Kia Carens Clavis Review: Balanced but Not Perfect

The MPV market in India has varied choices available for buyers, which are feature-rich, have good fuel efficiency, and offer a reliable petrol or a diesel engine. This segment is particularly popular among commercial vehicle operators and fleet owners, as these cars offer comfortable cabin space and ample boot space. In this segment, if you are considering a premium MPV with good exterior design, comfortable cabin space, and a diesel engine, then you can check out the Kia Carens Clavis in the market.

Kia India recently updated the Carens, making it more modern and feature-rich, and introduced the Carens Clavis. Regarding its features, the new Carens Clavis now comes with ambient lighting, driving modes, a new touchscreen infotainment and a better interior compared to the previous iteration. Mechanically, it continues to come with a 1.5L turbo petrol engine and a 1.5L diesel engine, paired with a manual or an automatic gearbox.

Earlier, we got you the first ride experience of the Carens Clavis diesel manual, and lately, now, we drove the Carens Clavis for more than 1,000km, and tested its various parameters. We checked its fuel efficiency, third row comfort, boot space, features, and other factors. Here are our thoughts on whether the Kia Carens Clavis diesel manual is worth every dime it costs.

What’s Good

Performance

The Kia Carens Clavis we drove was the diesel variant, featuring a 1.5L inline four-cylinder diesel engine that produces 115 bhp and 253 Nm of peak torque, paired with a six-speed manual gearbox.

Since we have driven this engine earlier in the old-gen Seltos, it continues to be the same unit, having good performance on offer. Since it was a manual, it was more fun and engaging to drive, and we were able to achieve good fuel efficiency as well. The gear shifts are smooth, and the clutch is easy to use. In peak traffic conditions, you’ll not feel the clutch too hard. The low-end turbo lag was well contained, and the mid-range is the sweet spot, redlining around 3,500 RPM, giving you a wide torque range.

The performance and the power delivery from the engine are now linear, and since this engine is compliant with the BS6 Phase-2 emission norms, you’ll miss the kick in the pants feeling, which was earlier present in the old Carens. Overall, this engine is reliable and present across Hyundai and Kia cars.

Mileage

Since the 1.5L diesel engine in the Carens Clavis is a popular engine, the manual variant offers good fuel efficiency. As per ARAI, the diesel manual has a 17.5km/L fuel efficiency. After driving it for more than 1,000km, we got a real-world fuel efficiency of 17.5km/L, and you can even get more than 20km/L if you drive it sedately and cruise at idle speeds on highways.

Comfort

The Kia Carens Clavis offers comfortable seating, and all the three-rows offer a good experience. The front seats of the Carens Clavis have good cushioning, and the leatherette upholstery gives a premium feel. The seat has decent under-thigh support, and on long trips, you’ll not feel tired. Moreover, you have a front centre armrest, which we felt was convenient while driving.

Coming to the middle-row seats, there is a good amount of knee and legroom on offer. The windows are large enough, so you will not feel claustrophobic inside. The seats can be reclined and slide forward and backwards, giving you access to increase your comfort according to your needs.

Kia offers the Carens Clavis with a six-seater captain seats variant as well, but we drove the bench seat configuration. The floor is flat, and you can easily sit three passengers in the middle row seats.

In the third row, it gets a one-press tumble mechanism, giving you decent space to get in and out of the third row of the Carens Clavis. Once in, you have decent space on offer, and when you recline the back support a bit further, it becomes a comfortable place to be in. The third row in the Carens Clavis offers USB Type-C charging ports along with independent AC vents and a blower controller.

Features

The Kia Carens Clavis is a feature-rich offering in its segment. Since we drove the HTX variant, it has a decent list, including a sunroof, ambient lighting, a digital instrument cluster, wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, automatic climate control, and others.

The infotainment screen and the instrument cluster are the same unit that we have seen on the Seltos (old-gen) and the Sonet, having a crisp display and are slick to use. Moreover, if you are a music lover, you do not have the Bose music system in the HTX variant, and despite that, the music output is good, and you’ll enjoy spending time listening to music in the Carens Clavis.

For safety, it comes with a 360-degree parking camera, a highline TPMS, hill hold assist, traction control, and others. The camera quality was decent at night, and it gave a good view of what’s around, which is quite a handy feature to park a car of this size in tight parking spaces.

What’s Bad

Features

Despite Kia offering a long list of convenience and safety features in the Carens Clavis’s HTX trim, there are a few missing in this variant. which could have been added to enhance the cabin experience. It misses out on front ventilated seats, dual-zone climate control, a panoramic sunroof, and if you want ADAS features, you’ll have to upgrade to higher variants. Moreover, the touch-operated controls for the infotainment and climate control are integrated in a single panel becomes quite confusing at times and requires your attention to operate.

Brakes

Kia offers the Carens Clavis with all four disc brakes, and there is a physical handbrake on offer. However, during our driving experience, we felt the brakes offered in the Carens Clavis could have been sharper, and these did not inspire confidence at triple-digit speeds. While driving, you’ll require some time to get used to it. Moreover, we expect Kia to update the brakes in its future updates.

Headlamps

Kia, with the Carens Clavis, has updated the exterior design of the MPV, and it gets new LED headlamps and LED DRLs. During our 1,000km drive, at night, we felt the throw of the LED headlights was not sufficient, and we sometimes even faced difficulties if someone with more powerful LED headlights came from the other side. Moreover, it did not inspire confidence in pitch-dark areas to go at slightly higher speeds. We felt the throw and the illumination of the light require improvement in the upcoming updates, which will likely enhance the overall driving experience at night.

What is the price of the Kia Carens Clavis?

The price of the Kia Carens Clavis starts at ₹12.95 lakh (on-road, Noida) for the base variant, and it goes to ₹24.06 lakh (on-road, Noida) for the top-spec variant. Since we drove the HTX variant, it is priced at ₹21.84 lakh (on-road, Noida) and is only offered with a seven-seater configuration.

Verdict

Rating: 3.5/5

Now, coming to the main question, should you consider the Kia Carens Clavis diesel manual or not? Our answer is Yes! The interiors of the Carens Clavis are premium, the exteriors have a bold design, and it has good performance as well from its diesel engine. The fuel efficiency with the manual gearbox is good, and you can extract more than 20km/L while driving it sedately.

However, the rear seats are pretty comfortable, but could have been offered with more features. The HTX is the top-end variant for the diesel manual lovers, but it fails to hit the mark of being a complete all-rounder package, and the missing features could be a dealbreaker for buyers. If you are looking for some other MPVs in the market, you can check the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and Toyota Innova Hycross.

Read more: Kia Carens Clavis (HTX) First Drive Report: Good Looks, But Not a Complete Package