Kia Updated The Carnival Minivan Because Second-Row Seats Could Break In A Crash

Photo: Kia

The 2024 Kia Carnival now comes with an update that should keep the second-row seats from breaking loose in a crash. Still, as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced today, even the updated Carnival did poorly in its crash tests.

Nick Offerman On The Freedom Of Getting An Airstream RV

In the IIHS’s initial testing, one of the second-row seats became detached from the floor, slamming into the third row. In a real-life crash, that would obviously be bad news for passengers sitting in the third row and still not great for whoever was sitting in the seat that came loose. Once informed of this issue, Kia upgraded the floor rails used on all Carnivals built after August 2023 and will offer the same upgrade to owners of early vehicles for free.

Kia has also sent a letter to owners urging them to contact their dealer for the fix and has also told dealers to put in the upgraded rails whenever someone brings in a Carnival for service.

When the IIHS retested the updated Carnival, it found that the new rails kept the second-row seats from breaking loose, but the minivan still earned a poor rating because the “safety cage did not hold up well and injury measures indicated a high risk of injuries to the driver’s pelvis and rear passenger’s chest.” At least the seats all stayed attached to the floor, though, so that’s at least something.

While this announcement is related to the IIHS’s side-impact safety test, the IIHS recently also found problems with several minivans in its moderate overlap front crash test. There, too, minivans struggled to keep their rear passengers as safe as those in the front row. It gave marginal ratings to the Chrysler Pacifica, Kia Carnival and Toyota Sienna. Meanwhile, the Honda Odyssey got a poor rating.