Year of Kia Carnival

The Kia Carnival is a minivan produced by Kia Motors. It is known in the UK and North America as the Kia Sedona. It had a base price starting at around US$20,000, which was lower than most competing minivans. The later, smaller Kia Rondo has continued this tradition. It is available in the United States with a 3.5L DOHC V6 engine producing 195hp (145kW) SAE (145kW), and many other countries with a 2.9L DOHC turbodiesel, with 144PS (142hp SAE/ 106kW). A 2.5L V6 is available in some markets. A 5-speed manual transmission is standard for the smaller engines, with a 4-speed automatic transmission available as an option. A 5-speed automatic is the only transmission in the American market. The Sedona was Kia's top-selling vehicle in the United States when it launched.

In the United States, it is available in a base short-wheel base model, a long-wheelbase mid-level LX model and a top of the line long-wheelbase EX model.

The Sedona/ Carnival is rebadged and sold as the Naza Ria in Malaysia. This allows the van to qualify for National Car incentives within Malaysia.

The Carnival is produced for the Chinese market by the Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Company, a joint venture with Kia.

The Kia Sedona (codename LS) was a new model from Kia to compete with the minivan segment of Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, and the Chrysler minivans. It had a 3.5L V6 engine making 195hp (145kW). It was mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission. The Sedona lacked features that other minivans had such as power sliding doors and power liftgate, a fold flat third row seat, navigation system, rear-view camera, and backup sensors. Early Sedonas were rated at 15.6 L/ 100 km (15.1 mpg) (city) and 10.9 L/ 100 km (21.6 mpg) (highway), but the numbers improved slightly to 14.8 L/ 100 km (15.9 mpg) (city) and 9.6 L/ 100 km (24.5 mpg) (highway) for 2005 models. Nevertheless, the Sedona takes in more gasoline per kilometre than its competitors, some of which also had more power to boot.

In Australia, the Kia Carnival went on sale in 1999, with a standard 5-speed manual and 2.5L V6 producing 177hp (132kW). A 4-speed automatic was optional. In 2001, it managed to outsell the Toyota Tarago, becoming the top-selling minivan in the country. It was sales leader again in 2004 and 2005, when sales peaked at 5,259 units, which in itself was a record for any minivan. Much of its success is due to its low pricing: at A$29,990 it is about $10-$15,000 cheaper than most rivals. This generation is still sold in some countries.

This new model is a rebadged Hyundai Entourage which features Hyundai's LAMBDA engine. In autumn 2005 for the 2006 model year, Kia introduced a redesigned Sedona offering features such as a 60/ 40 fold flat seat, power sliding doors and liftgate, second row power windows, backup sensors, and a navigation system (in Korean models). The new Sedona has a 3.8L V6 making 244hp (182kW).