Kia Carnival Hybrid

[Anonymous]

Any current Kia Carnival Hybrid owner out there, or others researching it? Considering it in comparison to a Sienna, but it's so new I guess I don't have a great sense of it's expected reliability or quality since it's a pretty new model. Also wondering if they are readily available, as unfortunately we may not have a tremendous amount of time to wait. We could manage maybe a couple of months waiting, but not like 6 months+ wait lists.

[Anonymous]

Yikes!

Looks like no one on this forum has the car you are asking about.

Not surprising since many folks think Kia’s are not very good cars.
They have a reputation for being cheaply manufactured ➕ unreliable as well.

I would definitely go w/the Toyota Sienna.
My Mom has had hers FOREVER and it has been a great, reliable vehicle w/no issues. 👍🏽

[Anonymous]

OP here. We ended up test driving one and it was okay but the interior definitely felt chintzy. And TBD it's overall a bit ugly, not that any minivan is sexy. We are going with a Sienna instead. Much more expensive upfront, but I think (hope) it's a reflection of the higher quality.

[Anonymous]

We got a Sienna instead as well. For a lot of reasons.
The middle row long glide seats are awesome for our older tween/teens.
And
Toyota has had a long long time to perfect a hybrid engine while Kia…. Hasn’t
I hated the dash on the Kia. I didn’t understand why it was all one piece. I want a separate speedometer and infotainment. If that goes bad, you can’t drive the car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got a Sienna instead as well. For a lot of reasons.
The middle row long glide seats are awesome for our older tween/teens.
And
Toyota has had a long long time to perfect a hybrid engine while Kia…. Hasn’t
I hated the dash on the Kia. I didn’t understand why it was all one piece. I want a separate speedometer and infotainment. If that goes bad, you can’t drive the car.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

We love our Kia plug in hybrid sorrento. Rarely pay for gas, and plenty of room.

[Anonymous]

You made the right choice with the Toyota Sienna OP!

In fact, Toyota was just named in the Top 5 of the most reliable vehicle brands. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

[Anonymous]

Our neighbors have one and they really like it. It's pretty fancy inside and I don't think they paid nearly as much as a fully decked out Toyota. I personally like that it looks more like an SUV than most minivans.

To the PP that is talking about KIAs being unreliable, a lot has changed in the past 20 years. They're pretty popular cars nowadays - I've heard the ones built in Korea are better than the ones built in the US. The hybrids are built in Korea.