REVIEW OF KIA CARNIVAL PLATINUM FOR WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBILITY

 We got a new car! Meet Kim the Kia. How did I come up with that name? Well, to be frank the car has an impressive booty like another Kim K (Kardashian). Hubby doesn’t approve of the name, but it feels right to the rest of us. The impressive boot capacity was one of the main reasons we chose the car. Given it’s always such a process buying a vehicle I thought I’d write a review on the Kia Carnival Platinum (diesel) and why we feel it will meet our needs

Our key considerations when choosing a car

We are now a family of four adults, so the “kids” really need their space.Braeden needs to be able to easily transfer into the car.Enough space to take my parents with us for outings.When we road trip we have a lot of gear which is ever increasing. We travel with a manual wheelchair, beach wheelchair, stand-up paddle board and soon an inflatable kayak. We can now take the beach wheelchair and the manual wheelchair in the back of the car for a day outing without dismantling them.

The rear of the car needs to be low enough to make lifting the wheelchair in and out as easy as possible.

Middle console to have space for a DVD player because movies keep Braeden awake when we travel.

Fuel efficiency.

The process of looking for a car

Hubby spent hour upon hour looking online, researching options and comparing cars. Once he’d narrowed down the list we started the process of going to car yards with Braeden and the wheelchair. It is important for us to see how easy it is to transfer Braeden into the car, how high the back of the car is for lifting the wheelchair into the boot and the amount of additional space for our gear for day trips and holidays.

We looked at, and eliminated the following – Honda Odyssey, Hyundai Palisade, Kia Sorrento, Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota Prado, LDV D90 (Landcruiser) and Peugeot.

I really wanted the Honda Odyssey to work because I drive our Honda Odyssey (Rhonda) and love the car.  It ticked lots of the boxes but had limited space and the new model didn’t offer roof racks and with after-market roof racks fitted, the load limit was 50kgs. We travel with a roof pod and the math didn’t work for us to load it up as much as we normally do.

We initially discounted the Kia Carnival as an option as it is just so big but the more we looked at the lack of space in other cars it became clear we needed to relook at it. I guess it’s easy in the early stages of car shopping to eliminate vehicles but as you shop you become clearer on the deal breakers and the must-haves in a vehicle. I guess that’s just part of the process necessary to feel happy with your final choice.