[praveenkkr]

Variant wise Feature list..

[achintatri]

Dear All,

I see that we have already started guessing the prices of Kia Carens. Isn't KIA the Premium brand of Hyundai (no offense to Hyundai Car owners) and that means that compare to a similar Hyundai sibling e.g. Alcazar in this case, it is supposed to be in the north of 20L plus range instead of 15L plus. I have booked an ERTIGA ZXi AT however it has a huge waiting period and I was definitely impressed by the features of KIA Carens (especially the safety features) that are definitely more in number that ERTIGA.

However I still feel there is going to be a huge gap in the pricing (between ERTIGA and CARENS) considering the automatic variants are costlier than the manual ones and something that will push KIA Carens petrol (Not interested in BS6 diesels, again no offense to the respective car owners) in the 20L plus range.

And so there still seems to be a huge gap in ERTIGA Zxi AT and the corresponding KIA Carens variant costs.

Any Thoughts? Though the only thing that I will miss in ERTIGA Zxi AT would be the 4 additional airbags and an advanced automatic gearbox setup. There definitely some dilemma here and I am sure the good souls on this forum will enlighten me :-)

Best Regards,
Achint

[praveenkkr]

Hi Achint, I'm also looking for a 7 seater and have booked Alcazar. Might jump the ship if Carens fits my requirements.

Originally Posted by achintatri

Dear All,
Isn't KIA the Premium brand of Hyundai (no offense to Hyundai Car owners) and that means that compare to a similar Hyundai sibling e.g. Alcazar in this case, it is supposed to be in the north of 20L plus range instead of 15L plus.

Any reason for thinking Kia is premium?
There are many features, like the 360 deg camera, missing in Carens and also the Alcazar is offerened with 2L petrol engine.
So, Alcazar is definitely premium in this case, and people assuming that Carens will be placed below Alcazer seems to be logical for me.

Originally Posted by achintatri

Any Thoughts? Though the only thing that I will miss in ERTIGA Zxi AT would be the 4 additional airbags and an advanced automatic gearbox setup. There definitely some dilemma here and I am sure the good souls on this forum will enlighten me :-)

In my opinion, you should go with Ertiga if:
- You are tight on budget
- Drive with more than 5 adults most of the time, as Carens can't be more spacious than Eritiga (assuming Carens can't be roomier than Alcazar).
- Drive more in bumper to bumper traffic, as driving DCT is fun only on highways.

Otherwise, you can go with Karens. For the extra money, you would get
- Safer car because of 6 airbags, all disc brakes, etc.
- More features like the TPMS, Rear Parking Sensors
- Sophisticated gearbox (assuming that the DCT issues are contained in latest models)
in the base variant itself.

If you can go for Prestige Plus, it will have all necessary features.
I'm hoping that Kia places Prestige Plus DCT in 16 to 17L bracket, ex-showroom. Then it will be the best VFM variant and I'll surely put my money on it.

[rahil_29]

Has anyone here come across the boot space that Kia is going to offer on the Carens? Also, I know that looks are subjective but going with biege and blue interiors on the 2 highest versions? I think it will put a lot of young buyers off that combination. All black interiors is something that I would have preferred honestly.

[FiatDiesel]

From local dealer contacts I have heard that Carens will give direct competition to Ertiga / XL6 as it will be offered in same price range specially petrol versions. I am surprised too and keenly waiting for price unveiling day.

[ant_vas]

A friend of mine booked Carens Luxury plus Diesel AT unofficially today. The booking was taken as Seltos as will be converted to Carnes once official booking opens on 14 Jan.

He was informed that as his booking is early, he can expect delivery by 15 Feb

[achintatri]

Originally Posted by praveenkkr

Hi Achint, I'm also looking for a 7 seater and have booked Alcazar.
========
I'm hoping that Kia places Prestige Plus DCT in 16 to 17L bracket, ex-showroom. Then it will be the best VFM variant and I'll surely put my money on it.

Hi Praveen,

Thanks for your inputs! ERTIGA ZXi AT (Petrol) would be around 12.5L INR ON ROAD here in Pune. However based on what that data we are getting here on the forum and elsewhere is that a decent petrol automatic for Carens (looks like it would be 1.4L DCT only) would be somewhere around 20L. This is a gap of almost 7L (equal to a small hatchback :-) ).

That means obviously KIA Carens is not here to compete with Ertiga.

However, I would still go ahead and test drive Carens automatic to see where we stand with the comparison between both Ertiga and Carens.

KIA cannot cannibalize Hyundai for Carens versus Alcazar and MarutiSuzuki has no threat from Carens (considering that the Ertiga customer will not be willing to spend upto 7L extra on top of what they are willing to pay for top end Ertiga).

This whole equation is part of something the car makers consider as 'Premium' :-) however for people who look for safety (6 airbags versus 2) and automatics (since I only drive automatics), not every feature as part of the premium package is mandatory.

Unfortunately, automatic gearbox + maximum airbags are considered as 'Premium' and so the price.

To compete with Ertiga, Carens should provide an automatic gearbox with the 1.5L petrol engine in the base model and thus considering the price difference will reduce at least by 50%, there might be a light for me to look at it seriously :-)

[RoadTiger]

Bookings open tomorrow - Will Kia reveal prices too now - or later ? Does anyone know ?

[neeraj08]

I was trying to book Carens 1.4T DCT in Prestige Plus trim, but there seems to be an error while choosing the exterior color on the booking page (screenshot below). The dropdown to select the color is blank. This error occurs only when the Prestige Plus variant is selected with DCT transmission. For rest of engine-transmission combinations, it doesn't show any error. Strange!

Originally Posted by RoadTiger

Bookings open tomorrow - Will Kia reveal prices too now - or later ? Does anyone know ?

The prices will probably be revealed in February during the launch of this car. Right now, they are taking the pre-launch bookings.

Error screenshot-

[Venkatesh]

Kia Carens bookings open, it can be booked through the official website and dealerships across the country at an amount of Rs 25,000.

https://youtu.be/e1pk_G69qTc

[CarLover79]

Got a call from my local KIA dealer today morning. Was claiming that the introductory prices for Carens will be same as Seltos pricing and would be applicable for only pre-booked orders. Not sure if he was trying to pull a fast one to get a booking. Has anyone heard similar thing on the pricing?

[ant_vas]

Got a call from my local KIA dealer today morning. Was claiming that the introductory prices for Carens will be same as Seltos pricing and would be applicable for only pre-booked orders. Not sure if he was trying to pull a fast one to get a booking. Has anyone heard similar thing on the pricing

have booked a Carens Luxury plus Diesel AT last week itself and today it was converted to Carens. while booking when asked about the expected price range, the sale team lead informed me that for the top end luxury plus model it will be 19L+

Never heard about introductory price being that of Seltos. it doesn't make sense also to have the same price as seltos which is a 5 seater with Carens which is a 6/7 seater.

My main concern is with the 3rd row space, once the test drives are available will take a final decision on whether to keep or cancel my booking

[deetjohn]

Diesel AT available only in the top trim??

A mistake on the brochure?? Or is the plan to not have it at launch? A huge miss anyways!!

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by achintatri

.... Isn't KIA the Premium brand of Hyundai (no offense to Hyundai Car owners) .....

Worldwide, it is the Hyundai brand which is considered more premium compared to Kia, but in India their strategy is to try and promote Kia as more premium and looks like its working

Its similar to VW/Skoda brand perception. VW brand value being higher than Skoda worldwide except in India it's been the opposite with people here valuing Skoda higher.

[Ceyen]

That is one ugly looking car. They set the bar so high with the Seltos and the appearance of this car is such a letdown.

Hyundai has been doing the same with the i20 and Creta, The previous generation i20 and the Creta (final facelift) were simplistic and beautiful cars and had ageless designs, but they just couldn't leave it there and messed up the design of current generation Creta, which ended up looking like the ugliest car in its class, especially with its sour looking front. Although the i20 doesn't look that bad, it still has a complicated design language with unnecessary lines and curves.

The Carens' design looks very messy and disproportionate and looks ugly from all angles. I don't know why manufacturers complicate the designs of cars nowadays. VW, Skoda and Mahindra are the only few brands in the Indian automotive scene who make simplistic looking cars, which don't lose their novelty factor as the age and don't stick out like a sore thumb. This car is like the PS5 of consoles .