Kia Carens turbo-petrol long-term review: On the daily grind
This month the Kia Carens has not put in any major miles, hitting up just about a 1,000km in all. And most of those I've covered are within Mumbai city, heading out for various launches and meetings at the workplace. For most conditions, the Kia Carens has been confined to urban limits, and that has brought up some new perspectives.
First off is the size, specifically the Carens' length. The Carens isn't an easy vehicle to navigate in traffic. It's not much wider than the Sonet, you also don't sit too high up from the ground, and this does not build the perception of depth associated with larger vehicles. You have a slim and long profile and you need to be a bit more conscious when on the road. The mind tends to assume that this is a nimble, short-wheelbase SUV, when it is anything but! I've found myself in some sticky situations and am now wiser for it.
The other condition is that of the transmission in the Kia Carens. In urban driving conditions, you want to slip the drive mode into sport. Not economy or normal, but sport. There is a good reason for this. Given the way traffic behaves in Mumbai, you leave a gap a little too large to the vehicle ahead and you find some monkey filling up that space in a jiffy. This becomes hairy, very often I've had to stomp on the brakes, to avoid colliding with the vehicle ahead. The odds of leaving a wide gap are higher if you are in economy or normal mode, because the transmission does not pick up the slack as quickly, and reaction times are slow, the slowest being economy mode.
This however does bring about a deficit in the Caren's fuel economy. On the whole, I've been getting on average in economy mode in urban cycles, 11-12kmpl. In sport mode that drops down to anywhere between 7-9kmpl depending on how hard I gas the motor. Not exactly economical, but as long as it keeps the dummies from crowding my space, I'm okay.
Also read,
2022 Kia Carens: Prices and variants explained
2022 Kia Carens 1.4 turbo-petrol road test review
2022 Kia Carens 1.5 diesel road test review
Kia Carens Vs Hyundai Alcazar: What's different?
2022 Kia Carens launched in India at Rs 8.99 lakh ex-showroom
Starts Rs 8.99 Lakhs
1493cc
Manual
115
250
-NA-
Starts Rs 16.3 Lakhs
1493cc
Automatic
115
250
-NA-
