Kia Sedona/Carnival Service Manuals

About The Kia Sedona/Carnival

The Kia Sedona is a minivan that is known officially by the South Korean company as the Carnival nameplate.

It began production in 1998 as a joint project between Kia and a Chinese automobile manufacturer

This Sedona model name has been in use for the North American version that was introduced for the 2002 model year.

To help the car sell in the USA the company added a larger Hyundai V6 engine to the car with a 4-speed and then a 5-speed automatic transmission.

The car lacked many of the modern conveniences that other minivans were sold with in the US at the time such as reverse sensors.

Buyers of the car were not concerned with this basic approach as the Sedona minivan sat at the bottom of its segment in terms of price.

It shared its chassis with the Kia Credos, an in-house developed mid-size car.

Second Generation Sedona

In 2005 a second-generation version of the car came onto the market and this time it was offered in two versions, a short and long-wheelbase.

This new model was built on a platform that was jointly developed between Hyundai and Kia called the Y5.

This Y5 platform was put to use under the Hyundai Santa Fe and Hyundai Sonata and had a much wider range of features built into it such as ABS and tri-zone climate control.

Hyundai launched their own rebadged version of this minivan in the USA for just a few years (2007 – 2009) that they named the Entourage.

Third Generation Sedona

In 2014 a third-generation Kia Sedona entered the market built on the same platform as the Kia Sorento mid-size crossover SUV.

The styling of the car had been vastly improved and many features crammed into the body helping it take on the big boys in the minivan sector.

Sales were helped in South Korea by the changes to the car as sales more than doubled with this third-generation model.

In North America the car barely held onto the sales it was getting before as the minivan industry continues to lose customers to the growing crossover market.

Fourth Generation Sedona

Production of the fourth generation Sedona began in 2020 in plants in South Korea and Russia for the 2021 model year.

A slightly larger model that now uses the Hyundai-Kia N3 platform that is shared with many other mid-size models such as the Sportage.

Engine options have been reduced down to just three with two gasoline and a turbodiesel option, all of which are mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission.

As the car moved into this new generation it dropped the Sedona name and has embraced the Carnival (and Grand Carnival for the long-wheelbase version) globally.