We picked up our SXP about 3 weeks ago. Before that time and after, we've not seen a single Carnival on the road. We live in the suburbs of Minneapolis/StPaul MN. Has anyone seen other Carnivals around town? I think it's due to it being new and the availability being scarce. I don't think it's because it's a crappy car and nobody wants one.
As you mentioned, it is due to availability. As of end of May there where only 8165 Carnivals were sold in the US so the chances of seeing one are very small. That said, we are in New England and already have seen 5 (2 had California license plates).
You can follow this link to see monthly sales of every Kia car:
Kia Monthly Sales by Model
Not sure why they haven't published the June sales numbers for the Carnival, but based on May sales, even assuming no month over month growth, it is safe to assume there are over 15,000 Carnivals in the US as of now. That is still nothing compared with the Telluride that already sold 178K since 2019 when it was introduced.
The question to ask is how they can make 45 thousand Tellurides this year and only 15K Carnivals when the demand for the Carnival is so high. Could be that parts for the Carnival being so new are in short supply. Could also be that they didn't anticipate demand for the Carnival correctly and didn't order parts accordingly and given the supply chain issues this year it is hard to correct mid year.
Enjoy your car and feel lucky that you have one. This forum and FB are filled with people trying to figure out how to get one, with or without paying over MSRP.
