shorter than the Carnival. In fact the Carnival is also broader than the Innova by 155mm and also broader than both the Fortuner (by 130mm) and the Endeavour. Being an MPV, both the SUVs are of course higher than the Carnival. Even the Toyota Innova and the Mahindra Marazzo are higher than the Carnival.

With its low stance, it looks sleek with nice accents and lines. The design effort has been to make it stylistically different from vans and thus a wide planted stance has been accentuated by a wide signature “tiger-nose grille”, wrap around headlamps and a floating roof design. The chrome treatment around the quadruple ice-cube LED fog lamps adds a touch of premiumness to the head-on look. A strong upswept shoulder crease line and sputtering finish alloys (one of two options available along with the crystal cut alloys option) add dynamism to the side profile while the rear with a spoiler-lip just behind and under the shark-fin antenna, a wide and low chrome strip under prominent tail-lamps give a hint of luxury and sportiness to the Carnival.

The interiors are plush and comfortable along with being versatile. A long wheelbase of 3,060mm means that there is a lot of in-cabin space. A large rear overhang also adds for even more space on the inside as well as a standard split bench seat at the last row that can be folded flat inside a well at the rear means that there is plenty (540 litres) of boot space even if the rear-most bench seat is being used in the seven and eight seater variants.