In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Carnival are reminded to check the back seat when a sensor determines the back seat is occupied. The Transit Connect Wagon doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Kia Carnival has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Transit Connect Wagon doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Carnival SX/Prestige has a standard Parking Collision Avoidance-Reverse that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Transit Connect Wagon doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The Carnival’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Transit Connect Wagon and is only available on Transit Connect Wagon XLT/Titanium.
The Carnival SX/Prestige has a standard Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Transit Connect Wagon only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Carnival has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Ford charges extra for Cross Traffic Alert on the Transit Connect Wagon and the Transit Connect Wagon’s Cross Traffic Alert does not include automatic braking.
Both the Carnival and the Transit Connect Wagon have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights and rearview cameras.
The Kia Carnival weighs 412 to 708 pounds more than the Ford Transit Connect Wagon. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its available headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Carnival the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2022, a rating granted to only 177 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Transit Connect Wagon has not been tested, yet.