2026 Kia Carnival Complaints

When accelerating, the car feels stuck to gear up. After 2 seconds of loud revving, it would switch and have a prominent jerk motion that it finally switched gears. There have been times the car wouldn't go past 30 mph, stuck at the gear making a loud noise. This is dangerous! There's absolutely no way I can get on the freeway never getting past 30ish mph. I checked recalls for this vehicle and there isn't any. No warning lights in the dash.

This new 2026 Vehicle faced multiple issues within a few weeks of purchase as stated below. 1. The instrument display panel or the main display screen of the car stopped working. The screen was completely blank and would not turn on. (confirmed and reproduced by Kia dealer, service order attached) 2. An electric short caused the radio to fail (confirmed and reproduced by Kia dealer, service order attached) 3. The car battery died, rendering the car completely unresponsive. The car had to be towed to the Kia Dealer. (confirmed and reproduced by Kia dealer, service order attached) All of the above 3 issues happened one after the other. The first issue essentially disabled safety features of the vehicle as the display panel that displays rear view camera, camera monitoring system (CMS), etc was not able to display any information. An eventual electric short and a dead battery rendered the vehicle inoperable. The official Kia dealer attempted to diagnose and repair the vehicle. The vehicl...

My car has just under 3,000 miles. While driving home from a friend's house this morning my car would not go above 31 mph. I could put my pedal all the way down and nothing beyond 31 mph. I am reading a lot of people with this same exact issue with their hybrid Kia Carnival. Most note it happens in cold weather. So it is worth noting that it is 21 degrees here today. Regardless this is a serious concern especially as some report is happening on highways

I am submitting a safety complaint regarding unexpected and inappropriate automatic braking behavior at low speeds involving the parking sensors, rear cross-traffic alert, and/or automatic emergency braking system. While performing normal, low-speed maneuvers such as backing out of street parking spaces or parking in tight urban environments, the vehicle abruptly applies the brakes even when no imminent collision exists and when obstacles or traffic are clearly visible to the driver. In one frequent scenario, while exiting a parallel out of a parking spot into traffic, the vehicle suddenly stops itself while partially in the roadway due to a car approaching in the rear. This occurs despite sufficient clearance and approaching vehicles slowing to yield or even happens AFTER the approaching vehicle has passed already! This creates a dangerous situation where my vehicle is immobilized in active traffic, increasing the risk of rear-end or side collisions. The driver behind me sees me sto...

The car will not accelerate past 31 mph no matter the gas petal position, during cold mornings. Downhill or uphill, in any “drive mode” it will not go past 31 with the petal all the way down. Acceleration onto a highway is impossible. Stopping and restarting the entire vehicle seems to reset this and allow for speed over 31mph. This has happened 5-6 separate times when the temperature is below 35F.