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Traded in my Venue for a Kia Carens DCT: Am I happy with the decision

23rd March 2024, 13:07 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

We wanted a 5 or 7 seater car and test-drove vehicles like the Toyota Innova Hycross and Mahindra XUV700. The Carens wasn't even on our list.

BHPian vvivek85 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Cars have always been an integral part of my life. I had an inclination towards cars right from childhood. I still remember my family getting me a Maruti 800 cake for one of my birthdays. I am blessed to have had opportunities to own multiple cars in the last 14 years.

It all started with a modest Maruti Suzuki Alto which we got way back in 2010. Since then we purchased a Hyundai Xcent in 2014, a Hyundai Venue in 2019 and the latest entrant to our family Kia Carens. Cars might have changed, but the passion and love that I have for cars have been the same all throughout these years. I always treat my car as how I treat my kid, I will go to any stupidest extent to keep him safe, my belief is if we take care with the utmost respect they will serve us forever.

Baring Alto, Team-bhp played an integral role in me choosing all of my cars and I was happy with them throughout their tenure with me. So, I wanted to contribute my little part to this wonderful forum, what better than penning a review? This is my first review, would try my best to capture all important points which could be of use to any potential customers.

Why a new car?

We are a family of 6, all this while on rare occasions when we all 6 go out as a family, my daughter was accommodating with my wife, dad and mom at the rear. Now that she is growing up we wanted to get a large 5-seater or a 7-seater.

EV or Petrol

We had fixed a budget of 20 Lakhs, and considering spending that amount is a huge affair for us, I started with the groundwork in 2022. During the initial phase I was more inclined to EVs, I was following the current launches to the future launches. At one point in time, I realised India as a country has a long way to go in EV infrastructure and all the more the upfront cost is on the higher side when compared to ICE counterparts. Lastly, currently, there isn’t a car in the market which fits my requirements, we have TATAs and Mahindras in the pipeline but I expect their cost to go north of 25L and their products aren’t confident inspiring; especially TATA. So, finally we decided it to be a petrol ICE, I am very particular about getting an automatic this time around as I am done with manual cars.

What car?

Now that I have decided on ICE, which car to get? Brands considered, Hyundai, Mahindra, TATA, Toyota and Kia.

TATA

I have been very vocal about TATA in this forum, I have always been a fan of their turnaround and their focus towards safety; so I wanted my next car to be from TATA. Considering that it is going to be a petrol, I followed Harrier / Safari petrol version very rigorously. That’s when they launched Nexon DCA last year, while following the review thread, the number of transmission issues faced by DCA owners is simply astonishing. For once, I decided to skip TATA this time around as well, because I am sure Harrier twins will have the new 1.5 turbo DCA, I don’t have the heart to put my money in a product which is prone to issues, no disrespect to any prospective owners here, with a heavy heart, I have to move away from one of the great looking cars in the country.

Mahindra

I test drove the XUV7OO diesel auto and below is the feedback which I gave in the review thread.

Top end is costing close to 30L, which was way out of my budget. Poor from Mahindra on not having an auto mid variant, AX5 auto 7 seater is not available in petrol. Had there been one, I would have considered the car.

Toyota

Innova Hycross wasn’t on my list, but we just test drove it.

For a brief period, I contemplated going for the base model which was around 25 L. Later knocked it off as I felt it was too barebones for its price and I am against spending 2.5 million just for the brand name.

Hyundai

I was following Creta facelift in anticipation that Alcazar facelift which is due this June will be 80% similar to Creta. I was very disappointed with Creta facelift, rectangular headlights, poor calibration of AC controls, large grills to name a few. It reminded me of my Venue and I am not going to get a Venue look alike. In my opinion, off-late Hyundai designs are not clicking with all communities.

Current gen Alcazar didn’t make it to the list as I heard from one of the closed sources to Hyundai that there are suspension issues with Alcazar, he asked me to refrain from getting it.

Kia

Kia Carens wasn’t on my list at all, for some reason I initially didn’t like its looks, however, we wanted to take test drive. In 2022 we took a test drive, below feedback I provided in the review thread.

Fast forward to 2024, one fine day my wife and I discussed why not test drive it again as I was seeing really good reviews. We may have missed something during the initial drive. So I called Kun Kia Arumbakkam for a test drive, and immediately Mr Vijay came home with the iMT. This time we found that Kia has sorted out the seating and we liked the drive.

So we have zeroed down on Kia Carens, we decided to go for DCT. We had 2 variants in our mind, Luxury O / Luxury plus. Features which are missing in Luxury O were paddle shifters, ventilated seats, 2nd row flexibility, cost perspective Luxury plus is dearer by 1.5 Lakhs, after a lot of thought we finally decided to go for the top end cherry red.

We paid an advance of 25000 on 22nd Jan 24. I was informed that the delivery would be done within 2 weeks but it got delayed for more than 4 weeks due to production constraints. Full marks to SA Vijay, he was always responsive whenever I called and agreed to my conditions of payment after PDI, in fact, insurance too he didn’t force it on me, I went ahead with them to avoid hassles and got a discount of 15K.

I exchanged my Venue with them, got a price quote of 725000. I posted in Carwale and Spinny, I got more or less the same amount. Considering that I need my car till I get a new one, I agreed to exchange it at Kun Kia.

I received a call from Mr Vijay on February 24th that the car was dispatched from plant and I can do PDI on Monday which is 26th February. I went to Ambattur yard on 26th February and did a PDI and everything was normal. Considering that the top end now comes with solar UV glass I made it a point to check if there were any visible distortion. Meanwhile, I was informed by Vijay that all 4 windows auto up down wasn’t available as claimed in the brochure. Looks like Kia has stopped it, poor from Kia, they shouldn’t be giving false claims.I checked VIN it was a February 24 make, apart from that one glitch all was fine, and I agreed to release payment on Tuesday. Car was registered on February 28th 2024, I planned to take delivery on March 1st as on February 29th I will be stuck in month-end closing.

Photos taken during PDI

Total cost inclusive of My convenience plus and accessories was 23,23,148. I got only mudflap and 3D mats as accessories.

Mr Senthil from the exchange department came on February 27th and took back the Venue. Emotional moment for us, it served us well for 4.5 years. Hope he reaches better hands.

Parting ways with our ever trusted Venue.

March 1st we planned to take delivery after 12:30 PM, and reached the showroom around 12:10 PM. Car was ready, waiting for our arrival. Mr Vijay greeted us, completed few documentation formalities. March 1st being an auspicious date, there were quite a lot of deliveries. Kun Arumbakkam and Ambattur put together had around 43 deliveries planned. So I waited for a few minutes for our turn to come, around 12:45 PM we completed the delivery formalities. They arranged a small cake cutting along with a gift (Kia logo printed mugs). I would rate the dealership experience as 10/10, was very satisfied with Mr Vijay, and I gifted him a Parker pen.

Car front end started to grow on me, I am very happy that there isn’t any chrome grill. It was one of the pain areas in our Venue, cleaning it was a task in itself.

Carens is at least 160 mm shorter in length than XUV700. It is a mystery on how they managed to provide enough space for both 2nd and 3rd rows with useable boot.

Minimalist chrome usage is a major plus for this vehicle.

Front 3 quarter is drool-worthy, tri beam and DRLs are of the same unit.

Alloys are neatly designed happy that they have shown some differences with Seltos, unlike Alcazar which carries Venueish alloys. But Carens alloys will be hard to maintain and considering the gloss finish it can be prone to scratches. Only time will tell.

The reason for me to opt for red was to hide the dummy strip which connects the rear lights.

New digital instrument cluster in top variants

Touch screen is just top-notch but I found an ergonomic flaw. The screen is little bit tilted towards up. As I have a laid-back driving posture, need to lean a bit to access the top part of the screen.

I would rate in house map 6/10, it didn’t capture some of the one ways which have been there for at least 2 years. One positive thing to highlight, whenever there is a direction change a separate pop up appears within the map so that we don’t oversee. Thoughtful from Kia but need to go a long way

Ambient lighting is a class apart, I have seen those in Mercs, getting that feature to 20 Lakhs car is super cool. During night drives it gives a different feeling. That glossy area needs proper maintenance, prone to dust.