14 hours ago
5
When it comes to choosing a family car, nothing is as practical as a people mover. And from that group, there has been one clear champion for many years.
The Kia Carnival’s award is largely attributable to one simple figure: 82.6. That is the scarcely believable percentage of market share claimed by the Carnival in its segment. Drive one and it’s easy to understand why. It’s so good that it makes choosing any of the opposition seem an act of wilful cussedness.
Superiority undersells it. In fact, so dominant is the Carnival among its cohort of people-movers that we’ve given up awarding this category at Drive Car of the Year. It’s a foregone conclusion that the Carnival will win.
In order to recognise its excellence, we’ve gone a step further this year and given it a measure of recognition that isn’t going to be usurped this time next year.
It's been six years on the trot for the Kia Carnvial now, as the best of the best when it comes to a family focus.
What’s so great about the Carnival is that Kia could have soft-pedalled on this one, rested on its laurels, if you prefer. Instead the company has relentlessly honed this vehicle.
In its own way it’s as ruthlessly developed for its very specific purpose as something like a Porsche 911. A beneficiary of more than three decades of development, the Carnival drives like a car, offers the space of a van and possesses more tricks up its sleeve than Penn and Teller.
No wonder Aussie families love it.
The recent introduction of a petrol hybrid powertrain complements the steadfast diesel nicely, but it's the outright mastery of packaging inside that is the best thing about the Carnival.
There is room for eight on-board, and those right in the back don't suffer for comfort and amenities. There's power outlets and air vents throughout, and the smart packaging of the third row allows for an impressively large boot no matter how many seats are deployed.
While some vans drive like a van, the low-slung nature and dedicated people mover platform (not one shared with a commercial vehicle) gives it a disctinctly more carlike and refined experience from behind the wheel.
Many Australian families baulk at the idea of a people mover, but they're missing the trick. Because family hauling doesn't get any better than this, and the Kia Carnival is a particularly excellent take on the
But when compared to the more popular SUV, the advantages of the Kia Carnival in particular are too numerous and significant to ignore.
Sam Purcell has been writing about cars, four-wheel driving and camping since 2013, and obsessed with anything that goes brum-brum longer than he can remember. Sam joined the team at CarAdvice/Drive as the off-road Editor in 2018, after cutting his teeth at Unsealed 4X4 and Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures. Off-road writer of the Year, Winner - Sam Purcell
