Taking the tribe overland through dust, wind and Kansas is no easy feat. When the nearest Arby’s becomes an oasis from hours of boredom, you know you’re in dire straights. I wouldn’t know, because I avoid open spaces like agoraphobia.
But, as it just so happens, I come from a family. And like many families, my family would have rather traveled across Kansas by foot before buying a minivan
I hear many when they talk about capitulating to a minivan like admitting when they buy generic milk.
“Yeah, we finally broke down and bought a van,” the refrain goes. And I get it. From the outside, most minivans are about as exciting as a gallon of generic milk.
Paint flames on your 2015 Toyota Sienna, then. Or something. It’s worth getting excited about.
First: No, I’m not completely delusional.
Second: Find your friend — the one who tucks his tail between his legs when he admits he has a minivan in his garage — and say you’ve got one too. See his ears perk up? See his eyes widen? There’s camaraderie in the counterculture, and buying a minivan flies in the face of conventional SUV wisdom, don’t you know.
That’s because van owners know how comfortable, spacious and functional minivans can be — who cares if they don’t look like Helen of Troy from the outside? These are the ships that lunch a thousand soccer teams.
The Sienna is in seriously competitive country. All four minivan competitors — the Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Town & Country, Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna — are within spitting distance of each other at $30,000 when comparably equipped.
My steed, a lavishly equipped Sienna, scratches an itch the rest of the minivans can’t: it’s the only all-wheel drive available van. Under the hood, there’s a 6-cylinder engine that cranks 266 horsepower that’s managed by a six-speed automatic transmission. In the real world, the Sienna manages around 20 mpg in combined city and highway driving.
Those aren’t very real numbers, as far as minivan buyers are concerned. Here’s what you want to know: How many ground-in Cheerios can the seat handle? What’s the sippy cupholder to childseat latch ratio? How many headphones can be simultaneously connected to the DVD player that will inevitably play “Frozen” 12,000 times in a single road trip?
To answer: A lot of Cheerios can be ground into the seating for up to eight, 12 cupholders to four childseat latches and four headphones can listen to the DVD at the same time.
The Sienna makes its hay in minutiae like these — same goes for a lot of the other minivans — and that’s why it’s likable.
Like other minivans, the Sienna tickles the common sense quotient with a handful of Toyota features that range in usability.
Space shuttle seating — which may be the thinnest corporate tie imaginable for Toyota — helps the van seat 7 or 8 passengers depending on seat configuration. When the middle row is captains chairs only, seating for adults in the middle row is comfortable and spacious. In the more expensive Limited models, second-row chairs have leg support. However, when the middle seat isn’t installed in the second row, there are a few ungainly hooks jutting up from the floor that remind you that something isn’t there. They’re also a little bit of a tripping hazard for small feet.
The much more useful family feature, an amplified voice system for drivers to speak to rear passengers, dubbed “Driver Easy Speak” is the Sienna’s best trick. Using a microphone in the front to project through the rear speakers, talking to children sitting in the rear seats is much easier and clearer — and more importantly — safer.
Toyota’s Entune infotainment system is still the best of the bunch and is easier to use than comparable systems in the Honda and Chrysler vans. Syncing a phone with the system and utilizing its data connection helps the van find movie times, gas pumps and stream Internet radio, which I imagine actually gets used in a van more than it does in their passenger cars.
Day in, day out, the Sienna is just as comfortable as your living room. The easy load height and wide-open spaces made my trips to home improvement stores a breeze and around town, the Sienna is imminently maneuverable.
The Sienna also looks a little like my living room too, and I’m no one’s interior decorator. Despite subtle improvements to the front fascia and rear tail lights, the Sienna doesn’t look as good as, say, the Odyssey.
But like every van, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
What about the Nissan Quest? It has gotten good reviews lately, and you ignore its existence completely. It has some unique design features. Also, while purporting to refute minivan stereotypes, your article simply reinforces them. I have had several Siennas, all equipped in the Limited version, and all occupied primarily by adults who enjoy riding in comfort and being able to see out easily. If you compare a minivan to most larger SUVs you will find that there is little difference in minutiae like number of cupholders, but big differences in terms of ride quality, space, and fuel economy, with the minivans winning in all those areas. SUVs often handle more poorly than minivans as well.