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The diesel engine has a fantastic mid-range but lacks in the top-end
Performance – The India-spec Kia Carnival is powered by a 2.2-litre diesel engine mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. It produces 200 PS of power and 440 Nm of peak torque. The motor is a little lazy in the lower rev-band but truly shines and picks up in the mid-range. Sadly, it seems a little out of breath as it reaches higher up the ladder. In case of a quick overtake, the manual mode of the in-house transmission helps take matters into our own hands. While Kia claims a range of 13.7kmpl on the Carnival, expect anything close to 9-10 km/l in real-time driving conditions.
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The Carnival has superb ride quality and good high speed stability
Driving Dynamics – What the Carnival does best, is that it doesn’t pretend to be a driver’s car. It’s here to extend comfort and extend a sublime ride quality and it does that extremely well. As per Kia, the suspension has been tuned to meet the Indian driving and road conditions. Yes, it delivers, atleast at the first 2 rows. The feedback from the steering is decent and it also weighs up well at triple-digit speeds. The MPV is heavy, weighing over 2 tonnes, but it feels equally distributed. Having said that, avoid hard-cornering, its an MPV after all. The tyres offer a decent grip around the corners and don’t screech on heavy braking.
