When opposed to rivals like Maruti Suzuki XL6 and Citroen C3 Aircross, Kia Carens Diesel Manual variants might provide lower running costs
With the Carens, Kia expanded its Indian lineup to include crossover MPV for the first time. With good sales figures to rely on, Carens made it through BS6 P2 emission norm mandates. But the lack of a diesel manual powertrain combo was one of the sore points of Carens. Kia is now introducing six new Diesel Manual variants to attract more buyes.
Kia Carens Diesel Manual Variants Launch Soon
As of now, Kia Carens is only offered with a 1.5L NA Petrol Manual, 1.5L Turbo Petrol iMT, 1.5L Turbo Petrol DCT, 1.5L Diesel iMT and 1.5L Diesel AT powertrain combos. Soon, the company will introduce six new diesel manual variants with Premium, Premium (O), Prestige, Prestige Plus, Luxury and Luxury Plus trim levels.
If you observe closely, the 1.5L NA Petrol engine only gets a manual gearbox option, while the other two engines only get automatics. So, if you wanted an affordable manual gearbox option with Carens, the 1.5L NA Petrol engine was the only choice. That still seems to be true despite Kia introducing six new Diesel manual variants.
We say this because diesel manual variants are reportedly priced higher than the iMT, which is very interesting, to say the least. Speaking of pricing, Premium Diesel MT costs Rs. 12.67 lakh Premium (O) Diesel MT Rs. 12.9 lakh, Prestige Diesel MT Rs. 14 lakh, Prestige Plus Diesel MT Rs. 15.47 lakh, Luxury Diesel MT Rs. 17.15 lakh and Luxury Plus Rs. 18.15 lakh (all prices ex-sh).
When comparing prices with existing Diesel iMT variants, there is a price hike with Diesel MT variants ranging between Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 20,000 depending on trim level. Just like with updated Seltos HTK+ trim level covered yesterday, there could be added features to justify the premium that buyers should shed for a manual over an iMT.
What else can we expect?
Apart from the upcoming diesel manual variants, there won’t be any changes to the actual engines. So, the 1.5L 4-cylinder diesel engine on Carens will continue to develop 113 bhp of peak power and 250 Nm of peak torque.
The report also mentioned Kia might axe outgoing iMT gearbox with diesel variants, owing to buyer trends favouring manual and proper torque converter gearboxes over iMT. Other powertrain options include the 1.5L NA Petrol and 1.5L Turbo Petrol units. Starting next month, Kia Seltos and Carens get a 3% price increment too.
Features are likely to be similar to outgoing Carens, but Kia could rejig trim levels to add or remove certain features and creature comforts to align with evolving customer buying trends. Both 7-Seater and 6-Seater (with top-spec trim) are expected to continue as they were.
