Kia Carens Review

Kia Carens Review

Kia's knack of delivering value for money and well specified vehicles continues with the new Carens MPV.

The Carens is Kia's contribution to the fast-growing 5+2-seat sector where it takes its place amongst likes of the Ford S-MAX, the Renault Scenic, Vauxhall's Zafira and the Volkswagen Touran. The difference is the price.

At one time, it would have been thought laughable to put a Kia in the same group as the larger manufacturers. However, in recent years that has changed and Kia has 'stepped up' and nowadays buying a Kia doesn't mean a compromise in specification or budget.

The test car was the top-of-the-range 2.0 CRDi LS, 7-seater priced at £15,995, which is about £5,000 less than most of its similar-sized competitors. Kia has tried to keep the pricing structure simple. At the moment, you can have any size engine you like, as long as it's a 2.0-litre - petrol or diesel. There are three trim levels available: S, GS and LS.

The S is only available as a 5-seat, petrol and moving up to GS trim adds £1,000 to the base price of £11,995. These are the only two petrol options until summer 2007. To gain an extra row of seats add £1,500 and opting for the LS instead of the GS adds a further £1,500, while choosing the 4-speed automatic transmission over the 5 or 6-speed (diesels) manual gearbox increases the price by £1,000. It looks complicated on paper but is really quite easy.

Although the S is the base model, standard features include; 15-inch alloys, tinted windows, integrated CD/MP3 audio system with RDS, manual air-conditioning, air filter, front and rear electric windows, the front seats have lumbar support as well as height adjustment, under-seat storage trays (front), electrically adjustable door mirrors and steering wheel tilt adjustment. That's quite a list.

Kia Carens