It was four years ago that I decided I was going to do a little experiment. My in-laws moved to Michigan, and it was suddenly borderline reasonable to make the 14-hour drive there for Christmas, as opposed to being at the whim of the weather and airlines. Since I’d be making approximately the same trip, why not try driving every vehicle in a class?
Obviously, subcompact crossovers were out, as there are so many of them that I’d never be able to stay within the window of refreshes. Muscle cars would be fun, but that’s a dwindling list. Given that these trips involved schlepping presents and carrying cousins and uncles and grandmas to various events, the minivan made perfect sense.
I have now driven the four main minivans for sale in the United States, all of which are basically within the same generation: the Chrysler Pacifica, the Kia Carnival, the Honda Odyssey, and now the Toyota Sienna.
Even though it’s not the most popular van in America, the Sienna is the most well-regarded, and its huge positive swing in year-over-year sales proves it. If you ask anyone who hasn’t driven any minivan what the best minivan is, they’ll probably say it’s the Toyota. Are the made-up people I’ve deputized into my argument correct?
Yes.
The Sienna isn’t the sportiest, the nicest, the most attractive, the most comfortable, or technically even the most efficient van for sale. It’s not the one I think I’d buy if I were buying a minivan. It is the most Toyota of vans, though, offering an incredible amount of stuff in an unbelievable package. I could make an argument for any van in this class, but I can’t argue with anyone who thinks this is the best.
[Full Disclosure: Toyota was game for my little project, and lent me a Sienna Platinum AWD for a few more miles and a few more days than usual.]
The Basics
Engine: 2.5-liter inline-four
Electric Motor: Three A/C motors
Combined Output: 245 HP (combined), 178 lb-ft of torque from the engine (199 lb-ft rear motor, 89 lb-ft front motor)
Battery: Nickel-metal hydride, 1.5 kWh size
Transmission: eCVT
Drive: AWD (rear electric motor)
Fuel Economy: 35 mpg combined, 34 mpg city, 36 mpg highway
Body Style: Minivan
Base Price: $39,185
Price As Tested: $60,470 (Platinum)
Why This Exists
Minivans were once a requirement for automakers, serving both as a natural purchase for families and a sort of status symbol. As has been decried many times, SUVs subsumed all the suburban street cred, and minivans became the thing you rented at Disney World. If you have a family of a certain size, that rental will remind you of how wonderful and capable vans are.
In my past life as a sort of Kirkland-brand automotive filmmaker, I drove minivans nearly every month for years, and my appreciation never waned. The best choice then was the oldest Grand Caravan I could find, given that we’d strap all manner of cameras to it and relied on the permisiveness of its rudimentary safety systems to do so. A Sienna was always a nice treat, though, especially when they went all hybrid in 2021.
These days, the camera gear has been replaced with skates, scooters, tablets, and the ephemera of childhood. Permissiveness is no longer so desired.
As most of you probably know, the Sienna isn’t the first attempt made by Toyota at selling a van here. The original Toyota minivan was the perplexing mid-engined Toyota Previa. For a nerd like myself, the Previa marks the high point of vans in America. For everyone else, the Previa was just a little too weird. Toyota quickly rectified this with the Sienna and has been elbow deep in Placenta ever since.
In its stubbornly persistent Toyota way, the company has improved the Sienna with each iteration, and now sells the only all-hybrid van, the only AWD hybrid van, and one of only two vans available with AWD at all (I’m excluding the ID.Buzz). When I look at all Toyota has done with its van, and how long it’s taken for everyone to catch up, I sort of feel like Jesse Pinkman screaming out that they can’t keep getting away with this.
They do, and they have.
How Does It look?
So as to prove that I actually drove this to Michigan, the best photos I got of it were in front of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. I love presidential museums, and the Ford Museum does a good job of making the most of a challenging presidency (I’m not sure I agree with the pardoning of his predecessor, but he did name the first shuttle after a craft from Star Trek, which is pretty cool).
The Sienna is a North American product and therefore gets a North American design. Toyota did more than make the most of a challenging bodystyle. It did everything you could visually do to a minivan. It’s maximalist in the extreme. That doesn’t make it bad, necessarily, but I wouldn’t say it makes it good.
It’s as if there’s a normal, attractive minivan underneath, and it’s been covered with one of the tackier Veilside bodykits. I keep trying to find an angle I love or can even comprehend, which is a bit like trying to enjoy an LMFAO song by listening to each track separately.
In profile, the front of the greenhouse slopes downwards towards the front arch with a smooth boomerang of chrome, only to smoothly kink back towards a much harder-edged line. I sort of like the swoosh of a bodyline formed by the aggressive rear fender, but then you turn to the rear 3/4 and see how it’s formed.
Why are there so many curves? How would you describe the rear lights? This may be the first minivan built for the creatures of the planet Zebes.
And the front. The front! Six blades! Everything happening all at once! The best I can say for it is that you won’t mistake it for anything else on the road.
What’s It Like On The Inside?
A minivan interior doesn’t need to be beautiful. It doesn’t need to be elegant. More than anything, it needs to be usable. The Sienna is the standard by which minivan usability should be measured, because I haven’t experienced anything quite as good.
Right up front, literally, it has these things called buttons. When you’re screaming at your child to stop shoving the bright red, Christmas-themed M&M up their nose, you don’t want to also have to fumble with a touch-capacitive screen. Or any screen. You want a button. Simple, in this case, is good.
You know what’s also simple and yet deeply satisfying? The not-quite-t-handle shifter. It’s just an automatic, but there’s such a wonderful th-thunk when you angle it into gear that it almost feels like you’re involved in the driving process.
There’s also a huge flat section between the driver and front passenger, with six (yes, six!) cupholders of various sizes. I’d love one of those cupholders to be giant, because I like a huge water bottle on a trip, but that’s a minor complaint. The flat section with storage underneath is the winner here, as you can eat an entire Burger King meal on the road on it without issue.
While not the first car to feature a little fridge in the back, this one has the option for either a cold drink or a frozen treat. I love the idea of chucking a bunch of popsicles on a long trip to keep the kids (and parents) busy. If it hadn’t been 10 degrees during this trip, I’d have been tempted to put some Yasso bars back there.
Honda gets credit for, I think, the first built-in vacuum in a minivan in North America. It’s taken a while, but Toyota now has an integrated vacuum, and it works quite well for small spills.
The Carnival has more comfortable seats in the higher trim, and the Chrsyler van/s have the only true stow’n’go seats (a middle row that folds flat), so it’s not perfect, but it’s the best overall interior on the market.
In this Platinum grade, you can see the designers did the very smart thing of making the upper sections a light color, and any place a kid is likely to touch a dark color, so that you can have the benefit of a bright interior without worrying about it all the time.
How Does It Drive?
I put a lot of miles on this thing. Some of these were not easy miles. There was snow, ice, fog, and rain. At least once, I experienced all of the above within a 30-minute period.
Driving back to New York, my plan was to do a short, half-day drive to Cleveland, followed by a full-day march across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. About an hour out of Ann Arbor, I pulled up the weather and realized the only way we were getting home was to just make it one, long 13-hour drive.
Thinking you’re going to drive four hours and then suddenly tacking on three times that much driving sucks. It’s terrible. If the van was something really uncomfortable, I’m not sure I could have pulled it off, but with the trusty Sienna, I knew I’d be comfortable enough to make the journey.
It used to be that 245 horsepower was a lot of horsepower. That’s not true anymore, and this doesn’t pull like an Odyssey. It’s enough, though, and there weren’t many situations where I felt like I was about to be let down by the Sienna. As with most hybrids, if you put strain on the 2.5-liter inline-four by slamming the skinny pedal, you will be rewarded with grudging acceleration and punished by the sound.
Other than a Pacifica PHEV that you plug in and only drive short distances, nothing can claim better fuel economy than the Sienna. The fact that the driving is mostly forgettable is more than made up for by the fact that the fuel economy isn’t. Toyota offers an EPA 35 MPG combined for the AWD version, which conforms to my experience.
That’s great. That’s 3 MPG better than the Carnival Hybrid, which can’t be had in AWD.
Why Is This The Most Minivan?
I’m going to use another post to do a full comparison between the four major minivans, because I think there’s a slightly different buyer for each one. If you’re not sure which van you want, you probably want the Sienna.
The Sienna already wins for being the only minivan offered where every version is a hybrid. It’s hard to argue that a vehicle like a minivan, which is basically a school bus for most families, shouldn’t always be a hybrid. The Sienna also has the option of all-wheel drive, which is important to some people. The starting price is even slightly lower than the Kia, which is the only non-PHEV competitor.
Ultimately, though, a minivan is a place to be. To exist. To pass countless mornings on the way to kindergarten, and endless hours driving to grandma’s 80th birthday party. There’s very little gimmick to the Sienna. Its main gimmick is that it’ll be a comfortable environment for trips long and short, while returning more than reasonable fuel economy. It’ll even do it at a good price.
That’s hard to beat.
All photos by Matt Hardigree unless otherwise noted
Looking forward to the inevitable EV Sienna. Might get me to finally go up to a bigger vehicle. What I really want is a US version of the Sienta though.
I consider this vehicle weak, nice as it is.
My 18 Pacifica Hybrid will simply stomp on u.
Peak Minivan? Not if you need occasional (or frequent) use of the entire cargo area. We definitely do, so this “peak” minivan is missing an essential component of minivan. Stow ‘n go is even better.
Our Pacifica PHEV kicks butt compared to the lethargic acceleration of my brother’s new Sienna, with better milage and also a way smoother driving experience, but now that they’ve DC’d it, I’m not sure what our next minivan will be. One other factor to consider if you’re actually trying to buy one is that Siennas are tough to find for sticker, let alone the $ on the hood of some competitors.
I really wish the other minivans had a second row stow feature. That Stow n Go is such a game changing feature. When the seats are up, I often use the space as extra secure storage when I go downtown or have all my camera gear with me. When I need to play 3D tetris, Stow n Go becomes invaluable. I’ve moved a queen size bed without needing to take seats out of my minivan! It was the single feature that got me to consider Chrysler in the first place.
Like the Grand Highlander, getting one of these is a chore because it is Toyota. Hell you have to find a used one if you want a test drive, because the new ones are never on the lot, aside from the occasional base model LE I see hang out in inventory for a whopping 24 hours or so locally.
I keep reminding myself that the Odyssey Elite is $50k (realistic after discount) instead of $62k for the Sienna Platinum (discount, hahaha says the dealer with a waiting list). A Honda in the color/interior I want is 30 minutes away sitting on a lot. I could buy it tonight. Sienna? Who the hell knows? Do I even trust the dealer to deliver the car I “reserve”?
So decent chance the Odyssey wins out, as the Sienna kind of forfeits due to lack of availability. Plus $12k buys a lot of gas.
This has been the case for Toyota hybrids for too long. IDC what people, buy and why, but once people start saying they want a hybrid to save money, spending more money to “save” money, then I must point out that it takes many years to make up difference in MSRP by using less fuel.
That’s when they start screeching about environmental responsibility to which I say, buying a new car is worse for the environment than just fixing and driving what you have.
Funny quote from an article in today’s NYTimes science section (article is about St. Elmo’s Fire on trees during thunderstorms):
The article:
http://www.nytimes dot com/2026/03/02/science/trees-glowing-st-elmos-fire.html
Rented two of these for 2 weeks in Palm Springs to drive our golf gang and clubs around. Surprising how premium it felt and our golf group called them the shaggin wagons in an affectionate way. Tons of space and rode so quiet with more than enough power. Looked good too. If I was in the market this would be my top choice. Company I work for has 2 Pacificas on lease which I always thought were pretty nice but after driving these Toyotas they are not even close. Sure the Siennas are more money but the Toyota refinement, quality, premium feel seem to be worth it to me.This seems like a vehicle you’ll keep for a decade.
You could keep it for several decades.
At 150,000 miles, it will just be hitting its stride. Many a Pacifica will have its final resting place within sight at that point, if it makes it that far.
I enjoyed driving a rental Pacifica last summer for a two-day roadtrip, and this started me thinking about *maybe* getting a minivan as my next vehicle. While the Pacifica isn’t on my list of contenders, the Sienna and Carnival are at the top. Do I need a minivan as a D.I.N.K.? No. Will I still consider it, especially since it rivals the mpg of my little hatchback but with 75 more hp? YUP
My buddy in TX wanted to buy one of these back when not all of them were hybrids and he was on a waiting list for months.
I will look forward to reading your comparison article. I haven’t been in a Sienna. I’ve rented a Pacifica (non-hybrid) and been a passenger in the other two.
The exterior is hard to get past, but the front row (and that shifter!) looks pretty cool.
That grille! Too ugly for me.
stow and go seats or bust for me. I fit a full size mattress , box spring, bedframe and still had room for even more stuff in my grand caravan last weekend!
I’m generally of the opinion that people who look to minivans exclusively for families are hugely missing out on the cheapest and most practical transport (a small amount of) money can buy. An old minivan can haul better than most trucks, carry more people than most SUVs, and cost pennies on the dollar to maintain. I’m increasingly convinced that I will never be without a minivan of some kind, because you can pick one up used for less than… literally anything. Nothing else costs 5 grand with 100k miles, let alone carries 4×8 sheets of ply flat in the back and 7-8 people. The high-milage car market on minivans makes every other type of poor-person car irrelevant. Winter beater, tow rig, lightweight camper conversion, welding rig platform, Lyft vehicle, these are all things I’ve done with the same minivan.
Honestly, moving families around feels like the least of the possible applications. It’s long past time we admitted that our parents were just objectively correct on this one.
If we’re beating the minivan drum, and im always happy to do it, they can also tow pretty well. Some are rated to 3500lbs. This is plenty to pull some powersports toys, a small camper, or a utility trailer for weekend projects. Remember too, that a 5×8 utility trailer is already larger than a full size truck bed. The minivan is the do everything vehicle.
Somehow the world has been convinced to spend many thousands of dollars on emotion rather than logic.
Remember, minivans are designed to carry 4×8 sheet goods and 10′ lumber. Most full size pickup trucks are not. Plus, you can haul it in the rain. Buy a truck and pay to get your drywall delivered.
I don’t deny that this is overall an excellent vehicle that checks essentially every box I have for our next family car. But for all that I’ve tried, I can’t convince myself to want to buy one.
I think it being ugly has a lot to do with that, but it’s also just too big for me to want one. I need a little more room than my Mazda5, but I only have two kids. I don’t want an “adult sized” third row that I only use occasionally in town.
So despite being a pretty fervent minivan apologist, I keep finding myself considering 3-row crossover options to find something that’s a little better looking and the right size. Unfortunately, there’s not much there, either.
In the short term it’s better for my wallet, but the Mazda won’t last forever. I guess I just have to keep crossing my fingers for the rumored Maverick-based Transit Connect replacement and pray to the Ford Quality gods that they spare my soul?
I agree. It’s pretty effing ugly.
Toyota needs to ditch that grille style entirely.
They could make magnificent improvements in appearance with a little consultation assistance from Giugiaro or Pininfarina.
Rented one 3 years ago. 700 miles. 35 mpg. comfortable. good looking. Seamless transition from electric to gas. I was floored how good it was. I was prepared to hate it. Now take a second. Toyota makes this only for the US market and it is by far the best in class. Wow.
We have the 2011 MY of the Sienna, it’s great! Makes a fine road trip vehicle. Only has ~ 140K miles on it, so hopefully it will be a while before we need a new one. A new Sienna is the first place we’d be looking at a replacement. Not really loving the new look but I guess it’s not too horrible. But the difficulty of taking out the middle seats (have to fool the sensor) may make us lean towards stow and go. We still need to fit a 8’1″ harpsichord in there after all.
More of a comment on the other article on minivans, I do seen plenty of new minivans, as well as nearly all other kinds of new cars, with Uber and/or Lyft stickers on them around here (SF Bay Area). Makes me wonder if the owner has to do the gig work thing to afford the car payments.
That is a boatload of shiny plastic on the center console, which is definitely going to reflect the sun straight into your eyes when you’re driving at the wrong angle. I’m increasingly convinced that shiny, horizontal surfaces should be banned from the interior of vehicles.
And I speak from experience. My last three vehicles have had shiny interior bits and I’ve had to either plasti-dip or vinyl wrap all of them to cut down on the reflections.
On my XLE trim sienna, it’s more of a matte finish. I haven’t been inside a platinum to know if they changed the material, but it’s possible that they did, which would be a huge mistake.
I can’t get over the stupid ‘flying’ center console arm rest thingy in new vans like this and the Carnival. In my book part of the minivan manifesto is the ability to get up from the driver seat and walk to the back without having to open the door, something you used to easily be able to do in Odysseys and Mopar vans. Nowadays the only thing that comes close is the current Odyssey which lets you slide over to the passenger side which is nice (and I’ve used it on multiple occasions), but not enough.
If I’m thinking of the same part of the console, it’s probably there to create a stowage space for a handbag.
I mean, my mom never had any issues with putting hers on the floor in front of the dash. But I suppose it could potentially slide around and become a safety hazard.
I think you read this the same way I did at first – My initial reaction was that I liked they’d opened up the wide expanse below the shifter.
It sounds like the complaint here is the existence of the console at all, unlike many older minivans that had a dash or column shifter and nothing between the front seats or in front of the dash.
That said, I like some kind of console better than a big open space. I almost never need to go from the front seats to the back without getting out, but I almost always need a convenient place to put a drink, my phone, mints, gum, sunglasses, etc.
It’s so funny, back in the day when we had a windstar we specifically bought an aftermarket center console
I’m looking forward to the full segment comparison. Looking at vans now and so far it’s 75% Odyssey 25% last gen Sienna. I will say, my only complaint is that it would be nice to review mid trims instead of the highest trim, as many features change in these vans as you go up, especially with the middle row. More of a complaint with the auto industry typically loaning out the highest trims but still, would be nice to see the lower ones.
Any time a low trim car comes in the fleets know that I want it more than anything.
This is what I really wanted back in 2010 when the twins came along and we became a family of 5. Still pissed it took so them so long to make it a hybrid. Ended up with a Mazda 5 with a 5 speed which I loved but we outgrew it years ago and it rusted out badly. Put a down payment on a Sienna in 2024, got put on a waiting list and decided to pull out. I still want one but our family is starting to shrink so maybe it doesn’t make sense any more. Just a base model. Maybe if the prices finally come down…
We’re on the verge of outgrowing our Mazda5. I just wish there was a step between that and the existing behemoth minivans. The Sienna is nearly 2 feet longer than my Mazda!
Fortunately I live in a rust-free area and it’s running great, so really no pressure to upgrade from the 5 for now other than the occasional desire for a bit more room.
Yeah, my wife doesn’t like big vehicles so she’s not a fan of the Sienna. I don’t mind so much. She really likes my Mom’s RAV-4 hybrid. If we even get another new car it might be the CX-50 hybrid.
I have been in 2 minivans in the last year, which is pretty high for me. I think I preferred the Pacifica to the Sienna for stow-n-go and I don’t like how Toyota handled the cockpit. I didn’t like the large void under the center console, I would prefer a column shift and to have that space open. It was just inconvenient to reach at my height. Fuel economy of the Sienna was unreal, and it was reasonably comfortable, but for a long weekend I liked the Pacifica better.
Curious if all the major minivans can haul a sheet of plywood with the hatch closed, any chance we get that stat in the comparison?
That’s a good question. I don’t have it off-hand, but I know from experience a Pacifica will do it.
I have done it in an Odyssey as well, although not the newest version, but the interior of the Sienna I had as a rental seemed slightly smaller.
I suspect the Sienna can’t due to the 2nd row being non-removable, or at least not easily removable.
From experience the Sienna can only sort of do it, you have to angle the sheet so the front rests on the headrests of the folded middle row. Which is fine for a single sheet of plywood, but for multiple sheets or something more flexible like drywall it’s much easier to lay them on the floor and leave the hatch cracked open.
60 grand is like, wow. Even at a base of 39 it’ll be 45 OTD. And that’s if the dealer doesn’t scam you into buying corrosion control ripoffs, extended warranties, etc.
Then again, people will pay 90 for a freaking pickup these days, so what do I know?