Kia Carnival

[our little treasures]

So we are looking to buy a KIA CARNIVAL 2003. I want anyone who has one to tell me what they think of it.

Anything from fuel wise to room in the car things you love or things you hate.. This car will be with us for at least 5 yrs.

[mummy sam]

from memory it was this car that i saw on today tonight or something like that and they didn't have anything really good to say about this car....
good luck

[Imogensmum]

My aunty has that car- and 5 rugrats to put in it! LOL

She loves it- she was really worried when she first bought it as everyone kept saying "but its a kia"....

She has had no problems- apart from the kids trashing it- but that us a disapline issue not a car issue lol.

I will ask her some more about it when i talk to her- but i just remember her raving about the room in it... and that although it is quite large it is still easy to manouver around...

Best of luck with it.

[Mamaduke]

When we were looking to buy a new car I took the Carnival for a 2 day test drive (the salesmen for Kia will do virtually anything for a sale!) and it was the pits!!!
It had absolutely no guts (and I'm no rev head but the thing had virtually no acceleration whatsover), it also seemed to struggle looking for the right gear, it would go up and down and slip gears...it was terrible.
Also, the amount of fuel that it went through was another big drawback.
DH and I had a really good look at it over the two days and after the initial 'oooh, it's like a little bus, how cool!' comments we realised that it was pretty cheaply put together. Everything was flimsy plastic that, after a year of wear and tear with kids, would look really cheap.
Instead, we bought the Toyota Kluger CVX with the extra seats which fold down flat when not in use.
I've never said this before but....I am in love with this car!!!:o
It gives us the extra seats we need at times, but then they fold down without compromising boot space, it provides a really comfortable ride, has quality workmanship, has good acceleration & most of all...it's a Toyota!!!!
and Jesse and Lucas' daddy builds Toyotas!!!!!
Oh what a feeling:smiliedance:

[Scorpian Queen]

Hello angelbaby8,
I hadn't registered for this forum until now, but having read the replies to your question, I felt compelled to!!
We have a Kia Carnival (although it is a 2005 model, so I can't speak for other models) and absolutely love it. I am expecting my 3rd child, and we are planning on having one more, so we were after a car with extra room for our growing family! We decided a people mover was the way to go, so spent quite some time checking out and test driving all people movers offered by different car companies. The Kia Carnival was definitely the best for us. It was certainly the best value for money (being half the price of some others!) and we found it also provided the most storage space in that price bracket. We wanted as much room as possible in the boot, to fit in a double pram and everything else! I also personally think the inside is very luxurious and well apointed (cup holders, meal trays, DVD player etc) I also love that you can walk from the front seats right down to the back row from inside the car. With many models you cannot do this. Going from a sedan to a big car like this does take a bit of getting used to, as visibility when reversing is more limited. We got a reverse camera fitted as an optional extra and it makes life a lot easier! Anyway, we love our car and would highly recommend it. :thumbsup: Good luck!!

[InSaneOne]

hi we have a 2001 carnival and have had it for 2 years. it is great as we have 3 teenagers and a new little one. when the older kids aren't with us we can fold up the back seat and you have loads of room. when they are i can still fit enought gear and everything for the 6 of us to go camping for the weekend (with 3 tents too). you can fit 3 adults quite comfy in the rear seat. we haven't had any problems at all with the car. it is easy to manover and the fuel economy is the same as most 4wheel drives. not as good as the hyundai terracan but cheaper. the car does lack pickup when in the economy mode but is fine in normal mode. we like ours and are even thinking of upgrading to a newer model which seats 8 (1 more than ours). on long trips the fuel economy is great. we get between 500 and 700km per tank depending on if we use the economy mode or the normal mode.

if you have other q's please feel free to email me.