NHTSA Owner Complaint Log
This page lists owner-reported complaints filed with NHTSA for the 2022 Kia Carnival. Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA and do not by themselves prove a defect or defect rate.
Sliding door closed on 21 month old daughters arm breaking it.
The contact owns a 2022 Kia Carnival. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the instrument cluster malfunctioned, and the screen failed to display as needed. During the failure, the driver was unable to view the speedometer, and fuel gauge, and check engine warning light. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent, but later the instrument cluster became permanently inoperable. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 80,000. The VIN was not available.
We have been having an acceleration issue for over a year now. The vehicle will be running fine and the randomly not go over 30 MPH. You could have your foot the floor and the vehicle will not shift or go above 3 rpm’s. This has caused us to be in many dangerous scenarios getting onto an interstate. This has almost caused us to be rear ended multiple times. Problem has be reproduced at the dealer and “repaired” though the problem continues to happen. Sometimes the engine warning light is on when it happens, others times it is not and happens with zero warning.
I repaired my front strut and in less than a year it is now “internally bent” is what the dealership told me. I now have 4 balled tires and 2 rear toe in tires and done 3 alignments in 1 year and I was told it’s my fault.
The powered sliding door sensor is inadequate. My son pressed the door closed button and I had to push the door off of my body as it started to crush me.
The sliding doors are dangerous for my children. The doors do not have sensors (or if they do they do not work) and continue to close if my children are in the doorway, have items or body parts there.
When helping my child into the car, she pressed the door close button and the sliding door closed on my body and did not stop. The door sensors on this vehicle do not work and it will close on anything in its path, including tiny fingers. I have not personally called the dealership regarding this issue but I will have them reproduce this issue at the dealership at my next service appointment. The vehicle has not been inspected by anyone. There is no warning that the car sliding door sensors will not work and will close on anything in its path.
The passenger sliding door continues to fail to lock intermittently which is obviously a safety hazard since the door is not completely closed. It is available for inspection upon request. It has not been seen by a dealer or inspected by police or insurance. My father is a mechanic and has looked at it. He is unsure how to fix the broken or why it keeps happening. The door ajar warning light is on indicating the door is not locked but even if the auto door is shut off I can’t get it to close enough manually shutting it so the warning light will turn off. It happened about three months ago then stopped and now has begun again. Nothing that I know of caused this. I use both sliding doors equally and only one is having the problem.
The contact owns a 2022 Kia Carnival. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, she noticed that the windshield was cracked from the passenger's side to the driver's side of the windshield. The vehicle was taken to an auto glass repair shop, where it was determined that the windshield needed to be replaced; however, the replacement windshield was not available. The windshield was replaced and was recalibrated after a month. The contact stated that after the repair, the Forward Collision Avoidance system was intermittently inoperable. Additionally, the contact stated that while the vehicle was parked on another occasion, she noticed that the windshield was cracked. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000.
Both situations have happened numerous times. The sliding doors do not stop or back off unless an adult size person pushes body force against them to open. My daughter got stuck in the door and she is 2.5. I have to push my entire body against the door to make it open back up. The second thing is the emergency braking system will automatically slam on the brakes after forcing for a long period of time, when I am on the highway. It happens on road trips after cruising for a while. And is not happening at an appropriate time.
Fuel gauge does not provide accurate representation of fuel amount. The car will read empty with 100 miles .
The engine has shut off while driving multiple times.
Around 17,000 -18,000 miles, the engine started to shutter like it wanted to die or wasn't getting enough fuel. While driving, it feels like it's trying to accelerate by itself even when cruise control is set. Even when it is just in nurtural it does it.. Still waiting to get the car into dealership to figure out the cause.
The safety feature on the sliding back doors is not safe for children. Previous vans I have owned had a sensor that would trigger the door to open back up if it were closing and ran into something, like a child getting caught in the sliding door. I am a grown adult and the door closing on the Kia Carnival is too strong for me to even stop with my entire body weight. A child is going to get crushed in those sliding doors.
1. When accelerating (while driving on ECO Mode) the vehicle starts to shudder at times. When using Normal Mode, the vehicle will shudder while the brake pedal is being used at a red light. Front windshield cracks easily and paint easily chips with no sign of rocks hitting the vehicle. Called Kia Service to get the car looked at and they said they haven’t heard of such issues. 2. Doors are supposed to retract when closing if motion is occurring. A family member almost got her leg pinned by the door and our child almost got hurt on the shoulder because the door kept moving in closing mode when she was trying to get inside the car. Whatever sensor it has, it doesn’t work. 3. Roof Mold on driver’s side came off the roof while driving the speed limit on the highway never to be seen again. The passenger side almost went flying too. 4. iPhone XR does not work properly when synced to the car. It connects and disconnects out of nowhere. It becomes dangerous when using GPS. Vehicle system kept saying it needed a new software to be downloaded. Went to the site and downloaded multiple rimes, called the Customer Service about 3-4 times and last person I spoken to told me to ho straight to the Service Dept at the Kia dealership to get the software downloaded. No one at Kia knew how to download the software. After multiple attempts and Kia not “finding anything”, decided to spend extra money and get a new phone to resolve this issue. I have to have a software downloaded to the vehicle.
There needs to be sensors on the sliding doors if an object is in the way of closing. These doors do not stop with even full adult resistance and child’s had was closed in the sliding doors. This is a common complaint for this vehicle.
The windshield appears to be made of soft material. Windshield scratches easily when the slightest debris is on windshield and wipers are being used. Multiple scratches become present on windshield through simply wiper use. This is resulting in distraction and makes visibility through windshield poor.
My toddler, 3 years old climbed into my 2022 Kia carnival to get into his car seat. I was standing outside the door waiting to buckle him when the sliding door started to close on its own and my toddlers leg got trapped under the track of the door and he started screaming. I then had to put my whole body between the door with force to prevent it from closing all the way. I was then able to pull his leg out. There has been no inspection to the vehicle yet as it happened last night. There were no warning or messages about the problem prior and we have had no issues like this before.
I have owned this 2022 Kia Carnival for about a year and half. Since owning this vehicle the front windshield glass has mysteriously gotten two separate cracks causing me to have to replace this glass twice. Initially when the cracks appear they are already 3-5 inches in length and continue to spread across the entire length of the glass without provocation. The glass seems to be pretty susceptible to these cracks because I have never owned a vehicle that this has occurred to so often and/or owned a vehicle where there would at least be a small crack that could be repaired without replacing the entire windshield.
The handle to release the back of the middle passenger seats is on the front inside lower part of the seat. This requires the passenger to lean in to pull and release. The seat then comes forward with such force that it slams the passenger in the head or face. This has happened several times in my vehicle leaving adults and teens in tears. It happened to me today striking me just under the nose. The impact caused me to black out for a second. I have a slightly swollen lip and am concerned that the root of my front tooth may be damaged. I’m convinced that the rate at which the seat comes forward could easily cause concussion, break someone’s nose or possibly a jaw. Please consider adjusting the rate at which the seats come forward. This malfunction could easily be inspected and reproduced, but I have not brought it in for inspection.
Horn intermittently works. Some times it works and sometimes it doesn't work. This is a safety hazard if horn does not work. I cannot warn others before collision resulting in many close calls or evasive maneuvers. Other owners experiencing similar issue in Carnival Facebook group. Irvine Kia had my car for a week and s could not fix our reproduce because it was working there. Afterwards, it will still intermittently work. Not sure if weather is affecting it or outside temperature. It doesn't matter, the horn needs to work 100% of the time.
Sliding door closed on a child's arm and bruised it. We have had multiple situations where the door does not stop if it hits something, it just continues to close.
We have owned this vehicle for about 15 months. With this replacement, we will be on our third windshield. The first windshield needed to be replaced after a crack started across the windshield following a pebble that hit the edge of the glass. We went through our insurance as there was an impact—however minor. We waited over three months for an OEM replacement windshield, and had it professionally installed. Now, two months later, we come out to our parked car and there is a crack in the middle of our windshield! There was no impact with anything, or a chip to be found anywhere. This crack is spreading through the driver’s line of sight and raises serious concerns as to the integrity of this glass and its ability to protect us on the highway. Of all the vehicles we’ve owned over the last twenty years of driving, we have never had to replace cracked windshields like this. At this point we are looking at the Kia OEM glass as being defective.
My 2022 Kia carnival’ s windshield cracked for no reason. No visible sign of damage from external forces. Attempted to rectify with Kia, but sadly given the run around. It's a brand new car ( 8000 miles) .
1st incident May 2022: Driving in the highway when a small rock hit the windshield. At that time there was a crack (3-4 cm wide) on the windshield. A technician came out to repair the area of injury. 2nd incident July 2022: Driving in the highway when I heard something hit the windshield. At that time, I did not notice any obvious damage.When I first noticed there was a crack, my car was stationary in my garage. The crack was about 10 inches long. The windshield has quickly began to crack. That same day it went from 10 inches to 24 inches at minimum.
I left the car while it was still running to check that my trailer lights were working. I had the key FOB in my pocket, but when I got to the car the doors were locked. I tried unlocking it with the key FOB but nothing would happen. My 2 year old son and 3 year old daughter were locked in the car! Luckily, my daughter was able to get to the door and open it from the inside. This should never be something that can happen. The door locking from the inside and the key not working, especially while it is running!
A very small pebble hit the windshield causing a very large chip. We had the chip repaired to prevent further damage, but that did not help and it continued to crack in several different directions across the windshield. This made it very difficult to drive as it was hard to see especially when the sun would hit the cracks and almost blind you.
Side sliding doors fail to automatically retract open when they encounter something in the way. Both doors present the same problem. Door failed to retract when child was in way, resulting in an injury.
There is either no sensor, or one that is too weak/defective, in the sliding doors to stop it if a person’s (particularly a child’s) fingers, hands, arms, or other body parts were in the way. Anything in the way would just get crushed by the door! This is not just my vehicle. All Carnivals seem to have a very weak or defective sensor and it’s a serious safety hazard, particularly considering it’s supposed to be a family vehicle! I have prevented injuries so far (thankfully) but have tested the door and it in fact will not stop if something is in the way.
We purchased our Carnival in November of 2021. A few months ago a rock hit our windshield. I could tell that the small rock chip was quickly making crack lines. We called a windshield repair company who suggested that we put a piece of tape over it until we could get it fixed. Luckily we followed his advice and put tape on it until we could get in a few days later for a chip repair. If we would not have followed his advice I have no doubt the cracks would have spread. Fast foward to last Saturday, June 18th. We were driving down the freeway and suddenly we notice that there is a large crack in the windshield, directly in front of the driver's view. It's maybe 8 inches long and we have no idea where it came from. We thought for sure we would have a few days to take care of it before it spread. It has already doubled in size. There have been no extreme temperatures to explain the quickly spreading crack. When we looked to see the source of the large crack, we noticed a very very small chip in the very edge of the windshield. The chip is not even visible from the inside of the car. It seems to me that the windshield is make from weak materials. I have never had this many problems with a car. And keep in mind we've only owned this car for 7 months! I believe Kia needs to address this issue. The windshield is the only thing between the face of the driver and the outside elements. It should be durable and reliable. This type of situation makes me concerned about the quality of the windshield, especially over the life of the vehicle. Thank you.
During a road trip, I stopped at a gas station to fill up. I went inside to get a drink and a large 12 inch crack appeared in the windshield about midway down on the passenger side. It was not there previously and nothing appears to have hit it either. The crack now spans to the drivers side and sits at about eye level. It also has a gap in the crack which is very noticeable on the passenger side.
Sliding doors do not stop closing if something is in the way. Have closed myself and children in the door and it doesn’t stop.
The power sliding doors fail to stop closing unless excessive force is used. If an arm or hand is in the way it gets hurt and the door will try to close on it. The dealership inspected it and said it's a known issue that extra force is needed. There's nothing they can do. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? My child's was being closed in the door and when I tried to stop it to save my daughter my arm was bruised. Yes, the dealer knows of the issue but plays it off as just a door that requires more force to stop. Yes, Kia inspected it, found you need to apply more force then normal but has no solution but to make sure to keep far away when it's closing. They However said nothing can be done, it's just how the van comes.
Child got hand smashed in rear sliding door. There is no pressure sensor to avoid the door closing on hands or fingers.
Windshield crack without major incident. No debris or rocks noted hitting. Cracked all the way across the windshield within a week. Adaptive cruise control keeps failing. Says radar is being blocked, usually when attempting to start cruise but sometimes when cruise control is already set. When this happens, no cruise control is available until it seemingly randomly starts working again. Inspected all cameras and sensors for dirt/bugs and they are not blocked.
My daughter was closing the left sliding door with her right hand using the button and her left hand was in the doorway. There is no worthwhile sensor in the car to detect her hand and thus the door crushed her hand. She now has a fractured left thumb due to the Kia Carnival. I have tried to see if the sensor would detect my entire hand and it didn’t! I am appalled that a car could be sold that has ZERO sensor
The automatic doors will close even if a child or something is in the way. Kia has acknowledged that the sensor may not work, but this is a huge safety issue when dealing with small children. I was loading the car and pressed the button to close the door. Then, I realized I forgot something and placed my hand in front of the sensor to stop the doors from closing, but the sensor failed.
The doors sensors do not work. I am 200+ lbs and have to push with force to get it to stop closing. My 2 year old last minute stuck her hand into the car while the door was closing to get a blanket and it CRUSHED her fingers. These doors are extremely unsafe. Then we took it to Kia and they said “just keep the kids away from the doors” which is INSANE when you’re talking about little kids.
The middle seats seem to be spring loaded, when pushing them back into position the spring back with significant force if not "clicked" in. This resulted in a significant bruise after hitting me in the head.
The contact owns a 2022 Kia Carnival. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power. The check engine warning light illuminated. In addition, the horn and the sliding sensor for the doors on the vehicle failed to work as needed. The vehicle was taken to a dealer however, it was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 13,125.
Car will not accelerate. Error code P211800. Engine control system. Throttle control. Temp outside was 19degrees F. Check engine light is on.
I was tboned on 3/10/2022 at high speed in the back driver's side 1/3 of the car by another who ran stop sign at high speed (I am guessing 50 or 60 mph). I have some amnesia about the impact now....but with large hematoma on left side of my head & concussion, my head must have hit the left side body/frame of the vehicle without the benefit of side curtain airbags that sure would have made this accident less traumatic to my body and brain. Currently the vehicle is being moved from an impound lot to State Farm' lot. We have not seen any warning lights or had any problems with this car up til now. It has not been inspected by any mechanics yet either.
With very low miles on our Carnival, I had just left a stop sign and someone ran their stop sign at high speed and tboned my vehicle in the driver's side. I woke up from being unconscious while still in driver seat and my car was still limping down the road not far from the intersection. Pretty serious head, back and other injuries and was taken via ambulance to the hospital. The problem is that despite a high speed impact into the side of my vehicle, NOT ONE of the airbags deployed! I am confident that my injuries, that now seem permanent, would have been MUCH less if the airbags had deployed as designed. The car was totalled by Insurance. I do have pictures of it.
The contact owns 2022 Kia Carnival LX. The contact stated that while driving at 55 MPH, the engine misfired, and the check engine warning light was illuminated. In addition, the vehicle would shudder when warming up. The vehicle was driven to local repair and diagnosed several times with the same failure, but not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 9,000
On three separate occasions when the temperature was below -20C, this brand-new vehicle stopped working due to ice in the throttle body. Vehicle had to be towed each time. The dealer service manager informed me that the new design no longer heats the throttle body, and condensation jams the mechanism. In my mind this is a safety risk because (1) the car stops working while driving in traffic and (2) it's a family vehicle, putting up to 8 passengers at severe risk of cold-related injuries when stranded. The dealer has confirmed that this has occurred for at least three other customers at this one dealership. Each time they have inspected and disassembled the assembly, cleared the ice buildup, and applied a silicone lubricant. On the first and third occasion only, the "Check Engine" light came on. On the second occasion, the car simply died while driving, and I had to roll to the highway shoulder. Note: On the "address" page, your form does not take a Canadian address, however this vehicle is also sold in America. My Correct postal code is J7V 8P4 and Province is Quebec.
My passenger doors do not appear to have a sensor and do not stop when someone or something is in the way. Could be very dangerous. My arm almost got stuck in it. Had it been a child, they may not have had the reflexes to get out in time. Also. If the door is accidentally opened when pumping gas, will it stop? Likely not.
This morning was the coldest morning this year (7F) and I could not accelerate the vehicle after turning it on. It won't go faster than 15mph or so and the engine warning sign popped up. The code said P211800. I have heard that there were many people complaining this issue and I had felt mine was safe from this issue, but the weather hasn't been that cold to cause the issue. I had to drive with the panic button on and all the other cars passed me and I felt I was in danger while driving back home.
The automatic doors are supposed to stop when they sense an interference but they don’t stop. My daughter got her hand smashed in ours. I thought maybe it was just where her hand ones but I used my own arm to test the door and it smashed by arm before re-opening. Left an awful bruise. I have heard many other carnival owners have had little hands smashed in their doors
Power sliding doors are way to powerful. They take a lot of force to be stopped.
Will not accelerate over 10 Mph in cold temp even after warming up vehicle. Will lose acceleration at a intersection and dangerous while taking a left turn. Check engine light goes on. Throttle bottle issue. Believe it is moisture/water in the throttle body causing it to freeze in colder temps. NEEDS TO BE RECALLED. Many many other Kia Carnivals having same issue. Model is brand new and should not be having these issues. FAMILY CAR.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026