2011 Toyota Sienna - Second Drive

A sporty minivan? From Toyota? What's next—a Pulitzer for Palin?

BY TONY QUIROGA, PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID DEWHURST AND THE MANUFACTURER
March 2010

The Toyota Sienna has been the automotive equivalent of  Wonder Bread: satisfying, but also squishy and bland, a product purchased for the sake of the kids.

So we weren’t expecting much at the recent launch of the new model—that is, until we learned that Toyota put a former go-kart racer in charge of the 2011 Sienna. While Kazuo Mori, the project’s chief engineer, still dreams of designing sports cars, for the past 17 years he’s been all about Toyota vans. With the third-generation Sienna, he seized the moment to put style and performance above bland refinement.

First there was chassis tuning. The front strut suspension and rear torsion-beam axle remain, but a comprehensive retuning cuts out the flabby softness of the previous model. With roll dramatically reduced, firmer damping keeps the body under closer watch. A new electric power-steering system requires greater effort and now has some semblance of feel. Not enough? Toyota has a new SE trim level that offers an even firmer chassis, larger wheels, retuned power steering, and a body kit.

A body kit probably would have looked ridiculous on the last Sienna, a vehicle we have characterized as “rolling anonymity.” And although the new Sienna retains the mommy-knows-best one-box minivan shape, the design is more striking than before. Slab sides give way to a defined shoulder line and bulging front fenders. The front end seems to have been inspired by Toyota’s F3R minivan concept from 2006. We might go so far as to call the Sienna the best-looking minivan extant.

Inside, the interior is similarly modernized. The look is Venza-like, as are materials and textures that are perfectly acceptable as long as you don’t start touching them—then they feel a bit cheap. As one would expect of a minivan, storage space abounds: two glove boxes, massive door pockets, at least three more cup holders than there are seats, and even a place on the floor for your purse (or your wife’s). A 60/40 split third-row bench collapses easily into the floor, but the second row doesn’t do a disappearing act. Top-of-the-line Limited models and all-wheel-drive XLEs get manually adjustable “recliner-style” second-row seats with footrests.

A 266-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 remains available on all five trim levels (base, LE, SE, XLE, and Limited), but a six-speed automatic is new and improves fuel economy to 18 mpg city and 24 highway, an increase of 1 mpg on both cycles. For those willing to sacrifice some acceleration, Toyota now offers the segment’s only four-cylinder option, a 187-hp 2.7-liter that’s also mated to a six-speed automatic and delivers 19 mpg city and 26 highway. Prices are held to previous levels: Base models open at $25,060, and loaded AWD versions surge into the mid-$40,000s

We find it a bit odd that Toyota’s minivan is the one vehicle in the carmaker’s lineup that doesn’t trade athletic responses for refined sogginess. None of Toyota’s vehicles is the sportiest among its competitors, except the Sienna. Well, you’ve got to start somewhere.