KIA HAS STOLEN a march on the people-mover market in Australia by offering family transport solutions that its competitors may have forgotten.

Thanks to a compelling mix of value for money and impressive accommodation, Kia’s Carnival has held the number one spot in the MPV segment since 1999.

Now, to add to the already strong sales of its eight-seat offering, Kia has expanded the Carnival line-up with the addition of a diesel-powered variant of the long wheelbase Grand Carnival.

To test the mettle of Kia’s personnel hauler, we subjected it to a week of people-hauling (some gorillas, assorted lost souls and associated accoutrements) to find out how deserving of the ‘number one’ MPV title the Grand Carnival really is.

For value, the Grand Carnival takes an assertive stance starting from $41,990 (plus on road charges) for the entry level EXE CRDi, undercutting its competitors by a fair margin.

It also gains ground by offering eight seats and a diesel engine, where others of its competition offer only seven seats or petrol-only powerplants.

Styling

While the Carnival is no shrinking-violet out in the street – it’s big – the Grand Carnival adds an additional 130 millimetres to the wheelbase and overall length grows by 320 millimetres.

This makes the Grand Carnival an absolute behemoth and squares it off with larger four-wheel-drives in terms of on-street presence.

Kia’s stylists haven’t gone out of their way to hide the car’s bulk either. While it adheres to a relatively conformist two-box form, it is hardly likely to be confused with your average sedan-derived wagon.

In a very down-to-business way, the Grand Carnival eschews the overly decorative. Instead the body is mostly unadorned: chrome highlights are limited to the grille and above the rear number-plate.

It’s simple and robust-looking, honest and hardworking, and ready to tackle the challenges of Australia’s growing families.

One hallmark feature is the integrated Carnival-branded side-steps. With the high floor of the Grand Carnival, these are more than handy for any junior crewmembers piling in and out of the rear.

While the Grand Carnival won’t set any new visual benchmarks, it also won’t divide opinion: instead it blends quietly and unobtrusively into the background.

The Interior

Once inside the Grand Carnival, its reason for being becomes infinitely more apparent. There’s plenty of distance between the front of the passenger compartment and the rear. The same can be said of the side-to-side spread.

Driver and front passenger are treated to wide bucket seats with fold down armrests.

A centre tray swings out of the way between the front seats to allow walk-though ability. The clear functional dash houses the gear lever and also allows for a massive glovebox plus two storage trays at floor level – large enough to store CDs, sunglasses, MP3 players in combination.

The interior colour scheme, in shades of light grey, while plain, adds to the spacious feel inside the Grand Carnival. We would question the long-term suitability of the pale trim though. After a few runs with a full crew in the rear, grubby marks made themselves apparent.

Passengers in the middle row get treated to three individual bucket seats, each with its own reclining seat-back.

Although the middle row doesn’t slide to tailor the passenger/cargo balance, each seat can be quickly and easily removed. One person can easily manoeuvre the seats in and out past the rear sliding doors, and the whole area aft of the front seats is easy to configure.

Flipping one of the outboard middle-row seats grants easy access to the rear three-person row, consisting of a 60:40 folding bench seat that can be stowed flat into the floor when not in use. Those relegated to the rear may find themselves a little shorter on shoulder room but still get to enjoy plenty of head and legroom and a full-sized seat.

One glaring black-mark against the Grand Carnival interior is that the centre-seat on both the middle and rear rows features a lap-only seatbelt: a worrying omission for those serious about passenger safety.