Kia Carens: A Welcome Surprise?

The name Carens was first used for a compact MPV back in 1999. The name is derived from the words "Car" and "Renaissance". The name was not generated by the Karen meme for entitled people. It is pronounced “Car”-“Ens”. Now, in its fourth generation, Kia India is looking at introducing the name for the local market. However, over the years, we have been expecting automakers to keep up with the SUV-dominated styling and stance for nearly all their models. So you can imagine our bewilderment when we saw that  the Carens isn’t entirely designed to be one.  Unlike the Hyundai Alcazar, the Kia Carens is not an SUV. But, Kia doesn’t like us referring to it as an MPV either. They’d rather call it a ‘Recreational Vehicle’ (RV). In other parts of the world, an RV is essentially a caravan. But the Carens isn’t that either. Anyway, this isn’t an attempt at dissecting their marketing strategy, so let us get down to telling you more about the vehicle.  The Carens uses the same K2 platform as the Seltos, Creta, and Alcazar. So the dimensions are similar as well. It measures 4,540 mm inn length, is 1,800 mm wide, and 1,700