2000 Kia Carnival LS from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

I purchased the top model Kia Carnival new in September 2002. Today I am picking my vehicle up from the Kia dealer after replacing the 3rd motor. It took Kia 5 months to repair, I also have to contribute nearly $3000 for this warranty repair this includes $1,400 labor and $1,300 in parts. This car has spent over 18 months in total sitting a Kia dealership waiting on warranty or service parts. My vehicle has only travelled 85,000km and has always been serviced.

Kia's customer service and product back up is a joke and it seems they have more interest in supporting tennis than they have their own paying customers.

A kia employee told me that Kia's beleif is that the buyers of the Carnival, because of the price point, tend to be from a lower socio-economic demographic and would not have the financial capacity to legally challenge kia on product issues.

I am also an owner of KIA CARNIVAL in my country sold by NAZA Motors. I also have the same experience of having to change my engine after only 60000km that cost a bomb and again symptoms reappear that the engine What I don't understand is that all of us are facing the same problem world wide, how come the manufacturer did not take any actions to solve the problem or recall the engine? How come the various governments do not stop the import of such vehicles? How come we continue to be cheated by the distributors? How come such cars with substandard engineering and quality are allows to be brought into the country and in a way "cheat" the customer through it cheap price? I am sure there must be some consumer orgnisations that can help to take the KIA company to court for producing substandard vehicles.

After replacing the head gasket on my KIA Carnival (Euro 1200), after only week of driving, oil is again mixing with coolant water. Service Dealer is proposing change of engine block and again not guaranteeing anything. I am wondering why KIA didn't recall this engine if so many people has the same problem. Since I bought this car second hand and do not have any warranty on it, I don't know what to do.. Especially because so many comments are saying that after even three times of changing the engine block, same problem re-apears! God heeeelp!

Hi! We have a Carnival Skyline 2.9 CDRI which is re-imported from Germany, 38.000 km. In one Year we haven't got any problems yet. That's why I'm asking if You with the head gasket problems have a petrol or a diesel engine. We have 3 kids and a dog and the car is very suitable for us. Pls note a new Carnival diesel here in Finland costs around 48.000 € = c. a 60.000 USD cause of our stupid taxes. The only thing which worries me is the loosing of coolant water. After a pressure test there seems to be no problems... As a car fan I noticed that it's very difficult to fill the cooling system. It needs 3-4 times to fill it upp again cause of the long piping. Maybe this is the reason for blown gaskets. The Kia people don't know what to do. Any questions, pls don't hesitate to mail me! Regards from cold Finland!

We have the same problem with our Kia Carnival 2001 as all those commenters above. We bought it second hand; it was not exactly cheap, but okay price. We did not know anything about cars as we had no car for the last 12 year living in London were oblivious to the problems mentioned here--lucky for the sellers. We have had problems almost from the start, but we thought that it was natural as it was not a new car some parts wear out. Now at 60,000 miles engine is dead. We just spent a great deal of money updating other parts. Now we have to decide if it is even worth it to fix--will it work after? It is sooo undependable and is our only car loaded up with four kiddies breaking down on highways in the middle of Taiwan. Glad we bought it through a friend of a friend. Did they know? We don't know --it sad to think they might have.

I've just found oil mixing in my coolant in my 2001 KIA Carnival and it's only done 73000km. I knew about the engine problems mentioned here, but I thought I was fortunate enough not to have them for 7 years... but I spoke too soon. The KIA people here in Adelaide have said that KIA will supply up to $3000 in parts only. Even then, the whole job could be still be as high as $9,000 for me to fork out. Pretty rich considering it's Kia's fault and the car is worth less than that even if it was working. I'll never touch Kia with a barge pole again.

Hi, we have a '03 carnival LS series, and we have just had problems. When we bought the car from a Kia dealership, I asked the question about the faulty engines, as I was aware of the rumours. I had been told that yes there has been a problem, it was now recalled and all problems would be fixed by Kia at no charge to ourselves. We have done 127000km, always had it serviced. On a recent trip, it decided to play up, feels like it running on only a few cylinders??? Is this the first signs of the engine blowing??? We have also read that the manual models don't seem to have as many probs? Can anyone confirm this?

We have been looking at buying an 06'or '07 grand carnival, reason being that the engine for that actually comes via mitsubishi. Has anyone had any faults with these yet? Our main reason for upgrading was that we have 4 children of our own, and I also run a family daycare, so at anyone time I can have up to 7 children in my car.

Our car is booked in on tuesday to see what the problem is, but if it is the engine, unfortunately, we still owe approx 8k on finance, so in reality, we will be screwed!!!

Fingers crossed.

The new Kia Grand Carnival has no technology sharing relationship with any mitsubishi engine. It is an entirely in-house design shared between various Kia and Hyundai vehicles, and is supremely superior to the engine powering the old carnival, which was supplied by Rover. The current generation Kia's and Hyundai's have come a very long way from having to rely on old technology from other manufacturers, whilst the previous carnival has earned mixed reputations, do not let bad experiences with it judge your perception of the current Carnival. They are a totally different kettle of fish. Anyway, you should prefer that the Kia use its own technology, as the companies incredible growth and huge increase in profits year by year demonstrate how far it has come, unlike mitsubishi, who continues to lose millions of dollars and is suffering alarming drops in global market share.

Hi there, I have a Carnival Classic 2000 and I have just been quoted $9,162- to replace the engine for the 2nd time. (I have had it since new and have had many many other issues - new clutch in the first year, and mistakes made by generally useless service staff at my local dealer and the engine rebuilt/replaced in 2004). KIA have turned down any claim on them. I will be taking this further as the car is not even worth $9,000 due to the lovely reputation Carnivals have. Coolant loss was a huge problem with pressure tests and change of radiator cap making no difference.

Regards Fiona .

But I reason 97% of prospective purchasers would go for a Mitsubishi in the blink of an eye, as opposed to a Kia. The two don't compete at the same price point - Kia is a budget manufacturer, whereas Mitsubishi is mainstream.

With reference to the comment above that Kia believe their purchasers are from a lower socio-economic group and thus not likely to take legal action against them - disgraceful behavior from Kia.

Finally using old Rover engines and head gaskets failing, hmm what a surprise, smacks of absolute cost cutting.

Why trust kia in the future if this is the way they are treating their present customers?

A pensioner mate of mine has just had his first engine go on his carnival. 5-8K to fix. Absurd. Why doesn't someone start a register of all the people with problems, and give the list to a savy legal company for a class action to force a recall and compensation. Or, to get the ACCC or the state motoring authorities to sort it out. In this day and age, a car that gets less than 150K out of its first engine is not fit for the purpose for which it is sold (Kia markets it a "cheap" family motoring - which it obviously isn't). As such, the sale of the vehicle could well be a breach of the trade practices act.

The register could be an email or phone list, or self register at a web site.

Just some thoughts to help you poor motorists get some justice. Good luck:-)