2024 Kia Carnival
This year drew an ordinary 66 complaints for a Kia Carnival — the model's median is 49. What they were about is the unusual part: 21.2% of them mention seat, against 7.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 66 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 49 |
| Involving a crash | 2 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- seat — 21.2% of this year's complaints, against 7.5% across the model's other years (2.8×).
- fire — 21.2% of this year's complaints, against 7.5% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: fire, hazard, oil leak, engine oil.
- first — 19.7% of this year's complaints, against 6.8% across the model's other years (2.9×).
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
UNKNOWN. Center rails for middle seat in second row were hot to the touch. The floor mats in the second row were hot as well as some items and a shirt on the floor. Kids noticed heat, and at first I thought heat was accidentally on but confirmed ac was still o…
Leakage on power steering column, steering little bit hard to handle and some issues while driving at straight line highway,. Heated area, second row seat underneath flooring, electrical issue about seat concerned!
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 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 2024 Kia Carnival? What happened to yours?
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