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Well the CBU taxes were kept to protect the local players who take the effort to manufacture their cars here in India, provide jobs as well as contribute to the local development in many ways . But i believe Australia doesn't need to protect anything as their local players are negligible.

The car looks very good from all the photos. The fit and finish is good. All the tech is as per the latest generation cars. However I foresee few concerns for the potential end users.

1. The last row does not appear to be big enough to fit 3 people. So is this only a 6 seater car.
2. The engine performance is adequate but not exciting. For 75 lakhs on road, 0-100 in 10.7 seconds is unacceptable. A Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder AT will be doing 11.99 seconds in the power mode. (Link). How will you feel when a simple mass market car is overtaking you.
3. If the previous version of Kia Carnival was retailing below 40 lakhs, as a consumer I fail to understand why to pay Rs 75 lakhs for the new version. As such there are no significant technology upgrades (read engine) which requires so much premium.

I may pay Rs 75 lakhs if I have excess money in my pocket (read politician) and want to have a standout car with big road presence on the road. But luxury buyers? Not sure.

My daughter was in love with carnival when we went to book Seltos GTX+. It was way above our budget then. My budget has more than doubled now. But it is still way over our budget lol:

Jokes apart, it is one good looking fully loaded MPV. Kia trying to position themself as a premium brand compared to Hyundai.

If you notice our drive report, your assumption goes against our observations.

Since I own a Diesel Tucson based on the same N3 platform, almost all of the driving controls were too familiar to me.

Do notice that the Carnival is 2270kg vs the 1600kg of Tucson, while having also similar bhp/torque specs. So, we did expect it to be sluggish. However, it was not sluggish at all, unless you try to drive it like a sports car. But it is meant to be a chauffeur driven car, so we drove it like one. That means smooth acceleration, and it responded very well. Overtakes were a breeze, we never had to struggle. If you drive it like an MPV, you can't really complain about the engine.

We discussed this with KIA. As we understand, it is really about positioning. Being a SKD, they plan to import only 300/month and that is the position they have chosen on the demand curve. It is quite superior to top-end Fortuner, and the customers who can pay the extra premium will appreciate what it offers over Fortuner.

Excellent review team. Its looking beautiful but with a sticker price upward of 73 lacs it's pricey. I bought mine in 2021 at about 40% of the price with the same engine power specs. I was joking to the kia sales executive why don't I ask for 45 lacs for my car now rl:

Was it not always the case that Carnival was very superior to Fortuner. Hence it was a success in its limited way. It was never the mass market car. However, now the comparison will be between the previous generation Carnival vs next generation Carnival.

I see a similar comparison between previous generation Superb vs Current Superb. Current Superb is similarly overpriced and has lot of premium features like Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC), which were not there in the previous gen. However the car is not selling because of the steep hike.

Anyway, this is just my view.

If new Carnival does well and create good demand, the old Carnival owners might be the happiest. The resale price will go up.

I seriously doubt whether Kia brand will be able to pull people to sales with that kind of money.

Test drove Carnival v1 in 2021 and loved it. The vehicle, price point, and value were spot on. Family folks wanted to book on the spot.

Two things went against our (read my) decision to invest in Carnival:

1. MPV looks vs SUV
2. True enjoyment in row 2 rather than in the driver's seat - my setup is not chauffeur-driven, and I didn't see myself driving this big MPV

In the v2 avatar, Kia has doubled the asking price, which I believe is driven by the CKD path. It's not good for its sales, and at the new asking price, they have killed any chance for Carnival to go "mainstream."

Unfortunately, it was already a tough sell at the original half-asking price because of the pricing proximity to Innova & Fortuner. They may not be genuine comparisons, but you can't stop people from doing the 2x2 charts in their heads. With this new price, they have taken it into Lexus's territory. Unless the intended audience needs a 3-seater Luxury MPV, most folks with access to 60 petis to toss on an MPV will consider a luxury brand, which Kia is not as good as Carnival might be on paper & the road.

Had taken a test drive in previous generation Carnival. While the strengths are highlighted adequately - price, spacious interiors, comfort oriented suspension / driving dynamics, well kitted, practical to travel for 6 adults and luggage etc. The reason why we could not shortlist the car was due to the following

1) Cannot be a self drive vehicle - it will just tire you in city traffic
2) Looks (its an issue with all MPVs honestly speaking)

These two concerns remain and there is a new concern added to the list - The obnoxious PRICE!

At over 75 lacs on road I doubt Kia will be able to sell 300 copies a month that they are targeting. For a Carnival customer the reference price will always be the prev gen Carnival. There is no way to justify almost doubling the price. Given that the car sales growth rates are anyways headed south its also a tough market in India right now.

My assessment - DOA. Kia should have got this as CKD like the previous gen and priced it under 50 lacs on road (maybe introduced a lower spec variant as well). At 75 lacs there's also the GLB / EQB 7 seater that comes into the picture. While not as spacious as the Carnival the brand pull of the Three Pointed Star will eat Kia for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 75 lacs in India can't be just about utility - and if it's just about utility then the market size is much smaller at that price point.

Kia should have launched a more affordable, bare-bones variant aiming at the commercial segment. We are seeing a lot of Hybrid Hycross as cabs, I even came across an Instagram post of a travel agency that recently added a brand new Vellfire to its fleet, so at least some star hotels and elite travel agencies would have bought a good number of Carnivals.

Even at a price point of 50L OTR, I won't be able to afford a Carnival, but I would love to travel in a yellow board one for long journeys instead of an Innova!

I like it. It is always good to see a manufacturer open up new segments in the market. Who better to do this than the industrious Koreans. The pricing may be a little hard to swallow though. Paying this much money puts you in dangerously in the line of fire of European sedans and that is not good. The EV6 was at the top end of the uniqueness spectrum to pull off its price, but I'm worried the Carnival may not be. A person shopping here, might just buy a 3-series LWB instead for the optics a luxury brand brings with it. I would love to see their detailed price breakdown and margins before I comment on the quality of the pricing. Otherwise, this Kia offers a lot by way of comfort and livability for the driven-around folk.

We have the previous gen carnival as a family touring car and it gets the job done with aplomb. However, this is not a car you drive around in. This is strictly a chauffeur driven car. Even on highways, you are better off with anything else if you are the one driving. The version we have is the 6 seater one with 6 captain chairs. I wish they launched that one too as we often use it for a family of 4 + driver and all our luggage.

Carnival is a great fit monetary wise. It slots right in between the common MPV's like Hycross and Executive MPV's like the Vellfire. But I do not think the Kia badge has enough cache at this price point. EV6, as a similarly priced product and in fact much superior in terms of features and range compared to other EV's did not find any takers. How can carnival catering to a similar niche (different set of buyers) find success? The heart wants Carnival to succeed since it is an awesome product. But the mind is not so sure.

https://youtu.be/NEdLSt-iKZQ?si=wsbc18zukCCIsvym

Interesting Insights from the Video:

Q. Why is only Limousine Plus Variant offered?
A) 81% of previous Gen-Carnival were sold in Limousine and Limousine Plus variants.

Q. Why are only 2 colours being offered?
A) Previous gen-Carnival colorwise sales breakdown:
40% White
50% Black
10% Silver

- Kia sold 3550 Carnivals in 2022, and they have received close to 3000 bookings for the new Carnival. They have received bookings more than expected and are requesting HQ to ramp up production.

- It will continue to be assembled in the SKD format.

Q. Would Kia enter the dying Sedan segment?
A) Kia is not going to venture into the Sedan segment.

- Kia will have mass EVs starting in 2025.

IMO, It's not the products that primarily commands a price, but it's the brand.

Toyota, even though they started with a utilitarian Qualis, they soon realized the trap (of a budget brand) that they would fall into, and at the time when Qualis was still a best-seller, they replaced it with Innova, which was then a revolutionary (and luxury) product. With the H-U-G-E demand, they slowly increased the prices, and finally, they were successful in building a brand of a reliable LUXURY car manufacturer.

The KIA brand, on the other hand, stands for Reliable, feature-rich cars at value-for-money prices in Indian markets. Their offerings - be it Sonet or Seltos or even the KIA Carens - reflect this. They never made a conscious effort in upgrading themselves to a luxury brand, the way Toyota did. They tried their hand in making a leap to a luxury brand by introducing Carnival at Rs. 45 lakhs (still about 10 lakhs cheaper than Fortuner), but sales never really took off. Even EV6 was a flop.

Take Maruti, for instance. Everyone knows that Toyota Hycross and Maruti Invicto are one and the same. However, no one really wants to buy a Maruti Invicto, even after Maruti is offering a 2 lakhs discount on it. Reason is they don't associate Maruti as a luxury brand. They would happily queue up at a Toyota showroom for 6 months to lay their hands on Hycross, rather than an Invicto.

So, my guess is that people who have the money to buy a Carnival will either "upgrade" to a Toyota Vellfire or settle for a Hycross or may be get a Fortuner.