[sukhbirST]

Congratulations and it was nice of your daughter to show the smiling face and hope she gets well soon. Carens looks VFM and is good on mileage part too. Clarifications to @Roadtiger queries were really helpful.

[PGNarain]

Originally Posted by achintatri

Hi @PGNarain, Does Kia Carens Diesel support manual DPF regeneration process, did ur SA explain this before delivery?

No clue about this and neither did the Sales Rep explain anything about DPF prior delivery. A few checks online don't have anything readily available for the new Kia Carens specifically, but highway runs seems to sort it out. Will update here once i know more.

Originally Posted by FrAgile

Congratulations for the new ride! That diesel is a superior motor in terms of refinement lower down.

I guess, you meant Taigun.

Thanks FrAgile and yes, thanks for the correction - I did mean the Taigun.

Originally Posted by sukhbirST

Congratulations and it was nice of your daughter to show the smiling face and hope she gets well soon. Carens looks VFM and is good on mileage part too. Clarifications to @Roadtiger queries were really helpful.

Thanks SukhbirST

[neeraj08]

Driving the Carens Petrol Automatic with full load -

Took out my Carens 1.4 DCT last night with all 7 seats occupied and drove extensively on the empty city roads. My experience in brief:

Seating comfort:
With ample space on offer, the seating is comfortable. No complaints from the 3rd row passengers whether there were 2 adults or 3 kids seated there. Since there is no Air-purifier or tablet tray in the 2nd row, there is oodles of space on offer for middle row passengers. Overall, the cabin feels airy which can be attributed to large windows and 4 separate air vents at the back.

Drivability:
With the Normal drive mode, the car starts smoothly from the get-go. This mode can cater to the mix of sedate and occasional enthusiastic driving. With full load, both city and highway drives can be taken care of with this mode.
With the Sports mode, the car instantly becomes aggressive- drops a gear, gains RPMs and the engine becomes vocal. I could notice the push back in the seat feel even with full load. The car waits longer before upshifting, but the FE takes a hit. Overall, this mode will keep the enthusiastic drivers well satisfied.
With the Eco mode, a conservative approach takes over and the car can only be driven sedately. The engine delivers power rather conservatively and this leads to a better FE figure. As per my observation, the gearshifts take place at the same RPMs as they take place in Normal mode. But due to the limited power delivery, the FE figure improves. I drove sedately in Eco mode for a good length and didn’t face any issues with car loaded full.

Ride and suspension:
The ride was overall smooth and can be termed as family friendly. The 205mm wide tyres and 16inch wheels are a fine combination to tackle potholes.

Gearbox:
The gearshifts are very smooth with the DCT gearbox. It doesn’t matter if the car is full with pax or just the driver, it’s hard to notice the gearshifts without looking at the MID.
I have driven a friend’s Crysta Diesel AT and I felt the Carens to be smoother to drive which can be attributed to the refined 1.4 Turbo engine and the dual-clutch AT.

[pseudo_coder]

Originally Posted by NivasBaskaran

...The engine delivers power rather conservatively and this leads to a better FE figure. As per my observation, the gearshifts take place at the same RPMs as they take place in Normal mode. But due to the limited power delivery, the FE figure improves...

Can you please share the FE figures you got?

[furyrider]

For those interested in FE of Diesel manual, I’ve got 19.5 Kmpl so far. This was tracked via fuelio via tank full to tank full method. I’ve covered 700 km so far which included a mix of extremely dense traffic (~70 km), moderate city traffic (~100 km), moderate to open highways (~500 km). This was with 4 adults and light luggage driven between 80-100 kmph. On highway trips, expect a FE in excess of 20 kmpl.

Although Kia claims the fuel tank capacity to be 45 litres, mine took in 50.23 litres (until auto cutoff) on the first tankful. Here is my experience so far. Do note that my old car was a Grand i10, hence my comparison would probably apply for those who are upgrading from hatchbacks.

Pros:
- Lots of space on offer, airy and practical cabin, comfortable ride even while navigating large potholes.
- Felt planted at my usual highway speeds. Ride felt extremely bouncy at first. A quick look at TPMS indicated a pressure of 45 PSI in all tyres. Reducing the pressure to 34 PSI did the trick.
- TPMS seems to be accurate. It did match the value displayed on the air compressor I usually fill air in.
- Diesel does not feel like a diesel. You could hardly hear the engine inside. Almost everyone in my family was against my decision of purchasing a diesel, but are happy now.
- ACC is a boon. It cools the large cabin really fast. Having upgraded from a manual AC, the difference is night and day.
- Brakes seemed excellent. My old Gi10 had this weird issue where the brakes would bite suddenly. For someone driving behind me, it would be as if I have applied the brake suddenly instead of linearly.
- Wireless car play works flawlessly. Have not tested wireless AA as of now.
- Feels more car like to drive. It did not take much time to get accustomed to it’s dimensions.

Cons:
- Mine is a prestige plus. The less I say about the headlights, the better. Low beam is useless on dimly lit roads and highways. Highbeam seems slightly better, but the throw felt weird. I think I have to upgrade to better options. On pitch black roads, the headlight seemed okay though.
- The vehicle feels sluggish while moving forward from a standstill.
- The default audio setup is strictly okay at best. You cannot hear anything unless the volume is around 30-ish (50%).
- The IRVM vibrates on bad roads and on hard acceleration - as in the image appears blurred.

Niggles so far:
- While going over a speed breaker, the speedo console started blinking red and the car started giving continuous beeps with a warning on the MID stating that a door is open. It showed that the LHS front passenger door was open. In reality, the door was closed properly, for some reason, the vehicle threw this continuous error. Opening and closing the door did the trick. This was while I was driving back home post delivery. This never recurred since.
- Slotting into first gear seems to be tricky. The gear sometimes does not slot properly and you could hear a grinding noise. At first I thought that I did not depress the clutch fully, but this continued even when the clutch is depressed fully. The frequency seems to have gone down as the vehicle continues to accumulate some distance. May be the gearbox will settle down after a few thousand kilometres.
- While going over rough roads (roads where the top layer of Tarmac has eroded and hence has gotten rough), one could hear the windows rattling. This is not that pronounced, having the music on drowns this significantly.

[pseudo_coder]

Originally Posted by furyrider

For those interested in FE of Diesel manual, I’ve got 19.5 Kmpl so far. This was tracked via fuelio via tank full to tank full method. I’ve covered 700 km so far which included a mix of extremely dense traffic (~70 km), moderate city traffic (~100 km), moderate to open highways (~500 km). This was with 4 adults and light luggage driven between 80-100 kmph. On highway trips, expect a FE in excess of 20 kmpl.
.
.
.
- The vehicle feels sluggish while moving forward from a standstill.
.
.
.
Niggles so far:

This is excellent FE. I feel that KIA has given very conservative numbers for FE. Diesel MT rated FE is 21, but from what you wrote, you should get more than 21 on exclusive highway driving. Similarly, I have 1.5 P which has rated FE of 15.7. But on a short drive with 75% highway, I got more than 17. I will surely extract 20 kmpl on proper highway.

The sluggish take off is a problem I also observed in test drives (1.4P and 1.5D). Makes me think that if one is going for lower variants, it's not worth paying huge premium for the turbo petrol and diesel over the 1.5P engine.

About niggles, my wireless android auto connection sometimes breaks if I encounter a jerk due to a pothole or speed breaker.

[sou_3749]

Originally Posted by furyrider

For those interested in FE of Diesel manual, I’ve got 19.5 Kmpl so far. This was tracked via fuelio via tank full to tank full method. I’ve covered 700 km so far which included a mix of extremely dense traffic (~70 km), moderate city traffic (~100 km), moderate to open highways (~500 km). This was with 4 adults and light luggage driven between 80-100 kmph. On highway trips, expect a FE in excess of 20 kmpl.

Thanks for the update. You summed up pretty much everything. I would like to add my observations for the 1.4 P manual point of view.

I have driven around 1700 km which is 85% highway and 15% city mix. We were 4 healthy people with 200kgs of luggage.

First bad things:
1. Head lights are so pathetic that you will loose confidence on highways. Need some help to improve.
2. Insulation is good but more than the engine noise the outside sounds creep into the cabin. I guess this is due to the huge glass area and not so thick glass.
3. Fuel tank capacity must be higher. I did own a venue, so carens is a bigger venue/sonet with almost everything is similar besides size.
4. The reverse camera is just average. For this size the wide angle view should have been more wider. This hampers in reversing with limited visibility in tight spaces.
5. Front seats should have been more supportive from the ergonomic stand point.
6. The clutch travel is a little more for my liking for a petrol engine. Also it’s a little harder for hyundai/kia standard.
7. The accelerator sensitivity is not so good. I guess they have done it purposely to aid better economy.

Now good stuff:
1. Mileage is impressive. I got more than 17kmpl combined with speeds ranging 85-115 kmph on highways. In city you can expect 8-12 kmpl depending on traffic and driving style. The engine spins at 1850 rpm while cruising at 100kmph. I could drive below 85kmph for some time and could extract more than 19kmpl. But with this engine I don’t thing you can really drive that slow for long time.
2. AC is a chiller. We could test it’s effectiveness close to 40 degrees and we never had to go beyond fan speed 2.
3. The ergonomics are spot on.
4. The engine is very tractable. No matter how loaded the vehicle is, you won’t struggle. This is the engine to opt for if you are worried about power. Of course there is turbo lag in 2nd gear. 3rd gear is very very tall and you can literally drive from 15-100kmph.
5. Space is it’s biggest usp. Only innova is better but this is a better package.

[ObsessedByFIAT]

I test drove the Carens today and found the car to be mediocre at best. I expected a lot more from a car costing 20lacs.

I mean no offense to any owners or any future owners. This is purely my impression of the car.

I found the torque converter in top end diesel AT slow in shifting gears and the gear changes were not smooth either. Even with the paddle shifters, gear changes were slow to respond.

Had I been in market for a 6/7 seater, this car won't be my pick.
The wait for a competent 6/7 seater with a sensible price tag continues, atleast for me.

The blue colour on dashboard and other assorted places looks and feels cheap.

[furyrider]

So, I had an evening to kill and took a look at the vehicle in detail.

Right from the day Kia announced prices, I always wondered how Kia could price the car on par with sub 4 m hatchbacks. Of course, I am talking about the lower variants. The body and sheet metal should not change though. I could find the following reasons on this very forum: thin sheet metal, thin window glasses. Apart from these, I could not find any other reasons. I would keep the platform discussion aside though since it has been discussed in detail and would not comment on it until the crash test results are out.

Here is what I’ve found:



The plastic cladding in the rear bumper has no metal support.



Same applies to the side skirts. There is a metal side skirt beneath the plastic cladding, but seems to be rather flimsy when checked near the jacking point.





No underbody/protective coating. You could see some coating in the previous images, but not at the rear.



This is the underbody of a stock Santro in comparison. Even this has some sort of protective coating.

PS: please pardon me if my observations are wrong. I am not an expert on this

[RedMaw]

Originally Posted by furyrider

So, I had an evening to kill and took a look at the vehicle in detail.


Attachment 2289200

No underbody/protective coating. You could see some coating in the previous images, but not at the rear.
s

Is welding common in chassis? i thought chassis were usually stamped to avoid welding? And is that white round rubber like thing in picture is plastic? Plastic in chassis

[NAVREVV]

Originally Posted by ObsessedByFIAT

I test drove the Carens today and found the car to be mediocre at best. I expected a lot more from a car costing 20lacs.

Not everyone will take a liking to Carens. Some may feel the front design to be extremely polarised tbh but it’s what within the car especially in this price range is what driving the volumes for Carens. Initially, I too wasn’t very keen on the car especially the front design was too weak for me but when I got to sit in the car, I was amazed how well it was packaged and overall safety features as well as other creature comfort’s is what makes the Carens stand out in this segment. If you don’t like Carens, then you can go backwards and buy XL6 or go forward and buy Innova in 20 L + Category or wait for a new offering in this range.

[human_wheels]

Originally Posted by neeraj08

Since there is no Air-purifier or tablet tray in the 2nd row, there is oodles of space on offer for middle row passengers.

Does it mean air purifier and tablet tray is not there for all the variants?

[ptaneja]

Originally Posted by human_wheels

Does it mean air purifier and tablet tray is not there for all the variants?

Correct. Only on Luxury.

[Knightrider]

Originally Posted by human_wheels

Does it mean air purifier and tablet tray is not there for all the variants?

That's right. These are available only in top-2 variants - Luxury and Luxury Plus.

[autoweirdo]

Originally Posted by NAVREVV

If you don’t like Carens, then you can go backwards and buy XL6 or go forward and buy Innova in 20 L + Category or wait for a new offering in this range.

Totally agree, somehow i feel Carens better built than XL6 but no where close to Innova/Safari/XUV for which you need to shell out atleast 5-6L more for same features. Its a bit compromise but no product is perfect. My heart is for XUV but I know I wont get it at least in next 4-5 months, so Carens is next logical choice.