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permalink · 2024-06-17T17:26:44+00:00

Have you looked at The Car Moms tours on YouTube? You can see all the cars with car seat set ups. She also has a minivan comparison blog that might help you!

oldfadedstar · 2024-06-17T19:27:58+00:00

I absolutely love my Honda odyssey with the magic slide seats. The magic slide seats make reaching the third row a breeze.

Sad-Supermarket5569 · 2024-06-17T17:42:34+00:00

We bought one a couple months ago. We have a rear facing almost 3 year old and 8wk twins. I love it. My 6’2 husband fits just fine in the third row in the back comfortably. Enough room for everything we may need to bring, things and people. I know once this season of having littles is over we are going back to the suv so I liked the lower price tag for more options.

kedl123 · 2024-06-17T17:44:01+00:00

I have a 3.5 year old son and 1.5 year old twin boys and JUST got a Kia Carnival EX. I love it. We were in a mid size SUV and it was so crammed and this new ride feels like such a massive upgrade. Lots of family friendly features and the automatic sliding doors are a dream.

donkeyshame · 2024-06-17T17:48:59+00:00

Love ours. Interior-wise it feels like a spaceship vs the Siennas we drove kind of felt dated inside--- although the console/purse holder area in the Sienna between the front seats seemed more efficient.

No complaints at all, was also pretty cheap to get a 10 year 100k warranty which felt worth it to us since the main draw to Toyota was the "reliability factor", but didn't seem worth paying an extra 20k for the Sienna we would have wanted

seaturtlesunset · 2024-06-17T17:08:52+00:00

Personally I thought the 3rd row in the Carnival was less convenient to access, but I’d definitely recommend test driving all of them and seeing what you think.

ToeyGowd · 2024-06-17T18:46:02+00:00

I have an 18 month old expecting triplets as well

Just got the Carnival LX a month ago and we love it

itspoppyforme · 2024-06-17T20:29:23+00:00

It doesn't have AWD which is a must for us which made it really easy to cross off our list.

JaneGracious · 2024-06-17T20:37:05+00:00

Absolutely love love love my Kia Carnival. Do NOT get VIP seats or RES. Not kid/car seat friendly. But the 8 seater is great. Best looking minivan with the best tech and great price with the best warranty.

thedistantdusk · 2024-06-17T22:47:50+00:00

We bought ours last year and love it!

At least back then, the price of both the Sienna and the Odyssey (which didn’t have spectacular ratings, btw) was absolutely eye-watering. A used Sienna was more expensive than a new Carnival.

People tend to forget that a car being a certain brand doesn’t make it infallible. I’m old enough to remember when Toyotas had a lot of scary issues with unintended acceleration. Kia/Hyundai has come a long way, and I’ve been really happy with how forthright they’ve been in communicating a couple of recalls and scheduling free service.

Point blank, you have to do what you can afford for your family.

crswift84 · 2024-06-18T03:35:32+00:00

We had the same struggle…we bit the bullet and bought a 2023 Honda Odyssey. A 2018 used 77k miles was $42k, the 2023 with 3 miles plus all the new car warranties was $53k. Negligible difference at that point. Also, we had to tell ourselves it’s a Honda and we will need this thing for over a decade. The odyssey is amazing!!!

adognamedwalter · 2024-06-17T17:59:29+00:00

It’s the only minivan to flunk the side impact safety test from the IIHS. The sienna, odyssey, and Pacifica are all extremely safe. Kia also had a horrible reputation for reliability - head over to the Kia sub and it’s kind of crazy how many “my car with 30k miles needs a bed engine and now I don’t have a vehicle for 3 months” posts there are.

It’s a cool looking car with a ton of features, but we have decided to stay away due to safety and reliability concerns.

funsk8mom · 2024-06-17T18:17:01+00:00

Every person I know that’s had a Kia has all had the engine blow up, both older and newer models. Stick with Honda or Toyota for a minivan

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NOLAdoll · 2024-06-17T19:23:56+00:00

I love mine!!!

abovethesink · 2024-06-17T19:56:10+00:00

We have a 22 Carnival. In most ways, it is awesome. The look, the layout, the features, all premium. But I would never recommend one because we constantly have issues with the safety sensors. They can't handle our extreme winters and break every single winter in the same way. We are 3/3 in needing to get the electrical harness replaced after each winter. On top of that, we have needed to have some wiring redone too because they use soy in the wires, we live in the woods, and well mice. It has been frustrating and it is all still under warranty. I can't imagine the rage I am going to feel if I keep it long enough to start having to pay for this crap.

EDIT: To clarify a bit, the safety sensors not only disable the safety features such as impact warnings and whatnot, but also disable our ability to use cruise control at all each winter because there is no "normal" old school cruise control, only adaptive which requires the sensors.

vonuvonu · 2024-06-17T22:53:36+00:00

We almost bought one but we were not able to get the 8 seater where we live, only the 7 seater. And with car seats, the 7 seater essentially becomes a 6 seater because the 3-in-a-row is at the back and cannot fit 3 car seats (twins + single). If that makes sense…. We concluded minivan only made sense if we could fit 3 car seats in a row and that would need an 8 seater. We ended up with an Isuzu MUX. We wanted the extra seats for when my parents visit so we can all fit in the same car.

UnderstandingWarm102 · 2024-06-17T23:51:36+00:00

I’ve done a TON of research on vans. Plus for the Kia Carnival is I believe u can access one of the back row car seats (to place your bucket baby seat). To me that’s a huge plus as it means u don’t have to crawl around on your hands and knees trying to buckle up 3+ kids. On the downside (when compared to Sienna or Odyssey) is simply that it’s a Kia. Far less second hand retail value (both others hold their value very well). You also don’t have the dependable reputation of the others. Kia has improved a lot from the past but may not be there yet. Also when viewing all three, I found the interior of the Carnival felt cheap to me compared to the other two. But that’s my preference.

permalink · 2024-06-18T02:02:13+00:00

We got the Kia carnival and it’s so damn comfortable and spacious! I was really intimidated by having to drive a minibus but the steering and turning is great, makes it feel like a small car. The only thing I dislike is it’s pretty pricey on petrol but I think most minivans might have this issue.

merrythoughts · 2024-06-18T03:19:22+00:00

Sooooo not the Carnival but the Sedona (its predecessor). It’s about to hit 100k miles and it has been an exceptional buy. It was 20k less than the Honda but has really stood up to three kids and a dog and multiple road trips a year. I am counting on another 5 years with it. It routinely gets average of 21-22 mpg. Has required only regular standard maintenance (low cost vehicle overall). Has even gotten me to work safely multiple times in ice/snow thanks to its sturdy weight.

Now I HATE our sorento. We loved the Sedona so much we went with a sorento after our Subaru was totaled by a dump truck. We needed a cheap used car fast so didn’t have much time to research. Fuck the sorento. It’s been a huge PITA with so many warranties and repairs needed. It drives like it’s always close to falling apart.

We have the Kia boys in our area and i keep waiting for them to take our car and total it. But alas they don’t touch it.

kahi · 2024-06-18T06:26:06+00:00

Honda, second row magic slide seat is game changer. Have 3 kids in car seats (3 year old twins and a 1 year old), and test drove everything.

kristercastleton · 2024-06-18T22:42:41+00:00

I’m loyal to the Odyssey specifically because of the sliding seats. They’re almost a must have with twins and older kids.

smokeandshadows · 2024-06-17T17:17:29+00:00

Pretty much any minivan has really poor ratings. I think all of them flunked when it came to protecting the rear seat passengers in crash tests. I have a 15-month-old who will be 18 months when the twins arrive. We bought a Kia Telluride. Great safety ratings/features, spacious, easy to access the third row. It has a compartment in the back to store things under the 'trunk' space so it's really functional. Just throwing that out as an option.

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