2023 Kia Carnival
This year drew an ordinary 49 complaints for a Kia Carnival — the model's median is 66. What they were about is the unusual part: 42.9% of them mention door, against 10.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 49 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 66 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- door — 42.9% of this year's complaints, against 10.6% across the model's other years (4×).
- refuses — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 0.6% across the model's other years (10.9×).
- locked — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the model's other years (2.7×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
Gas door does not open. It is faulty and won’t open when car is locked or unlocked. Unable to open to add fuel to vehicle. It has been giving issues for 3 months. This seems to be a VERY common problem with all KIA Carnivals.
The side sliding (rear) doors do not stop when there is an object in between. Even when you put heavy force (this is in some angles), the door continues to close. With mild force, the door just refuses to recognize and closes out. It is a big safety concern wi…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V179000 TRAILER HITCHES Fixed free of charge.
- 23V236000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 24V025000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 26V232000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Kia Carnival was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2023 Kia Carnival? What happened to yours?
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