A Car Disguised as a VAN!

When we were looking for our van, we test drove all the other brands, American and Foreign over a period of 18 months. We decided on the 2001 Toyota Sienna because of it's car like ride and handling and stability on country roads. (The Honda Odyssey, our second choice had noticeable body sway on back roads.) The Sienna is built on the Camry frame and uses the Camry V-6 engine and power train for powerful, smooth acceleration and effortless cruising along with excellent fuel economy. It has a 210 horse power engine which pushes the van along smartly. Our van has a noticeable, high pitch whirring noise in the engine at low speeds, which disappears at highway speeds above 50 mph.

Our van is an LE. It came equipped with one power rear door on the passenger side, which we were just a little concerned about, knowing that power options have a tendency to break sooner or later. The van has nearly 50,000 miles on it now, and we've not had the first bit of mechanical problems with any of the power equipment. Now...we wish we had bought it with both back doors powered.

We opted for cloth interior, which we prefer. It's cooler in summer and warmer in winter..without any special heathers or coolers in the seats. The cloth is durable and cleans up easily. The floor mat between the front and middle seats gets lots of traffic and needed to be cleaned recently. I used a good quality foam rug cleaner on it and the results were excellent.

We choose captains seats for front and middle row seating, which cut our passenger capacity to seven. The back row of seats will hold three small people, but they would be cramped. The seats are very comfortable on short of long trips.

Leg room and sitting height are excellent. I'm over 6 feet and 230 pounds. Even in the third row seats, I can ride comfortably, without feeling cramped. My favorite place to ride is in the middle row of seats while my wife does the driving. In no time at all, I'm snoozing away the miles.


Reconfiguring the van to make more available cargo space can be a bit of a Hansel. All seats behind the front row are removable, but they are a bit weighty and cumbersome to handle. If you decide to take them out to haul that plywood needed for your weekend project, you'll need somewhere to store the seats until you are ready to put them back in place. However, with the seats removed, you can put a full 4 x 8 foot sheet of plywood inside the vehicle, great for rainy weather. Of course, that's if your wife will let you haul plywood in her van!

Our van came with a center console between the driver and passenger seats. We didn't particularly want that, because we wanted easy access to the middle row from the front of the vehicle. The console restricts that access, but with some agility, one can climb over it and into the middle row seats when necessary.

The Climate Control system has front and rear controls, so that those riding in the rear seats can set their own level of comfort. This vehicle does have an enormous interior, so it takes the Climate Control system a while to cool or heat it. However, once the comfort level has been attained, in about 10 minutes, it remain where set, even on the hottest or coldest day.

Our van came equipped with a stereo radio and single CD player. Sound quality is excellent. The radio can be turned on, volume adjusted, stations selected...all from a switch on the left side of the steering wheel. It can also be muted from that location, but to turn the radio off, it must be done so from the button on the dash. But, if you are tried of the "noise", you can mute it while driving, and turn it off later when stopped.

The manual calls for premium gasoline, but we have used regular gas from day one. We get a slight knock on extreme grades, or when the engine is under very heavy load. Our gas mileage averages around 19/20 mpg in town and 25/26 mpg on trips. We usually average around 65 miles per hour when traveling, so our range is close to 450 miles before having to look for a service station.

Handling at highway speeds is quite and very in most conditions. The only thing work nothing is that some large trucks, but not all, buffet the van when it is directly behind it. It can be eliminated by dropping back a couple of car lengths, or by pulling out into the passing lane.

Summary:

After much research and lots of agonizing over which van to buy, we decided on the Toyota Sienna. We made the right decision.