There’s good and bed news for buyers of the 2024 Kia Carnival this week: Kia made changes to improve safety in its Carnival following a poor crash-test result, but the minivan’s safety rating remains poor with the IIHS.
First, the good news. Since the vehicle's arrival on the market in 2021 as a 2022 model, its results in IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) crash tests have not been stellar. One of the problems highlighted by tests concerned the captain's chairs in the second row.
In the first side-impact test, the left seat in the second row detached from the floor and tipped to one side, taking the dummy with it. The IIHS stated that “Such a detachment would create an obvious danger to a person sitting in that seat in a real crash. The unmoored seat and passenger could also be a hazard to other occupants.”
Kia took corrective action to reinforce the rails that secure the rear seats to the floor. In addition to equipping the 2024 model with stronger rails, the company offered owners of older Carnivals to have new rails installed on their vehicles, free of charge of course. The Korean went so far as to ask dealers to install the rails on any Carnival brought into their service centre for any reason.
In new IIHS tests with the new rails, the second-row seat remained in place.
So what's the bad news? The Kia Carnival still doesn't score well in IIHS crash tests. The corrections made have not changed the model's rating, which remains Poor, as per the organization's grading system.
According to the IIHS, the safety cage does not hold up well in a crash, and measurements showed there’s still a high risk of injury to the driver's pelvis and the rear passenger's chest.
The Carnival is expected to be updated for the 2025 model-year. We'll have to see if Kia makes any further safety fixes to its product in response to the IIHS test results.