Kia Carnival or ??

.....

[katkins]

We have yet to test drive the toyota I might add. Having the kids with u every time u go to check them out makes it hard hehehe

[Danni]

oh wow i had no idea!!sorry!

[katkins]

that's ok Danni, I liked the one I saw too, I told Dh about it, but they stopped making them

[slyder]

Jeez this thread has had some ace advice in it. Awesome stuff.

I'm not a big fan of Kias as I don't think they are as reliable or as well built as their counterparts. Unfortunately they are the only affordable people mover for most people.

Hyundai is probably the best of the Korean car makers and has improved immensely since their introduction to the market back invthe early 90's or late 80's. I certainly wouldn't discount anything with a Hyundai badge provided it meets all the things you'd expect from a used car (if that's the way you end up going).

Many of the other brands that have been discussed here are worth investigating.

[*Efjay*]

I actually thought the MVP was too narrow.

[Trillian]

My uncle has a Ssanyong duel cab ute and he thinks its great - I know it's not the same as the people mover, but there are so few of them about to gather any real info about how they drive kwim?

[*mitch*]

We have a toyota caldina station wagon... whick fits 2 kids & a carseat & dog in the boot nicely...

We also have a 7 seater toyota Prado... which has more room than we really need...

PS Liz.. we own a farmlet so our 4wd is always dirty LOL.....

I work for a mechanical & auto electrical garage & like Caro... I would totally recommend Toyotas for reliability & economical repairs... the more uncommon the brand the higher priced the parts are!!!

ETA.... Whatever you buy please please pleas have it checked out properly.... even if it costs you to do so... better that than to buy a lemon!!!!!

[wardygirl]

We looked at the Toyota range, the Oddessy and the Holden Captiva today.

The Kluger seat config - with the back row not having a split seat didn't suit us, so was out fairly quickly. The Avensis looked fairly good although was a lot 'plainer'. Not that this worried us, just as we saw it to be. Having said that, we were happy to consider it. The Tarago is too big for our needs really. We only need 7 seats intermittently so don't need a larger people mover.

The Oddessy looked great from the outside but once we started looking inside we didn't like how the anchor points for the middle row basically cut thru the back row to the roof at the back of the car. Almost pointless having a third row of seats there. Not what we liked, nor thought practical as the babies would be in the middle row and the bigger kids - 10yos - would be cut in half by the anchor straps in the back.

The Captiva most impressed. Good size without it being a huge 4WD, seat config was pretty good, anchor points were same as Toyota Avensis in the back of the 2nd row seats which worked much better than Oddessy. We were looking at the LX too, Sherie but need to find out more about the diesel vs petrol choices. What did you go with and why?

Still gotta look at the Nissan range, and see if anything in the Mazda range is there - although by the sounds of it we have to wait until 2008.

It's been an interesting experience.

[Bonham08]

I honestly wouldnt recommend anyone buy a Kia, i just finished my apprenticeship at a place that specialised in Holden, Nissan and Kia and if i never see another Kia it would be too soon.
The Holden Captiva are good, nice and roomy and seat config is good whether it be for the 5 seater or the 7 seater, not sure what the difference is between Pertol/Diesel as the Diesel model was brought out after i left.
Toyotas are reliable brand also i found the Klugers and the Prados to be well set out.
At the moment Nissan only have the X-Trail which is a 5 seater, and the Pathfinder which is also a 5 seater, no 7 seaters in the Nissan range as yet.

[LuluHB]

We bought the Honda MDX. It has 7 genuine seats - adults could definitely be comfortable in the back for any suburban driving. It has great towing capacity, beautiful to drive and comes standard with ALL the extras - dual zone aircon, cruise control, dvd player (so great with kids!), leather everything, sunroof etc etc etc. It is pretty pricey but if you can stretch to it, so worth it. Otherwise, there are some good 2nd hand ones on the market - although I would avoid buying a 2nd hand that had actually gone off road. We drove the Captiva, Kluger, Territory, Volvo XC90, BMW X5 and Nissan Murano (last 2 not 7 seater though) and the MDX was equal running with the Volvo as the best to drive, but a few whack cheaper once you added the same extras on. I can get two rear facing baby seats in the back so that tells you what sort of leg room there is. Economically not so flash, but you would expect that with a big, heavy car.

ETA - and yes, it does go off road!!

[Trillian]

Well I must say I am LOVING our Captiva! It is wonderful to drive - very smooth and it accelerates like a dog shot in the bum LMAO. The one thing we did notice though is that the back seat is not as wide as the commodore across so we can't get our two boosters and Alisters seat across the back - but it isn't a drama if you have more compact boosters. There are heaps of little compartments in it for storage too. In the glovebox it also has a chiller compartment which I used to put a bottle in that Alister didn't quite finish and it kept really well (it has an air con vent in there). Leg room is fantastic - even in the third row of seats as the seats are positioned quite high so it feels like you are sitting on a chair and your knees aren't raised up at all - great if you have long legs. By the same token though there is still plenty of headroom too so they haven't sacrificed one to get the other kwim?

We chose the petrol over the diesel as the petrol had more get up and go when overtaking, otherwise we would have gone with the diesel. Apparently though they are going to make the next diesel model with a bigger engine, so it will have that extra 'oomph' so we would get one of those next time round.

If anyone wants to know the dimensions of the rear cargo area etc for prams - I am more than happy to measure it for you. It's the one thing they don't ever put in the Specs is how big the cargo area is.

[KatieKoo]

Hi there, just reading this (googled kia review and this came up). Not sure if you're still connected to this forum as it's dated 2005.
Just wondering if you're opinion is still the same about Kia and if you still have this 2002 model.
We're on the lookout for a people mover (with a 3yo, 6mth old twins and hopefully just ONE more next year) but have heard mixed reviews about Kia. 'Don't buy prior 2002, 2004' etc. So have been looking at a tarago but our twin buggy won't fit in the back, I know for sure it will fit in the back of a Kia. It would be my car of choice if only for the bad/mixed reviews I've heard/read.
Cheers,
Kate.

Originally Posted by Lulu2

Lazy cut and paste from the other thread..

Check out the Kia Carnival for sure. I bought one last month and I am RAPT with it.
$15,300 got me a 7 seater 5 speed man (I hate autos) with fully removable seats, arm rests, drinks trays, 4 anchor points, air con with seperate front/back controls...the list goes on - it's like a bloody first class airline in the back. Even better it's gun metal grey with dark tinted windows and nice rims so I get to look like a bit of a rock star.
Full service history, cd player elec windows. It only had 89,000 on the clock, its' a 2002 model I think.

I've just done extensive research on this and here's what I found....

The Taragos are very expensive and hold their value, a little too much in alot of peoples opinions. 2nd hand they are always 20,000 k's higher, 5 years older and $10,000 more expensive than anything else. My mechanic warned me they are crap to fix and I don't think they are going to make them anymore. To be honest I think they cornered the People Mover market and got lazy.

Honda Odyessy - more than I wanted to spend, and smaller inside than I wanted. I think Hondas are excellent cars on the whole though.

Voyager - yeah, nice and smooth, but again smaller inside. Also older, more k's, more expensive.

I'm not the FWD type and a Holden girl all the way so I did have reservations about the Kia, but I read heaps of 2nd hand car reviews and they all said pretty much the same as I have above. Not only that but according to Choice Magazine the safety record for those both inside and outside the car in the event of an accident is excellent.

According to my mechanic Kia released the Carnival for the express purpose of filling an huge gap in the market (decently priced people movers), all the extras (cd player, anchor points, 2 zone aircon etc) are standard. Yes they did have problems with the 1999-2001 models, but it's pretty much rectified, certainly something to be aware of.

I'd say for about $20k you could find yourself a fantastic 2004-05 model, they are soooooooo roomy and not THAT uncool. Mine looks funkier than I expected and if DP is worried you can tint the windows, lower it a little and stick some nice rims on and look like a rock star like me! It's a 6 cylinder and I get up the country hills in 5th gear no problem. Can't stand a car with no guts!

good luck with your search!

[*Efjay*]

Katie, Be careful, I just (as in tuesday) forked over 5 thousand dollars to fix the timing belt & valves in my 2004 carnival. It snapped & totally farked the motor. I was told by the guy who fixed it that its a very common problem with Kia's & Kia are aware of it but have done nothing to rectify the problem.

Personally I would stay away from Kia if you can. I have also been warned off targo's also. A friend who worked in car insurance for 15 years said they are death traps.

I was looking at the hyundai iMAX before this happened with my kia. But now I can't afford to do anything as I couldn't afford to just get a new car when this happened so had no choice but to get it fixed.

Also, you may fit your pram in the back of a kia, but I tell you, you wont fit anything else. Bugs the crap out of me how little space you get with people movers, which is why the iMAX looks so appealing.

[KatieKoo]

God that's such a bummer Fiona. 5 grand is a lot of money and certainly not an amount we could afford on a single salary family. I'm off the Kia idea for sure now!
What did you mean by tarago's being a death trap?
Have looked at the ssyangyong stavic but it's a deisel engine which I'm not too keen on, but used ones come in at an affordable price. It's a never ending search hey.
Hope you have no more problems with your Kia.
Kate.

[Cougar]

great thread ladies, lots of info

i am in the process of looking for a new car ( well second hand) i have a toyota prado 8 seater, and when i have all my kids in there and myself (7 of us) i can hardly fit anything else in, im lucky to fit the pram in, the only good thing about it, i can fit the 2 car seats in eaither midlle row or back row of seats.i have only had the car for 3 months, after lots of searching 3 months ago, i think i made the wrong decsion..i was warned of kias especially the older models, i was nearly going with a holden captive, but that again no room when i am loaded up...it makes it pretty hard, i am thinking of a tarago, (we used to drive the older ones, and they were very relaible) and kia carnival..just for the room.

[*Efjay*]

Katie, A women at my sons school has one of those. It looks nice. Has fantastic boot space. But I don't know too much more about them. I would like a diesel because I need something with grunt to get up the mountain. But I don't want a 4WD just for that.

My friend who made the comment about targo's said she has seen one to many claims involving the death of passengers. She said the roll easy & also has seen 2 or 3 cases of the fuel tank exploding. She made me promise never to buy one!
Have to remember though it was her job to deal with these sort of claims so she would be seeing those 1 in a million situations but still it was enough to make me look else where.

For me it would probably come down to the iMAX (which comes in petrol but also diesel, but is also very new tot he market so not many 2nd hand ones around yet.) & the Ssangyong.

[ausgirl]

I had a Kia Spectra - hatchback, I got rid of it when things started to go wrong, because yes, once they do start going wrong, then they cost you alot of money. The mechanic at the time told me never to buy a carnival as they are great until you get to a certain number of kms (can't remember how many) and then the timing belt tends to go on a lot of them, very, very costly. I live in a small town and he has had 2 with this fault himself. One caused alot of damage and was incredibly expensive to fix. So NO don't consider a KIA@@@@!!!!!!