[rahul_dg123]

Looks like another winner from the house of Kia! This car is more of a shortened version of Carnival. I think it has got everything an average Indian family needs. It will attract those buyers who want something premium over Ertiga or XL6, but do not want to go for a Innova. The panoramic sunroof would have been a nice addition.
The powered tumble seats in second row is a welcome move- but what happens if the button malfunctions?

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by rahul_dg123

The powered tumble seats in second row is a welcome move- but what happens if the button malfunctions?

A manual lever is also provided, and will perform the same function in case needed.

[Doonite]

This looks like another blockbuster from the Kia stable. I had to look hard for negative points in the review and barring some non essential omissions, i can't find any

Carens interior looks fantastic, loaded with features (compared to Ertiga/XL6 and Innova Crysta), decent engine options as well as choices and most importantly, comfortable ride quality! I don't mind the exterior looks if the car excels in every other aspect.
I just want this MPV to be a hit so we can get other MVP's in our market and the current ones get refreshed due to increasing competition.

Also, the car buying public hasn't given 2 hoots to safety and build quality as the sales charts show MoM, so i don't think a lack of GNCAP score is going to hurt Carens cause in anyway. I do hope that Kia turns a new leaf by getting a good score in GNCAP as the safety equipment being present right from the base variant is commendable and will hopefully force the competition to follow suit.

Beautiful review as always but if i am to nitpick, i think a couple of points are missing such as:

• No mention of Sunroof/Interior Light console.
• How the Headlights, both low beam and high beam look at night.
• Spare Wheel - Steel or Alloy.
• AC performance.
• No in-depth review of the touch screen console.
• Performance of Wipers and the Washer thingy?
• Are the ORVM's wide enough.

[kovilkalai]

Originally Posted by DeepCarTalk

Not going to lie, this has got to be the ugliest car i have seen in the recent years.

Amen to that! My personal opinion... Hyundai-Kia designs have been going south. The first step was the overly aggressive design choices (I find the Creta and Alcazar irritating... not even boring). This is the second step - full on DULL. I only hope that our friends at Tata don't lose their mojo.

[Meph1st0]

Thanks Vidyut and Chetan for the excellent review.
Kia has done their homework very well. A lot of thought process has gone into the Carens and it seems to compete with several cars/segments. Can't really find major flaws. The shorter 2nd row provides better frontal visibility for the third-row passengers.
Big list of safety features that are standard across the variants. Some respite after the poor performance of Seltos in the crash tests. One observation is that the airbags do not cover the last row (same with Alcazar).
Variant distribution seems good. Prestige plus offers all the essential features and would expect this to be the most popular one. Luxury plus covers the luxury features.
The missing of several features compared to Alcazar (panoramic sunroof, powered driver seat, EPB) means it is going to undercut the top end, Alcazar.
The premium variant seems barebones at least from the feature list which points to aggressive pricing. 1.5MT would squarely compete with XL6.
The variant distribution with automatic seems a bit odd.
1.5 petrol with CVT can pull lot more sales from XL6 as the urban crowd now prefer automatic considering the traffic explosion. Sadly automatic is not offered with 1.5 petrol.
If one wants a diesel automatic, one has to go for Luxury Plus
Even the 1.4 DCT is offered in only two variants.
Does the bench seat in the 2nd row provide a 3-point seat belt to all the passengers?

[naveen.raju]

Great review as always. Couple of reviews on YouTube didn't have a clue on the air perfume clip and the cable runner behind the front passenger seat. Attention to detail .

I would prefer the Alcazar any day over this for the features it offers and that 2L petrol engine is a joy to drive. Many things going wrong here for me:

1) Exterior looks bad. I wouldn't mind the MPV look from the side but the front end looks really confused with so many design elements.
2) The infotainment system. Even though I haven't seen in person, the angle looks weird.
3) Not to talk about piano black elements used everywhere. Even the climate control is a fingerprint magnet. Saw in couple of videos.
4) I liked it's more practical 16" wheels. Should be comfortable when compared to Seltos/Alcazar.
5) They should have added more kit - Atleast 360 degree cam with blind spot cam, digital instrument cluster.
6) Am guessing the lights to be equally bad as the Alcazar. They should have gone with the old school design - projectors + HID.
7) One press seat tumble is an awesome feature when compared to the more traditional operation in the Alcazar.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

- ESP as standard (this was a big miss with many variants in Seltos, esp diesels). Something which is as important as seat belts and airbags.
- 6 airbags as standard (a min.4 star GNCAP rating is what should supplement the no. of airbags, hope there's no slip-up this time around)
- disc brakes all around as standard.

This definitely is a big for the Carens.

hope the most important function of headlights - to effectively illuminate the road ahead - is performed well here.

Originally Posted by Doonite

How the Headlights, both low beam and high beam look at night.

Plain jane LED headlights - looks like these are not projector units, which would mean bad visiblity when driving on highways in rain/fog. Since these are sealed units with LED chips, owners will have no options to upgrade. What's even worse is the fog lamps are LEDs and not the usual round 3" units, which means Carens owners have absolutely no options to upgrade the existing setup and have to add auxillary lights to improve visiblity in rain/fog.



My observations from the reviews and videos:

• Carens seems to sit higher than the XL6, 195mm GC + 16 inch rubber (205/65R16) making the difference? This might be the reason why the second row seats seem lower and angled backwards. Will be interesting to drive the car and check how it handles our bumpy highways vs the XL6.
• Underbody protection included, absolutely needed in our conditions.
• Storage space and options provided seem to be well thought out
• Roof mounted AC vent for the 4 rear seats is a big plus. They could have dropped the air purifier IMO.
• Seats look a lot more comfortable vs the XL6, based on thickness, contouring and length/width. Will be interesting to see how this impacts overall cabin space as the Carens is 25mm wider than the XL6.
• Driver footwell seems a little cramped IMO, the plastic panel on the A pillar seems to be taking up a lot of room. For well built folks, this might end up being a deal breaker.
• Leatherette upholstery on door pads look good. Big thumbs up to the roll up window shade and puddle lamps in rear doors.
• Lots of Glossy/Piano black surfaces, pain to clean and keep swirl/scratch free. Personally, I would prefer a matt black finish.
• Plastic top off the dashboard could end up creating a reflection on the windshield on summer days. A big irritant with the XL6 as well.
• I don’t like the tilt of the touch screen. As pointed out, it will result in driver/passenger stretching out to change settings/modes etc.
• Usable bootspace seems comparable to the XL6, which is good.
• Spare tyre looks like 205/65R16 mounted on steel wheels, which is a good thing as Kia could have easily gone down the space saver route.

Looks like Kia is all set to have another blockbuster if they price the car at ~50-75K more than the XL6 for the MT petrol (~13.4L OTR in BLR for Alpha MT), which could translate to 70 - 1L incremental if you consider taxes and very well end up being 90K - 1.2L more OTR. The 1.4 Turbo Petrol and 1.5 Diesel version would move up the price scale, which would then position the Carens in direct competition with Hector Plus(~18L OTR for 1.5 style). I think the Carens could endup taking away a lot of XUV700 petrol AX5 7 seater bookings if Kia can fastrack delivery and ensure that the car is relatively niggle free.

[PreludeSH]

Think Kia has been condemned to only offer normal sunroof by Hyundai.
Looks like they have covered everything an MPV owner needs. I would have liked if they had gone with minivan look like Marazzo or the recent eVAN from Byd. Could have liberated more interior space.

[Chetan_Rao]

Personal opinion only, and there surely would be people who'd prefer it on their cars, but the sunroof was an afterthought when I was in the car, esp. given how bright and airy the cabin already felt with the large glass areas all round. It was a smart packaging move to utilise that space for 2nd and 3rd row air vents instead, liberating cabin space lower down.

I'd go so far as opining they should've eliminated it altogether and mounted the purifier on the roof too, creating more space in the slightly compromised 2nd row right passenger seat (give it a retractable tray too, maybe?).

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by procrj

Looks like Kia is all set to have another blockbuster if they price the car at ~50-75K more than the XL6 for the MT petrol (~13.4L OTR in BLR for Alpha MT), which could translate to 70 - 1L incremental if you consider taxes and very well end up being 90K - 1.2L more OTR. The 1.4 Turbo Petrol and 1.5 Diesel version would move up the price scale, which would then position the Carens in direct competition with Hector Plus(~18L OTR for 1.5 style).

I don't think this car will be priced anywhere in the XL6 bracket and it is not meant to be either. Worst case they will have a base variant that would be placed there just for the sake of it. But as a product this is much superior and I'm also thinking if they will take the top end variants beyond the price of the Seltos itself, in order to make those extra seats come at a premium.

On the other hand I find that air purifier as a safety hazard and is a big downer considering that even for shorter people it gives very less gap for any forward movement of the body during sudden deceleration or worse a frontal impact. It has no benefit being where it is currently. Otherwise as a product it sounds like an excellent package for those looking north of the Ertiga range and the base or mid variant of XUV, Innova etc. Hope the air purifier can be removed without making the place look dirty.

[Akshay6988]

Fantastic review guys ! Thank you for penning down all the little nits and bits of the Caren (Gosh what a weird name !)

Originally Posted by Bibendum90949

I know this is a tough demand. It would be great if during our reviews, the car is driven on national and state highways at night and the efficacy of headlights checked. I was in for a rude shock the first time I drove my Seltos on a highway at night. And that's something which a buyer can't test during TD. If we at Team BHP can't do it, no one else will.

This will keep coming back to bite Kia and rightly so. It'll remain as a true blemish in their Indian chapter. Hoping to see a positive change this time around.

cheers,
bibendum

I second this ! I know we are demanding too much from mod team but with every other manufacturer jumping on the LED headlights bandwagon, I believe it is need of the hour, team BHP tests the headlight performance. ( I remember few older reviews did include headlight performance - Volvo X40 was tested I believe, please correct me if I'm wrong ) All the new LED headlights from mass market offerings are just bling, no function. It is a serious safety hazard as they blind the oncoming traffic and at the same time the white light fails to illuminate the road ! Manufacturers should offer customer a option to opt for regular yellow headlights, I'd gladly trade them in my Creta. Or charge us few thousands more and provide headlights that actually work !

[amol4184]

I really wish the review included 7 seater model with all the details about bench seat as well as how the 1.5NA and diesel motor behave in Carens. Besides that, loved the review and car itself. Against XL6 this seems to have an ace with that diesel engine offering.

[rahul_dg123]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

It was a smart packaging move to utilise that space for 2nd and 3rd row air vents instead, liberating cabin space lower down.

.

Do the roof mounted air vents provide better cooling than the standard ones (between the first row seats)?

[praveenkkr]

Nice Review, but the 7seater detail is missing. As 6 Seater is available only in the top end, having a 7 seater in the review would have helped us more.

Looks like only the top end is manufactured in the first lot, as there is no mention about any other variant in any of the reviews untill now. But, surprised by the number of reviews available online within a few hours of media launch, unlike Alcazar for which it took weeks together for reviews to pour in.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

The system gets wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and not wireless. Defeats the purpose of having wireless charging when you still have to connect the cable:

Cross checked the brochure and noted that the lower variant, Prestige, gets 8" screen along with Wireless Andriod auto and Apple Carplay. But, the top end is missing on this feature!!
Quite a strange stratergy unless there is some limitation in the 10" screen. Or something to do with Kia Connect? Prestige/Plus are not supporting Kia Connect.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Rear disc brakes are standard across all variants, which is a good thing.

In fact, all wheel disk brakes are standard across all variants.

[lemedico]

That air purifier, bad for the knees and worse for the face when the driver slams the brakes! How many sahibs and memsahibs actually wear the seat belt in the rear?!