Test drive Kia Carnival (Sedona) 2002 - 2006 Minivan

Squeezing wind

Kia Carnival 2.5
A full-size seven- or eight-seater wen with three rows of seats debuted in 1998, and in 2002 was updated.
It is equipped with a V6 2.5 liter gasoline engine or diesel boost of 2.9 liters. Front drive, gearbox is a five -speed mechanical or four -speed machine.
In some countries, this model with a 3.5 l engine and an automatic gearbox is known as a saddle.
In Russia, carnivals collected in Kaliningrad are sold by the company Avtotor. The price range is from $ 22 150 to 26 200, the cost of a test car is $ 22,220.

Windjammer (Windjammer) literally squeezing the wind. This is the name of tea clippers of high -speed vessels with a huge area of \u200b\u200bsails that made record -fast transitions from the Indian Ocean to Europe around Africa with a perishable cargo of a tea leaf.

We take everything!
... Mountain of bags, backpacks, coffee, some bags packed almost to the chandelier. The composition was crowned with a tanya doll with a player and a wiped plush bear, in size close to the prototype. Yes, perhaps I got excited, with arrogantly throwing in the morning: the car is large, you can take with you everything you want. The family took my words literally. Well, at least they left the furniture.
However, the car is really large. Kia carnival with a length of nearly five meters belongs to the so-called full-sized mini-wans: in the cabin with a small room with a small room, three rows of full-fledged seats for seven adult passengers are installed. The idea of \u200b\u200bdismantling an extra row (there are only four of us, and the chairs of two back rows can be removed literally in one movement) The youngest daughter stopped fundamentally: I will sleep here!.
Suddenly, all the equipment pushed through the car the benefit in it many drawers, shelves and secluded places. For the tool, first -aid kits, cable and other necessary things there was a wonderful place under the driver's seat: there are about 30 liters of free space. In the trunk, perhaps, the grid would not hurt that when opening the fifth door, a wall of bags would not collapse. The long load on the floor is not putting the massive bases of the seats, because the cover with skiing is located on the roof, there are relings with two mobile crossbars.
The carnival spent the night in an ordinary garage, taking it almost without a trace. It was necessary to unfold on a close patch in several receptions, because a considerable wheelbase of 2.9 m also determines a large radius of a rotation of 6.5 m. However, an excellent review, a huge area of \u200b\u200bglazing and large external mirrors help to feel well.
 
The machine of space
Early in the morning, we start on a rather deserted at this time of the year, the M4 Don highway. The weather is vile snow with the rain. But somewhere there, one and a half thousand kilometers to the south, the sea, palm trees and the sun are not as hot as in the summer.
The first tens of kilometers I live behind the wheel, getting used to the car. She is very fast, but unusually quiet and comfortable, neither a motor, nor whistle of wind, nor the noise of the wheels is heard. The speed is not at all felt, so the first time you have to constantly control yourself along the speedometer. If the device for moving in time is called the time machine, then Kia carnival with the full base can be called a machine of space. It is also modestly said: this express literally devours kilometers easily, as if playfully.
The motor transversely V-shaped six with a capacity of 150 liters. With. Only at a dynamic start gives himself a muffled roar. To improve thrust at low speeds, its maximum power was reduced, before restyling it was 165 liters. With. It is the ability of the engine to complete return without visible tension that makes a simple torn city ride on a heavy two -ton van. But still, his true purpose is a silent flight along the highway.
High landing (and the driver's head is located at an altitude of 1.6 m from the roadway) allows you to look over the roofs of cars, it is better to predict the situation on the road and calculate overtaking in advance. The latter is important: the carnival of the car is heavy and inert, and the V is long, on it it rushes easily and quickly, but reluctantly accelerates. Someone buried in the stern for a jerk will have to switch down. Better she shoots the car on the third, like a gun. Then immediately the fifth and silent flight again. It seems that the normal cruising speed for the carnival of 130150 km/h is perfectly on the road, does not react at all to the ruts sold in asphalt and easily takes off to the climbs. If the speed fell to a hundred, you can not do without IV transmission.

More for gas less holes!
Closer to Voronezh, the price of the 92nd fell to 9 rubles. 40 kopecks. And the light bulb on the gas station caught fire. First refueling: 482 km took 69.9 liters. Total 14.5 liters per hundred. A lot, I am used to more modest passenger appetites. But if you take into account the size, weight and speed of the machine, then everything converges.
The carnival management is very light, and the long gear ratio of the mechanism (3.5 turns from the stop to the stop) also indicates the styer character of the machine, it does not bother the need to make accurate millimeter movements. The flip side when maneuvering the steering wheel intercept more often than usual. However, a high, crucial carnival on a soft suspension did not stick to the tires of the tires into turns, they must be passed smoothly, without losing dignity.
It is about this suspension that is more than the gas is said less than the pits: if at low and medium speeds it just works well, then as the road is reduced as if it is smoothed out, strokes and shocks from numerous potholes after winter are extinguished without a trace. Meanwhile, the design is traditional: in front of McEferson on the subframe, the continuous beam on five levers, like that of the VAZ classics, with a passive (unknown) bridge.

TO STAND! AFRAID!
Rostov Region, Krasnodar Territory: There are many plywood silhouettes of patrol machines on the sidelines, at the DPS posts a mandatory sign of Stop. In front of him you need to do ku-ou-uu with squat, followed vigilantly by traffic cops. And they are very surprised when they find out that such an installation of a sign is wrong and illegal. Dear inspectors, teach traffic rules!
The passengers managed to get settled: each has a comfortable velor chair with a couple of adjustments, armrests and soft head restraints, an individual lighting and ventilation unit, and backlighting at the bottom of the doors.
I, too, got used to the wheel by the way, the adjustable steering column is tilted quite strongly, almost like in an ordinary passenger car. The parking brake turns on in amicable pedal. A short lever of the gearbox right at hand, on the ledge of the central console, just above the climate control unit is complicated, but exhaustively multifunctional. For example, in addition to just climate control, there is automatic control of air purity next to some charming KamAZ itself will join the recirculation mode. The rain sensor if necessary will give the command to the wipers, and the indicator of the outer temperature will tell you that it has warmed. Incidentally, all this splendor of $ 22,220 is another full -size car, even in the budgetary configuration itself, simply cannot be found for that kind of money.
But it really got warmer, snow outside the windows has long been gone. Late in the evening, we pass a low ridge pass and rolling to the sea here is already spring. Slightly stunning from the road, I just can’t believe that the distance that I had long ago passed in two days in the carnival flew in a day!
Then there were Sochi palm trees, blooming mimosa in Adler here is a real spring, plus twenty -two! A lapel in the mountains, cut down along the stormy Mzymta, the road in the rocks, where the carnival seemed to have barely fit into steep bends, and, finally, a short rest in Krasnaya Polyana. And on the way back the snow fell, covering with caps blooming trees. Two stamps with an overnight stay in terrible wagons in Kamensk and we are at home again. Total, in four chassis 3522 km with an average fuel consumption 13.9/100 km.

KRASNAYA POLYANA
In the distant past, the shortest path from the North Caucasus to the Black Sea went through the Mzymt River Valley. The ruins of more than twenty ancient fortresses were discovered here. At 40 km from the coast, a century and a half ago, the Circassian village of KBAADE was located, which, after conquering by the White Tsar, came into desolation. In the fall of 1878, 36 Greek families appeared here immigrants from the Stavropol province. Struck by the beauty of red-brown fern, scarlet and golden maples, cherries, they called this place in a red clearing. A little later, the Estonian settlers settled four kilometers upstream, naming the Esto-Sadok Estonian garden.
Today, Krasnaya Polyana is a beautiful natural reserve and resort. Hotels of any level, rafting rafting on rafts on Mzymta, horse riding, paraglider flights, and tourist routes. Gurmans can independently catch the trout, which they will be fed to the table in a quarter of an hour. But the most important thing is one of the largest ski centers in the Caucasus. The lower station of the Parkresel lifts is located at an altitude of 540 m, the fourth queue rises to 2228 m, above the level of forests. You can ride here from November to April-May. Imagine snow and skis in the morning, and in the evening you can go down to the sea!

Kia Carnival finds new guises! Autotor company has prepared two modifications to the well-known car mini-ven for the production of increased comfort and taxi.
Lux for businessmen inherited the best qualities of ordinary seven-seater wen: high smoothness, low internal noise, air conditioning with uniform distribution of air flows. The spacious salon with the corresponding cross-seats (now five) and the installation of a small elegant table creates, if not a chic, then a decent atmosphere for the VIP-person. Cosiness and confidentiality of communication are provided by a soundproof partition between passengers and a driver. Additional equipment in the form of a bar, refrigerator, audiovideosystems, satellite communication and other things depends on the desire, imagination and thickness of the customer’s wallet.
In the taxi version, the carnival has undergone more significant changes. The gasoline engine changed a more painful and economical turbodiesel with a volume of 2.9 liters. Given the specifics of the operation of the car, the layout and equipment of the salon have been changed. The surface of the floor is leveled and covered with special nonsense. The back row of seats is shifted as forward to increase the volume of the luggage compartment. In return for the dismantled medium seats, one folding is installed, and the front is deployed against the move. This provides a convenient planting and landing of passengers through the side sliding doors and allows you to place additional luggage in the front of the cabin.
In the capital, the carnavaly-Taxi will be operated by the KEB metro enterprise. It will also complete the machine supplied by the car with special equipment: a partition behind the driver, the cash register and additional seats. At the first stage, it is planned to start the operation of 100 taxis in Moscow and the region. In the future, supplies to other major cities of Russia will be organized.

+ A spacious comfortable interior, many transformation options, excellent sound insulation, high smoothness, a full -fledged third row of seats, attractive price.
- High fuel consumption in the city, a large turning radius, large dimensions.
 
 

 
Yuri Nechetov. Photo by the author

A source: The magazine "Driving"