2024 Kia Carnival vs Old Carnival: Key Changes Explained

Compared to the older version, the new Carnival has a much more modern design, a premium interior, and more features

The 2024 Kia Carnival has been launched at Rs 63.90 lakh (introductory, ex-showroom pan-India), and it has returned to the Indian market after a year of its discontinuation, now in its facelifted fourth-generation avatar. Compared to the previous second-generation model, which was on sale in India till July 2023, the new-gen Carnival has a more modern design, a more premium-looking cabin, and a lot of new features. Let’s see how different the new Carnival is compared to the old one.

Design

The design of the Carnival has evolved a lot and the major change in the front is that it has gone from curvy to boxy over the last two generations. The fourth-generation Carnival has a squared-off fascia, which features a massive grille, vertically placed 4-piece LED headlamps, a slim bumper, and the LED DRLs with L-shaped elements run up to the centre of the grille.

From the sides, the overall silhouette looks quite similar, but the A-pillar is more raked now, and the 3rd row window is also bigger. While the wheel size is still 18-inches, the new model gets more stylish alloys to go with the latest design.

It’s at the back that the changes are more prominent. The fourth-generation has a more muscular design with a bigger bumper, and also gets a connected LED tail lamp setup with L-shaped lighting elements.

Interior

In the last two generations, many significant changes have been made to the cabin of the Carnival. While both have a dual-tone cabin, the newer one gets a black and brown cabin theme, where the dashboard is finished in all-black and the seats are covered in brown leatherette upholstery.

The cabin layout is also more minimalistic, with a flat dashboard, and an ambient lighting strip running across its width. It also gets a freshly designed steering wheel compared to the second-generation model, and the cabin is driver-centric, with the screens and the AC controls, both slightly oriented towards the driver.

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There has been one change in the cabin which is very important. While the second-generation Carnival was available in multiple seating layouts, the current one is offered only in a 7-seater configuration, with captain seats in the second row and a bench seat in the third.

Features

The fourth-generation Carnival has a much longer features list as compared to the last version that was on sale in India. It gets dual-integrated 12.3-inch screens (touchscreen infotainment and digital driver’s display), an 11-inch heads-up display, 12-way powered driver seat with lumbar support, and an 8-way powered front passenger seat.

It also gets powered second row seats with heating and ventilation, dual single-pane sunroofs, a wireless phone charger, a 12-speaker BOSE sound system, and 3-zone climate control.

In terms of safety, it offers 8 airbags, all-four disc brakes, a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), a 360-degree camera, and Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) features like adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, and lane keep assist.

The second-generation Carnival offered features like an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, 3-zone climate control, two single-pane sunroofs, ventilated driver seat, 10-way powered driver seat, 6 airbags, a tyre pressure monitoring system, and a rear parking camera.

Powertrain

Kia offers the fourth-gen Carnival with a 2.2-litre diesel engine, just like the older version, but the new Carnival’s engine has a slightly lower power output. The torque and transmission, on the other hand, remains the same.

Price & Rivals

Kia has priced the new Carnival at Rs 63.90 lakh, and the last recorded price of the second-generation model was from Rs 30.99 lakh. At its price point, it serves as a premium alternative to the Toyota Innova Hycross and Maruti Invicto, while also being an affordable option to the Toyota Vellfire and Lexus LM.

All prices, ex-showroom pan-India

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