Kia Carens

Kia NZ general manager Todd McDonald doesn’t want us to refer to the new Carens as a people mover. So we won’t. It’s a C-segment station wagon-sized vehicle which carries five adults and two children. John Oxley reports.

To be fair to Todd, the Carens is about as far removed, in terms of appearance and size, from any people mover or MPV on the market. If anything it looks like a slightly higher and longer Cerato wagon, with the Tiger Shark grille prominent, and boldly sculpted side panels.

In fact we asked why it hadn’t been called a Cerato wagon to clear up any confusion, but Todd insisted that Kia was confident the Carens name remained a strong selling point.

However, when you see it for the first time it’s plain that the Carens is based very much on the Cerato, with the same floorpan, and a lot of the same features inside the car.

It’s got a “cabin forward” design, which means there’s a very large windscreen and side quarter vents, and a short bonnet, and the large screen means it gets opposing wipers so there’s a good wipe with no dirty spot.

Roof rails are standard – they are good for 100kg – and it comes with 17 inch alloy wheels shod with low-profile tyres, plus LED daytime running lights and tail lights.

A dash-mounted rearview camera is standard, as are rear parking sensors, and there’s a speed limiter as well as cruise control, plus Bluetooth connectivity. The glovebox doubles as a drinks cooler, and there’s climate control air conditioning, with individual settings for each front occupant. And the rear seat passengers aren’t left out either – they have floor vents under the front seats to keep feet toasty, and there are also vents at the back of the between- seats console.

There are no fewer than 14 stowage spaces, including a couple of secret ones, as well as seatback trays for the centre row passengers.

Whether it’s a people carrier or not, the new Carens certainly has more room for people. Each second row seat moves foreaft through 240mm to balance space with the two individual rear seats, and there’s a flat floor when they’re folded down, giving 492 litres with the third rown folded, and 1,650 litres with both rows flat.

Although 20mm shorter – and much better proportioned – than the previous model, the Carens is still 50mm longer than the Sorento 4WD, and it gets more legroom than its predecessor, as well as a bit more headroom.

An interesting feature we noticed as soon as we got into the Carens for a brief drive was that the hip point is ideally placed for getting easily into, and out of, the car. No need for bending or climbing up into this one. Almost perfect.

Inside the car we were impressed with the soft touch finishes, while the direct injection two-litre motor was certainly no slouch, producing 122kW and 213Nm of torque, all fed through the front wheels via a six- speed auto gearbox. The engine is Euro 5 compliant, and Kia claims average consumption of 7.9L/100km.

On the road the Carens was calm and collected, and it was easy to conduct a conversation between front and rear passengers without having to shout, thanks to massive improvements in the NVH, and considerable stiffening up of the bodywork.

Todd McDonald says Kia isn’t expecting large volumes form the Carens. It’s aimed primarily at the private market, though clearly it has appeal for some fleet applications as well, and should settle into a sales pattern of 250 a year, with 200 this year.

The Carens comes with a full five- star Euro Ncap crash test rating, and safety features include an auto defogging system, hill start assistance ( which prevents roll back when pulling off on a hill), as well as ABS with EBD and BAS, ESP, and six airbags.

And the good news is that it comes in at $ 37,990, $ 2,000 less than the previous model.