Right hand drive diesel Kia Carnival. Rented in Sydney, Australia. 4 adults, 1 toddler, and 5,000,000 bags, so I thought it best to go for the minivan. Here’s my review:
Appearance: 3/10. Could be worse, I guess, but this is not a good-looking car. I took 2 photos of it on the entire trip and kept the one above.
Ergonomics: 8/10. Everything was where it should be, easy to use, and worked well. Sliding doors and fold-away seats make life worth living.
Acceleration: 6/10. My scale is 5/10 is adequate, below 5 is too slow, 10 is scary fast. This gets a 6/10 because it was torquey enough to do a few easy passes, even while loaded up with people and stuff. For reference, the 4-cyl CVT Outback gets a 4/10 and my Neon ACR gets a 7/10.
Infotainment: 9/10 because it has android auto / apple carplay. Responsive screen, too. No need for anything beyond that in 2018 except for wifi hotspot.
Sound: 2/10. Sounds like a small, angry diesel because it is a small angry diesel.
Fun: 7/10. Context is important. This was a road trip car for taking us from Sydney to Melbourne. It was my first time driving on the wrong side of the road. The car was reliable and easy to drive and so practical. Points off because it was too wide. Driving on the left was hard enough, but this thing was a boat and I would have preferred something more car-like, if it would have fit all of our stuff. A wagon would have been nice, but proved to be too difficult to rent.
Overall: 7/10. It’s a van. It’s good at what it does. It has tons of accessible space and enormous range. If it was 10% better on twisty roads, I’d bump this up to an 8 or even a 9.
Notes on driving on the left: So fun. If you’re used to driving on the right and have never tried it, go somewhere nice and give it a shot. Pretty scary at first, and then exhausting, but then it gets fun. As car enthusiasts, it’s pretty rare that we get to learn something completely alien in regards to driving, so I found it to be really fun.