2022 Kia Carnival earns Top Safety Pick award

The 2022 Kia Carnival, a new minivan, earns a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety when equipped with specific headlights.

To qualify for the award, vehicles must earn good ratings in all six IIHS crashworthiness evaluations, including the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. They must also be available with a front crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations and at least one headlight package that earns a good or acceptable rating. To qualify for the higher-tier Top Safety Pick+ award, good or acceptable headlights must be standard across trim levels.

The Carnival falls short of qualifying for the higher-tier award because its base headlights earn a poor rating due to inadequate illumination.

The LED projector headlights that come with the SX Prestige trim earn a good rating. Only vehicles equipped with those headlights and built after March 2021 qualify for the award. Vehicles built earlier were equipped with different front seats that did not undergo the IIHS head restraint evaluation.

The Carnival is available with two different front crash prevention systems, one standard and one optional. Both systems earn superior ratings in the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations.

The third minivan to earn a 2021 safety award, the Carnival also earns an acceptable ease-of-use rating for its child seat attachment (LATCH) hardware.