r/kiacarnivals

Just test drove the Kia Carnival Hybrid EX, 2nd Seat movement is very hard when trying to get to Third row.

is it because its new?

Will it get easy after few months?

Hey. So, I actually know what’s wrong but wanted to share with the community in case any other Carnival owners ran/run into it.

Our 2024 Carnival LX has ~21k miles and the tires are getting pretty worn, down to about 4/32nds already. I attribute the premature wear to my wife’s heavy right foot since she drives like a bat out of hell and brakes hard. We’ll see what happens when we put some new shoes on next spring.

Anyway, we were coming back from a short (100mi) road trip and I noticed the van was HOWLING at like 55mph. It was very speed dependent, down to about 30mph and louder at higher speeds.

My initial suspicion was a wheel bearing since it was independent of the transmission speed and clearly tied to one of the rotating assemblies. However, after carefully listening for a while, I noticed the sound disappeared entirely over recently repaired patches of road with deep grooves.

So all that said, I’m 99.5% sure that the tires have reached a very specific point of wear that it chops the air against the road nearly the same as a traditional tornado siren. The sound then disappears entirely on sections of road with parallel groves because the tires can’t compress the air against the road.

I leased a 26 carnival in march this year and have had a great appreciation for the tech and vehicle . however something crazy happened this weekend and i wanted to post this here for wider reach and if others experience this in future.

What Happened:

- Car is fine and cruising on freeway
- I receive a EMS warning 
- Car starts to slow down, I press the accelerator pedal and no response
- Car continues to slow down and coming to a full stop
- I pull over the car to the side of the left lane thankfully as cars zip past me at 70+ mph
- Tried to re activate drive mode and press accelerator and no response
- Turned off the car and turned it back on, check engine light still on
- Could activate drive mode and exit safely
- Check engine was on until i reached home
- turned off the car for few hours and post that engine light is gone
- took to dealership for service , some codes found but could not duplicate issue or find out anything out of specs for a fix and car was released back with no fix

Driving conditions:

- Time: ~11:45 AM
- Mileage: 2200 miles
- Weather: Sunny, clear clouds, temperature of ~75 degree F
- Lane: Left most lane on the freeway, small gap on the left and then barricade
- Occupancy: 7 people, 2 adults in front, 3 children in car seats in middle, 2 adults in back

Vehicle Settings:
- Speed ~65 MPH
- Steering Assist, Car Distance maintenance, Lane Maintainece, Cruise control,  all driving assist features activated when the issue occurred
- Carplay active
- Front and Rear AC ON

I don’t feel comfortable to drive knowing this can happen again and a major safety hazard. i have written to kia customer care as well. Posting here to see if anyone else has gone through this issue.

2024 Kia carnival EX. This issue hasn’t happened to me yet so I’m relaying info from wife. She said the vehicle wouldn’t start for her today. She said the brake wouldn’t even press down like it usually does when you go to start the car. She said it barely would and when pressed start button the screen and AC comes on but car doesn’t start. She said after several attempts the brake eventually went down and car started.

She drove it around and I was at work so asked her to run it to autozone to be tested. She said it tested good but they said that that could be false positive since had been driving around so they didn’t know for sure if battery or not is bad.

Now tonight after car had sit for 5-6 hours it wouldn’t start for her tonight. Same issue brake wouldn’t press down then eventually would.

As far as I can tell nothing has been left on to drain battery.

Only weird thing out of originally would be that she took the vehicle to dealership a few days ago so they could work on a couple recalls. She said since then she’s got a few alerts on the screen saying things she hadn’t seen before. Only specific one she remembers was asking to sync contacts. But also something else she couldn’t remember that she hadn’t seen before.

Any advice is greatly appreciated thank you!

thank you to the people who commented actual help! I feel good about walking away & knowing it was an insane monthly! 🫶🏽

what is everyone’s monthly payment??
I just left the dealership empty handed due to what the monthly would be…

here’s a breakdown
car price : $45,488.19 *out the door including est taxes*
apr : 12%
trade in value : $17k
negative equity: $3k
term : 84 months

monthly price given : $1200 +

is that not insane??
i even added in negative equity they said they’d cover 100%. i keep running the math and i am not getting where they got that monthly from.

I bought a brand new 2024 Kia Carnival SX Prestige back in mid-2024.
I live in SoCal, so zero snow, just a lot of hot pavement) and have put about 33,000 miles on it so far.
The dealership mechanic just told me the tread is completely gone and I need a full replacement. Does it make sense to burn through factory tires this fast, or is it possible I got a defective set?

Assuming I need to bite the bullet and replace them:
- What tires do you guys recommend for a heavy FWD minivan in a hot, dry climate? (I'm looking at the Michelin Defender 2, but open to suggestions).

- Where should I get them installed? Is there any reason to use the Kia dealership service center, or am I better off just going to Costco?

Appreciate the help!

Managed to track down a local dealer (Colorado) that has an Astra Blue/Tuscan umber SXP hybrid in transit, but they said they would be selling it as MSRP minus incentives (which aren’t clear at the moment).

I think the combination is dreamy, but I don’t want to miss a good deal.

The sticker price ($55,990) includes carpet floor mats, cargo tray, and a small first aid kit according to the window sticker they sent me. If those are factory sent, can I negotiate the cost down?

For other less awesome combinations, I’ve been given an OTD price of around $59,200 though that’s before some negotiation.

Here is how the dealer broke down the costs for the Astra Blue:

MSRP: $55,990
D&H: $699
Fees: $105.20
Taxes: $4591.19
Total OTD without incentives: $61,385.39

Do I ask what the incentives are or do I give up since they won’t negotiate aside from the incentives?

I have been in the market for both Sienna and Carnival and also part of both Reddit groups. I am seeing new posts of people buying carnival everyday, but I barely see any such posts on Sienna group.. I know it’s anecdotal but are Carnival sales really going through the roof and is this an indirect sign of it?

Hey Carnibros. Got a quick question here if you folks can help address please.

I got the Kia Carnival Hybrid (2025), and have absolutely loved how much gas it saves on a monster size vehicle here. Now, I want to ask about regenerative braking here.

According to my understanding, there are 3 levels that I can activate and tweak via the pedal shifters. Upon activating them, the vehicle will brake once I lift my foot off pedal, and absorb the motion energy, then convert it to electricity, which recharges the car's battery.

Here are my questions :

1. From that regenerative braking, it only helps with battery charge, which will then allow me to use more "battery" driving, if conditions permit e.g. low speed, constant speed or going down hills...etc. It does not directly help save more fuel by simply activating the regenerative braking. Does it ? My question is also that, does it make much of a difference if I don't turn this on ? Will battery really deplete or go below certain level, thus disabling the "battery" driving more often ? I mean this battery is also the one that turns on the car so in theory it won't really run out of juice. Right ?

2. I kind of dislike how the regenerative braking does not stick with my car profile / car settings. Every single time I start the car, I have to tap the pedal shifters to activate it. Is there a way in settings to have it saved ? Or I do have to manually do this every single ride ?

Thanks a lot !!!