Get on over to your Kia client auto dealer to see how you can help boost auto sales and leasing traffic before the tariffs hit! Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D. 

Test Drive: Kia Carnival Is Practical, Whatever You Call It

• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, Yesterday

When Kia first announced its new Carnival nameplate in 2021, the company was adamant that it was not a minivan. 

Despite the sliding passenger door (which is what largely makes a minivan a minivan), the automaker insists that the vehicle is an MPV, or multi-purpose vehicle. 

At the time, I thought Kia's preoccupation with semantics was amusing, but after having spent several weeks test-driving the 2025 Kia Carnival SX Prestige edition, I’m a new convert to the vehicle, whatever it’s called. 

Never have I ever been a soccer mom, so maybe I just don’t “get” the stigma around the “minivan” designation. I am a dog mom and an animal rescue volunteer, so a vehicle that can comfortably fit a dog crate or two or three is impressive to me, no matter what it’s called. 

With the third row of seats easily tucked away with one hand via a handle on the back of the seat there is cargo space for days. I didn’t haul any dogs around, but I did move a bunch of furniture and boxes and was amazed at how much stuff I could easily fit back there. 

I would have loved it even more if I had been able to remove the second row of seats, but you can't with the 7-seat version that has VIP lounge seats in the second row. Still, there is 86.9 cubic feet of storage behind the second row.  

The attention to interior styling is quite apparent. I am a fan of the brown leather (“tuscan umber”) interior that reminds me of a baseball glove paired with the blue (“astra blue”) exterior. It strikes me as much more durable and practical than the white interiors being used by many other automakers. 

The second row would be a dream for a kid or an adult. The already comfortable bucket seats feature a "VIP" lounge seat reclining option and a huge 14.6 inch screen offering wireless capability and various streaming options for rear passengers. A friend who saw it who has a small child says she would probably never want to leave. 

The gas mileage is lacking but not unreasonable for a large three-row SUV -- um, MPV.  It gets 18 mpg city and 26 mpg highway for a combined 21 mpg. 

I did a lot of driving and I had to fill up the gas tank several times. But gas is fairly reasonably priced in Michigan at the moment, so I didn't wince much.

The biggest downside of the Carnival is its price: $55,255 including destination. And that’s before the upcoming 25% tariff that will be tacked on, since the vehicle is built in Korea. That’s an additional $13,814 additional dollars. Ouch. Time will tell how automakers are going to compensate for these huge increases and the likely decline in sales.