Kia Carens Review (2006)

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.