2025 KIA CARNIVAL Complaints

When pulling out onto the highway from my drive way the car would no accelerate when I pressed the gas, the car would not exceed 35mph, when caused me and my kids to almost get rear ended when pulling out since the car would not go..... the car will start to flash a " check hybrid system pull over safely" light and then the car will start to coast and I have to find somewhere safe to coast off to, to turn the vehicle off and then on again, it will run fine after that but it will eventually do it again... I have taken the car to 2 different dealerships to have it looked and and they tell me nothing is wrong with it

On [XXX], while folding the second-row seatback to access the third row, as the seatback folded forward, it did so with excessive and unexpected speed, causing the seatbelt housing to swing forward and strike my wife, [XXX] , in the head with great force, [XXX] 's face. The impact caused her to momentarily lose consciousness and rendered her unable to move for nearly 30 minutes, during which she remained slumped and dazed in the seat. Fortunately, I was present to support her, preventing further harm. Although we were forced to board a scheduled flight shortly afterward, she continued to experience facial pain, disorientation, and weakness for several hours. We are deeply alarmed that such a hazard exists in a family vehicle, and that no warnings are present in the owner's manual regarding this risk. As a father of three young children, I am deeply concerned about the potential consequences of this design. This type of violent seatback movement combined with a hard, unprotected seatbelt housing could have caused even more catastrophic injuries - especially if it had happened to one of our children. My wife, [XXX] , is still emotionally shaken by the experience, and the trauma has left her fearful of operating the seats at all. This incident has had a significant impact on our family's sense of safety when using the vehicle. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

On April 22, 2025 my Kia Carnival Ex would not accelerate more than 30 mph after pulling away from a traffic light. A warning appeared on the dash display saying The Speed Limit Was 30 mph and the Kia Carnival would not go beyond 30 mph. The Speed limit was Not 30 mph. I took the vehicle to the Boniface-Hiers Kia dealership on April 24, 2025. They could not find a problem but did re-set the computer for the transmission. I was very fortunate not to have been rear ended by another vehicle.

My carnival is only a few weeks old. The first week of driving I was on the freeway and I was suddenly unable to accelerate. The started slowing down and pressing the gas did nothing. I was able to get off to the side of the freeway where I turned off the car. Once the car was back on it was fine. However later in the drive while street driving the same thing happened and I again had to pull over and turn off then on the car again. I explained this to the dealership on the phone thinking it may be an issue with the mode I was driving in. The dealer told me he had heard of this before and I need to switch modes. I have since switched to smart mode where it goes in and out from economy to sport and it failed to accelerate again twice this weekend where I had to pull over and turn off the car. I have an appointment with the dealer however I have no seem posts and complaints of others with this same issue and no resolution. This is extremely dangerous.

While coasting at very low speed with foot off accelerator or brake, into a crowded parking spot, the brakes failed after foot applied to the brake petal. This caused our vehicle to collide with a vehicle in front of us, pushing it a few feet backwards. Despite strong effort to push brake pedal down further, car would not stop. Pushed circular park button simultaneously with emergency brake tab which we believe ultimately stopped the car. No usual parking system alerts, beeps, lights, etc., turned on during the collision or near pre-collision. Finally, when car reversed to go home, the car made an unusual jerking movement without the usual reverse 'beeping' noise for the hybrid. Car then behaved normal for the 10 minute tense drive home. We are afraid to drive the car for fear of fatal brake failure to ourselves or others. Vehicle is intact and currently at local Kia dealer for past several days, though purportedly they 'found nothing' and are offering to return the car. Auto claim still pending and once car returned to us, we will have auto insurance rep evaluate the car.

Vehicle lost power and would not accelerate past 30 mph even when fully pressing down on the accelerator. After a few minutes a warning flashed to check vehicle hybrid system. Pulling over to the shoulder and restarting the car returned the car to normal operation.

In February I was driving on the highway at the speed limit, 65MPH when a rock flew back from a truck and hit the bottom middle part of the windshield. This formed a small dime sized crack, which eventually formed into a 3FT crack that spanned from the dent, up and to the right side of the windshield. In March, while waiting for the windshield to be repaired, another rock was launched from the back of another vehicle while driving on a local road going the the speed limit, 35MPh stuck the right side of the windshield making a nickel size crack. This can be a safety concern given the fact that the windshield can crack that easily and possibly injure someone inside. I have never had a windshield break so easily on other vehicles that I have owned when such event happened. A real bad injury can occur if an object going a a bit faster or bigger were to strike the windshield and shatter it. Can this type of windshield be thick enough or the material strong enough to prevent this to continue to happen?

Cold winter day, the car would not accelerate past 30-35 MPH. The engine would rev but would not be able to get past about 35 MPH.

Car would not allow me to accelerate. It seemed to keep me running only on the electric motor vs the gas engine (the vehicle is a hybrid). This has happened multiple times. The fix is to turn the car off and on again.

When driving my van to work in the morning, I would get an alert on my screen that says to check the driver assistance system. Then I turned on to the freeway on ramp and my car lost all power, not letting me drive faster than 30 mph. I was able to get off of the freeway and on to a side street when another alert, accompanied by loud beeps, came on saying “Check Hybrid System. Stop safely.” I was able to pull to the side of the road and turn the car off. When I turned it back on it seemed everything was fine. I took it to the dealership and they couldn’t replicate the problems and the car didn’t register any errors. So they returned it to me. This morning I drove to work and the exact same thing happened at the exact same place. Only this time I wasn’t able to get over as quickly and my car shut down in the middle of an intersection. Luckily I was able to coast to the side of the road. The dealership is still saying they can’t fix what they don’t know is wrong. Which I get, but it’s weird that these major events aren’t being recorded by the car. And it is terrifying to suddenly lose power on the freeway.