I love a good minivan! you have better practicality than you do an SUV with better fuel economy and the rarity of driving a minivan. Toyota has been making the Sienna for quite some time, and they re-designed it a few years ago. They implemented something interesting which is utilizing a hybrid-only powertrain. For this test, I wanted to see if the Sienna is as good as the Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey, or Kia Carnival?
Let's look at the outside, and the first thing you see is a massive grill at the front, along with some very angular headlights that taper into some black cladding with a blue Toyota logo. This is the logo that they use for all of their hybrid vehicles. My tester was in the Woodland-specific Cement gray paint and had some exclusive details including black badging at the back for Sienna, all-wheel drive, the Toyota badge, and XLE hybrid. When you look at it from the side, it is a good-looking minivan with a bulge that starts at the front of the Sienna and goes all the way to the rear, where the rear-lights start. At the rear, you have those black badges and this particular model had an optional tow bar. It’s a good-looking minivan, but I do think that the Kia carnival looks better.
When you jump inside, you will see a Sienna kickplate lighted in blue along with some comfortable fake leather chairs. In front of you, you have the Toyota steering wheel which has adaptive cruise control, buttons for the little TFT display, and audio controls. There is adaptive headlights and some large buttons Near the sunroof to open both sliding doors and rear hatch. The infotainment system is OK with some physical buttons for easy access to your audio and maps, but I would just use the integrated Apple CarPlay and android auto. I do like that the climate controls are separate from the infotainment system and you get heated seats. What's interesting is there’s a sort of ledge that goes across the passenger and driver side which houses the USB for Apple CarPlay and android auto along with a wireless charger.
The one thing that I would change about the front of the Sienna is where the gear shifter is. It feels like it’s a little too far forward and Toyota could’ve brought it back a little bit. That said, you have a switch for the different drive modes, including eco, normal, and sport, along with an EV mode and brake hold. There are so many cup holders that Toyota claims that there are 18 and I would definitely agree with that! Sienna’s center console is nice because there is some padding on top of it along with a very deep cubby hole that houses a USB-C and regular USB. Since this particular Sienna had a rear entertainment package, this one had a remote along with three pairs of headphones. In the rear, you have a second row with captain's chairs along with a semi-easy-to-fold third row. The second-row chairs have a lot of adjustabilities, but they cannot be taken out of the Siana so you can’t utilize the entirety of the rear space. Almost all passengers get their own USB or USB-C ports.
Since Toyota made this a hybrid, they definitely focused more on fuel economy than outright speed. The Toyota Sienna utilizes a 2.5-liter hybrid engine which produces 245 horsepower/183 kW and 199 lb-ft/267 Nm. Along with a CVT and AWD, the Sienna goes from 0 to 60 MPH in 7.7 seconds. It does seem slow getting off the line, but it can keep up with traffic just fine. I actually found that eco didn’t make that much of a difference compared to the normal model. Sport mode did liven up things a little bit but nothing to really brag about.
Most of the time, the Sienna was in electric mode so it was very quiet. The ride is also comfortable and the JBL sound system does a good job pumping out your music. When just driving around regularly, you can expect around 37 miles per gallon, and I’ve recorded a whopping 42 miles per gallon on the highway going around 70 miles an hour! That is absolutely fantastic. This also has more than 550 miles of range so you won’t have to fill up for a long time. As a family hauler, this is very practical, even without being able to fold down the second row of seats.
Now we have to get to the price, and this particular Sienna Woodland access with all-wheel-drive and the rear entertainment package costs $48,000. Would I recommend the Toyota Sienna? I think that really depends. As I said, the Kia Carnival does have a better-looking exterior and the Chrysler Pacifica is able to have a plug-in hybrid system. That said, I think the Siana is a very good minivan. In fact, I would either go with this trim or the XSE trim. If you get rid of the rear entertainment system, you’re looking out for around $45,000, which is in line with the other minivans in the segment. Since this does get such good fuel economy, I would definitely say that it is a good minivan when you have high gas prices. It may not be the best, but it has the qualities you want for an economical minivan.
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