[vvivek85]

Cars has always been an integral part of my life, I had inclination towards cars right from childhood, I still remember my family getting me Maruti 800 cake for one of my birthday. I am blessed to have had opportunities to own multiple cars in last 14 years, it all started with modest Maruti Suzuki Alto which we got way back in 2010. Since then we purchased Hyundai Xcent in 2014, Hyundai Venue in 2019 and latest entrant to our family Kia Carens. Cars might have changed, but the passion and love which have on cars has 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 utmost respect they will serve us forever.

Baring Alto, Teambhp 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 as 20 Lakhs, considering spending 20 grands is a huge affair for us, I started with the ground work in 2022. During initial phase I was more inclined to EV, 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 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 on 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 are prone to issues, no disrespect to any prospective owners here, with heavy heart I have to move away from one of the great looking cars in the country.

Mahindra

I test drove XUV7OO diesel auto and below was 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 in my list, but we just test drove



For a brief period I contemplated on going for base model which was around 25 L. Later knocked 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 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 source to Hyundai that there are suspension issues with Alcazar, he asked me to refrain from getting it.

Kia

Kia Carens wasn’t in my list at all, for some reasons 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 on why not we test drive again as I am seeing really good reviews. Maybe we missed something during the initial drive. So I called a Kun Kia Arumbakkam for a test drive, immediately Mr Vijay came home with the iMT. This time we found sorted out the seating and we liked the drive.



So we have zeroed down on Kia Carens, we decided to go for DCT. Variant 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 thoughts we finally decided to go for the top end cherry red.

We paid advance of 25000 on 22nd Jan 24, I was informed on delivery 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 upon 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 with Kun Kia.

I received a call from Mr Vijay on February 24th that car is dispatched from plant and I can do PDI on Monday which is 26th February. I went to Ambattur yard on 26th February did a PDI everything was normal. Considering that 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 brochure. Looks like Kia has stopped it, poor from Kia, they shouldn’t be giving false claim.I checked VIN it was a February 24 make, apart from that one glitch all was fine, I agreed to release payment on Tuesday. Car was registered on February 28th 2024, I planned to take delivery on March 1st as February 29th I will be struck in month end close.

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 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, reached 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 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 dealership experience as 10/10, was very satisfied with Mr Vijay, I gifted him a Parker pen.



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



Carens is atleast 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 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 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 rear lights.



New digital instrument cluster in top variants



Touch screen is just top notch and has good clear, but I found out 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 are there for atleast 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.



Ample amount of leg space is available in second row, you have an option to slide back the second row.



Third row space is usable even for adults, my wife who is around 5.6 can accommodate without any issues. Main reason for me to go for Carens



Cont

[vvivek85]

Useable boot with all rows up, notice welpro provided to hold that little piece of flap from swinging





Seat belt holder for second and third row passengers. Well done Kia. A nitpicking, could have done for front passenger seat as well, while driving alone the passenger seat belt does make some noise.





Gear lever feels sturdy and premium. Notice wireless changing pads for mobiles, buttons for ventilated seats, parking sensors activation, rear camera activation and drive modes.



Seats offer excellent comfort, ventilated seats are a boon to a city like Chennai.



Steering controls are to last long, while horn sounds sweet, one gets to hear annoying click sound wherever horn pad is pressed.



Digital instrument cluster displays when doors, boot and even front hood isn’t closed. Excellent



Puddle lamp in rear doors, for front too they could have provided.



Sun blinds for rear passengers, so useful during hot summer



Fully functional smart key, duplicate too they have provided a smart key. Full marks to Kia.



I presume it to be a car sim, it is at the middle where front windshield and dashboard intersects



Car body cover was provided in a small carry bag with do’s and don’ts, cool stuff



Driving 1.5 DCT

Press the brake and start the car, there is a pin drop silence. Slot the car to D it crawls with no input to accelerator. With a gentle tap, immediately it moves to D2 within no time. After that D3 gets slotted at 25KMPH, D4 close to 40 KMPH, D5 at 50 D6 close to 60 and D7 at 78 KMPH. Gear shifts are seamless and smooth, unless one notices you will not get the feel of gear changes. The least gear the system slots during crawling traffic is D2, D1 is engaged when the car comes to a complete stop. To avoid DCT issues, I am making it a point to slot the car to N whenever the wait time is bit high. While driving in flyover the system will not slot the gear as mentioned above, it is intelligent enough to sense the effort put by the engine, however during moderate traffic if we drive around 22 KMPH to 24 KMPH for even 20 to 25 secs system is not intelligent enough to move to next gear, this results in engine grunt heard in the cabin. Around 20 KMPL engine braking is a little bit evident where one need to be prepared.

More than city DCT is suitable for highway driving, due to 7th gear availability one can cruise at 90 KMPH in 1500 RPM. This is such a bliss, there is absolute no efforts from the engine and you don’t feel hitting 100. I had to be cautious couple of times when went on a short highway trip.

Coming to mileage

Heavy traffic - Around 8 KMPL (I used to get 10 KMPL on my Venue with same kind of traffic)
Moving traffic - Around 11 KMPL

Highways- 16 KMPL to 19 KMPL
This was taken when we went to Kanchipuram on the eve of Shivaratri, the initial 25 to 30 Kms was with moderate traffic, return journey I got close to 19 KMPL. This is excellent for a car of this size.



Suspension

Apart from space one other reason for me to choose this car was its suspension. I can say it with confidence, this is the best car I have driven, small potholes which were felt earlier in my Venue isn’t felt at all. In highway the car just sails through with nothing felt inside the cabin. In my 500 KMs drive till date, only once I heard a thud sound on hitting the pothole. Even Hycross suspension can’t be matched with Carens.

Other points

- Kia connect app gives information if the car is not locked. There is a provision to lock, unlock, start, stop, turn on AC from remote.
- With key near the vicinity when you are near driver door, OVRM opens automatically, it can be turned off which I duly did.
- Boot door can also be opened with keys near the vicinity.
- If you turn off the car in N, there is a prompt requesting to move it to P.
- Front parking sensor gets deactivated at 30 KMPL, one needs to manually activate it again during tight space. At the same time, when R is slotted, both front and rear sensors are activated.
- There is a fraction of a second delay in acceleration input vs acceleration. This was there in Venue as well.
- One touch indicator can be modified to 3 times 5 times and 6 or 7 times.
- While on a call via apple car play, indicator beep sound is very feeble.
- AC is a chiller, I can live with 22 or 23. There is a separate fan speed adjuster for rear passengers. At 2 the fan sound is very evident.
- Mats purchased from Kia is off good quality, it is designed in a way that it fits the place.

Conclusion

Am I happy with the purchase? In deed a big YES. Don’t I miss anything in this car? I do miss a 360* camera, electronic parking brake, some nice to have ones such as ADAS and panoramic sunroof. However, I always believe form shouldn’t be over function. My requirement was a good 7 seater car and this car fits the requirements and coming to cost now a days we have 5 seater cars selling at 25L, I paid 2L less and still getting 2 extra seats, great engine, top notch transmission, excellent features, brilliant ride quality. So I feel it is ok to forego the misses, after all life is all about getting some and letting go some.

Thanks all for reading through my post, I hope you found it useful.

Cheers

[pandabear]

Congratulations on your new car and wish you many happy and safe miles. I had test driven the Karens and found that third row seating was exceptional. Great choice for the family.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by vvivek85

Thanks all for reading through my post, I hope you found it useful.

Cheers

Congratulations on your Carens! It's certainly a very good and I had walked in to get it, but was bowled by seltos facelift and hence went with it. If I had requirement of 6-7 seats, there sure would be a Carens in my garage instead of seltos !

Regarding front parking sensors, you don't need to manually activate them. If something is closeby and your car is in D mode it will automatically activate. Atleast this is how front parking sensors of seltos works. We can also customise this behaviour in touchscreen.

[Knightrider]

Congratulations on your Carens!
Good that you took the test drive again to realize how comfortable and spacious it is in comparison to other 7 seater cars in that price range.

[krishsreedharan]

Congratulations on the Carens! I have the similar model which I took delivery off in May 2023. I love the new instrument cluster and I will check if that can be retrofitted into my older 7DCT. Wish you miles and miles of smiles. It is a very capable car.

[BoneCollector]

Congratulations on your superb purchase.

Request you to share a few snaps with some luggage in boot with all the seats up.

How are the headlights?

[vvivek85]

Thanks all for your wishes

Originally Posted by 07CR

Regarding front parking sensors. We can also customise this behaviour in touchscreen.

Will check the settings and activate it, I vaguely remember seeing something on those grounds.

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

Congratulations on your superb purchase.

Request you to share a few snaps with some luggage in boot with all the seats up.

How are the headlights?

I will share a snap with luggage in few days, regarding headlights I will rate it 7 on 10. Not great, but not as bad as Venue. High beam has a decent throw and is manageable.

[swami69]

Kia Carens is an awesome car which is extremely VFM in my opinion. Does not compromise much on anything. Has good ground clearance, large wheels, excellent space management, good distribution of A/C vents, Adjustable middle row seats, Plush interiors, entertainment system with a very descent Audio, above all, pretty descent engine and transmission. What more @ 20+ lakhs.

Congratulations and I have the same, Luxury (O) White. It is extremely comfortable for my family of 4 (all adults) + our 3 year Labrador on long trips - recently made a 7 hour trip to Yercaud without any stress for anyone. Happy miles.

Someone had asked about the space above, i had couple of pictures to share - various seating configurations possible and they are almost flat - probably a low 5% incline which doesn't really bother much.









Once again congratulations.

Swami

[quasimodo]

Originally Posted by swami69

Attachment 2584064

Attachment 2584065


Swami

Hi Swami,

Which is the mat that you are using? We also travel with out lab and I feel that the mat would be a great addition to give him a comfortable level-surface.

[swami69]

Originally Posted by quasimodo

Hi Swami,

Which is the mat that you are using? We also travel with out lab and I feel that the mat would be a great addition to give him a comfortable level-surface.

This is a quilted rexin mat which was purchased from the Upholstery selling market (you will surely have in your place) and then custom stitched considering various combinations of seating arrangement in the Carens.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by vvivek85

I will share a snap with luggage in few days, regarding headlights I will rate it 7 on 10.

Originally Posted by swami69

Someone had asked about the space above,

Thanks for the snaps. Can you please share the seatbelt arrangement of middle seat? I've read that Carens has got 3 point ELR seatbelt for all passengers. Just wanted to confirm.

[vijay.s]

Congratulations on the purchase! I must say its an incredible VFM option today if one wants a 7 seater. In-fact, I am on the lookout for a car and was definitely thinking about Carens. But owing to some of the missing features such as 360 camera, panaromic sunroof and ADAS, I am not able to proceed to buy it.

I have been checking daily to see if there is any news on a facelift and if that would get these features in the car especially considering that Alcazar is getting the facelift by June 24.

Any insider information on impending facelift?

[rosh_aveo1.4]

Great review. But surprised you didn't mention the airbags part? I think it comes with 6 airbags as standard right? And even rear disc brakes. That's a great safety point compared to other manufacturers (is the same for Hyundai?). Just wish they do something good on the structure strength which I understand is still a sore point with Kia and Hyundais when it comes to NCAP scores. All the best and wish you lots of happy driving on your new car!

[nightfury95]

Congratulations.

I got my Carens last week. A couple of changes have been done to the car especially the Luxury plus variant over the last couple of weeks. Mine didn't come with the Solar UV cut glass like it was in the brochure when I booked in Jan. Kia for some reason have removed it from the Luxury plus variant recently. And like you mentioned auto up and down for all 4 window is not present in mine either. Other than these two the car has been splendid. Will post my review soon too.