Carnival’s Drawbacks

• I did NOT fully cut off the trim piece per the instructions, instead just cut about a 3/8" slit the lengthwise which allowed it to straddle the vertical support bar for the hitch and allowed me to reinstall the rest of the trim piece so that there is no gap. Not sure if it makes any difference but just my preference. Took a little trial and error though.
• The Curt hitch also hangs about 9 inches off the ground on the sides and 9.25 in the middle I'd say. I don't think they will come out with a flush mount hitch for this like I have on my Subaru or as other have mentioned was available on previous generations of the Honda.
• While 9" is fine, where it matters is if you have a 4-bike rack that hangs 4 feet off the back of your van and you are going up or down steeper inclines (i.e. backing out of a driveway). I had mine loaded up in this situation and at the lowest point maybe had about 2 inches of ground clearance between the lowest point on the bike rack and the ground, so be careful!
• Personally I don't see the value in the Kia hitch unless you somehow negotiate them to install for that price. The Curt was $200 total, including tax and shipping, and about 2 hours of my time to install. Neither of these includes the actual harness to hook up to the lights so that is a separate cost unfortunately.

sdj said:

Good to know!

I agree with the trim piece- After I cut it off I realized it not that much needed to be cut. Any pics of the hitch? Thanks!

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• SXP only offers 7 passenger seating (since rectified with the 2023 model)
• No head's up display even at SXP level
• Fuel mileage - we're only averaging about 22 overall in approx. 80% highway driving. Wish it was more like 24-25 in a vehicle this new.
• Lack of wireless Apple CarPlay
• Lack of hands-free trunk opening (wave your foot underneath like Fords have). I know there's that proximity sensor way to open it but I turned that off right away - don't want it to accidentally open when I'm parked with the garage door down or when I back into a parking spot in the parking garage at work.
• Horribly designed rear hitch with how low it hangs. Example: to use a camper I wanted to rent and have the tongue be level, I needed to use an 11" rise hitch receiver. 11"!!! When I back out of my driveway, my Kuat 2-bike hitch rack almost scrapes, which is ridiculous. Just a lazy design by Kia.
• Lack of 7-wire trailer wiring like you can get on the Telluride. With 4-wire only, you are restricted basically to extremely light trailers or those with surge brakes, which is pretty uncommon. Example: I could not safely tow a 2,000 pound travel trailer.
• Rear entertainment system: it's pretty terrible. Save that $1,000 and buy a couple iPads + mount things.
• Digital Dash - it's pretty great overall but I wish it was more customizable.

kckyle said:

12,000 miles in with our Carnival and overall love it a lot so don't get the wrong impression with my list of drawbacks below. This thread is asking for drawbacks but I am very happy overall.

• SXP only offers 7 passenger seating (since rectified with the 2023 model)
• No head's up display even at SXP level
• Fuel mileage - we're only averaging about 22 overall in approx. 80% highway driving. Wish it was more like 24-25 in a vehicle this new.
• Lack of wireless Apple CarPlay
• Lack of hands-free trunk opening (wave your foot underneath like Fords have). I know there's that proximity sensor way to open it but I turned that off right away - don't want it to accidentally open when I'm parked with the garage door down or when I back into a parking spot in the parking garage at work.
• Horribly designed rear hitch with how low it hangs. Example: to use a camper I wanted to rent and have the tongue be level, I needed to use an 11" rise hitch receiver. 11"!!! When I back out of my driveway, my Kuat 2-bike hitch rack almost scrapes, which is ridiculous. Just a lazy design by Kia.
• Lack of 7-wire trailer wiring like you can get on the Telluride. With 4-wire only, you are restricted basically to extremely light trailers or those with surge brakes, which is pretty uncommon. Example: I could not safely tow a 2,000 pound travel trailer.
• Rear entertainment system: it's pretty terrible. Save that $1,000 and buy a couple iPads + mount things.
• Digital Dash - it's pretty great overall but I wish it was more customizable.

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• I LOVE the Passenger View feature but there is a huge miss with it. It's for checking on kids and the smallest kids are the ones most in need of checking on. The smallest kids are in rear-facing seats and, because of where that camera is located, you cannot see them at all, just the back of their car seats, unfortunately. Chrysler's Fam Cam has the camera over the 2nd row, which solves this problem (https://www.cars.com/articles/honda-odyssey-vs-chrysler-pacifica-cabin-camera-431494/). Wish Kia would have copied that design instead of Honda's CabinWatch, which has the same issue as Kia's. I use the Passenger View to mostly see what my 4 y/o is doing and still have to rely on the rearview mirror + regular old mirror hanging from the rear seat headrest thing to check on our baby.
• The rearview mirror should be a digital one, where it uses the rear camera in a continuous feed so you can always see fully behind you, no matter what people/cargo are in the backseats of your car. That's a feature on a lot of luxury cars now and would be great at the 50k level like SXP's are.