2019 Toyota Sienna Minivan Consumer Reviews
26,000 miles in 11 months... it's good.
We have had 3 other Siennas before this but we aren't your typical family. We stage houses and need lots of space, some acceptable "presence" when we pull up to an appointment, dependablity and luxury- because doing 26,000+ miles a year requires some treats to keep the road time happy. With that, we bought a new 2019 Sienna Limited Premium, FWD in the black color. Limited, for us was mandatory because that trim level brings power folding mirrors. Lower trims don't have it and for garage spaces or narrow roads, we needed it. Limited also gets you two opening moon roofs, and these fantastic middle row recliner seats. They are heavy but exceptionally luxurious. "Premium" had Apple Play (more on that later), a heated steering wheel, auto wipers, lights and Radar Cruise Control, which I mostly love. Outside: Ours is the black color with blue flecks. It's nice. I'd say the paint is on the thin side. Not a good color if you're a frequent auto-car-washer. Style: I am a designer and I'm paid for my good taste. In my opinon, the Sienna is the only decent looking minivan. It's spared dumb swoops and has a refined, simple, timeless shape and details. Inside: The brown leather seats are very comfortable. We have a VolvoXC60 which is lauded for its fine seats and I like these just as much. I wish the passenger side had height and lumbar adjustments. The rear seats, as mentioned above are exceptional. Removing them is sucky. I wish Toyota would finally copy Chrysler. The Stow-n-Go of the Pacifica is next level convenient. The 3rd row is also quite nice and has power reclining. Tech: Meh. This was a disappointment. I'm pretty tech savvy and holy heck is the Entune system un-intuitive and annoying. It hijacks your phone when it initializes (Like, if you're sending a text before driving away, the Entune overtakes the phone and you have to accept or decline the Entune before using your phone. I find it painfully bad. The Toyota sales person kinda showed how to use it but just conceded, Apple CarPlay is way better. So, about that... This is our first Apple CarPlay equipped vehicle and I expected more. First, there is NO intermingling of your native audio system. So if you're a radio listner or an XM subscriber, you have to stab at the buttons to switch from Car Play to "audio" and it's just SUPER clunky. Further, with my iPhone, the map is quite graphic and explicit. The CarPlay verison is pretty lame. It doesn't zoom well... overall, it's nice for using a few apps like Waze or playing music off your iPhone but because of how it's not designed to share screen space with your car's audio system, I'd give it a 2 on a scale of 1-5. I expected way better. Re: Radar Cruise control, it's great. However it only controls above 30. So for slow stop and go, you're doing the driving, unlike our Volvo which controls all the way to zero mph and back up to your selected speed. The Sienna ain't that sophisticated, in the radar cruise. Power and handling: I love driving and have driven BMWs, Saabs, Volvos for years.. The steering on the Sienna is certainly not BMW precise but it's quite good. I haul up HWY 1 in Sonoma and Marin Counties often and it's a tenacious vehicle. I especially love the manual shifting that would be impossible in a Pacifica with that silly rotary knob used for shifting. I USE the gears and control the van on long grades, by shifiting, as it was designed to do and it's fantastic. I actually love driving it. Accelleration is FAR faster than you'd expect. I dust almost anyone who tries to beat me. MPG is pretty good. We average about 22-23. We drive on a lot of country roads and do some San Francisco driving. Utility: We wouldn't drive a minivan if it weren't for the utility. Usually. we have it set up as a two seater due to hauling. The annoying thing is the floor isn't flat because of Toyota's stupid "carriage" which are some tracks, above the floor surface which allow for the middle row seats to slide. These plastic-covered metal protruberances wreck the flat floor you expect from a van. We wound up getting sheet linoleum and cutting it to fit the van for a full length liner. It helps smooth out the issues with putting things atop the seat carriages but it's imperfect. Toyota needs a better system. The seats are VERY heavy. I'm strong, work out, but heck are these seats a beast to remove and store. Be prepared. Overall: I love this van. I'm ticked that Toyota sided with a particular anti-environment leader of my country so this will probably be my last Toyota despite an impressive run of about 400,000 miles in Siennas but for some reason, they think vehicles that get fewer mpg will be better for the planet. No bueno. Regardless, this is a fine vehicle which will serve well. If I could improve it, I'd wipe clean that stupid Entune bull, make CarPlay harmonize better with the standard sound system and redesign the stupid seat tracks in the middle seats.
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value
Not as reliable as I had hoped
I test drove a 2019 Sienna SE 7-Passenger AWD, and decided it was the minivan for me. But I wanted a different exterior color. The dealer obtained a different color for me, and I bought the vehicle. Literally two minutes into my ownership of the minivan, the infotainment screen that controls music, navigation, and bluetooth phone capability went black. I had to pull over and turn the vehicle off, and on again for it to work. This problem with the screen blacking out continued every time I drove the minivan. The Toyota dealer determined it had faulty radio equipment, and replaced the screen for free. But this involved two trips to the dealership for me, hassle with temporarily losing access to my parking pass for work and my car seats, and just generally dampened my "new car" satisfaction. I bought the Toyota Sienna instead of the Honda Odyssey specifically based on Consumer Reports predicting that the Sienna would have better reliability. Perhaps it will over the long term, but Toyota should have done quality control on this vehicle before selling it with faulty electronics. The minivan had 300 miles on it when I bought it "brand new" so there is no way that whoever had been test driving it or transferring it between dealerships could not have noticed the screen blacking out within minutes of every single drive. My other complaint is that my Chicco infant car seat base was not easy to install; the LATCH connectors in the Sienna are much more difficult to access than they were in my previous vehicle (a 2012 Nissan Rogue). The climate control system is also not as user-friendly as I would like; almost all of the buttons on the center dash are for climate control, but they're not super intuitive in my opinion. My Sienna meets my goal of having a minivan for my family, but it falls short of expectations based on the price.
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value
Not good for gravel
We live off of 1.5 miles of gravel, so we went with the AWD Sienna. We have had it less than one year and have had multiple issues with tire balance. The dealership told me that rocks and/or mud get in between the wheel and the hub and cause balance issues. The only way to clean them out is to take wheels off. You read that right, the dealership said the only way to clean them - and correct the vibration - is to take the wheels off and clean them, then put them back on. This spring was rather wet - and muddy. We’ve had them cleaned three times and often just ride with the vibration because it’s such a pain to correct. Very disappointed, Toyota! An AWD vehicle should be capable of driving on wet gravel roads without chronic issues! Do not recommend the AWD minivan for those who live on gravel, or travel on gravel st day regular interval. For winter road conditions, it dies pretty well - especially in town. I have not tested it when there is drifting. (I drive our pickup when it’s windy and there may be drifting.)
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value
THIRD SIENNA - SO MUST BE SATISFIED
Have owned 2009 Sienna LE, 2012 Sienna XLE and now 2019 Sienna XLE Premium. First two cars over 100,000 with only routine maintenance. Only owned 2019 for 4 days. Not disappointed!!! Still trying to figure out some of features. I am 78 and find my learning is a little slower that it was a few years ago. Have also owned 2006 Corolla and currently own 2012 Camry LE. Have not been disappointed in any Toyota. UPDATE 5/11/2020. Reported major issues (unreliability) of Navigation System to Toyota and have had no fix from them in over a year. Spent extra $2000 to get Navigation and Toyota should refund some of that money - but they won't. Having to resort to my Garmin GPS which is more reliable. All other aspects of Sienna are very satisfactory, but dropping my rating from 5 star because of there TOTAL failure to fix or resolve problem.
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value
My view
Using your cell phone to operate their gps is bad. Cloth seats are like Velcro. Only things I see bad in 500 miles!!!
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value