There are many ways my family is like the average American family. My wife and I have three kids, and two of them need car seats. In short, our group is too big for a convertible that has a third row instead of a trunk. The other vehicles we could get are a body-on-frame, full-size SUV or a minivan. Like most Americans, we picked option one. Still, after spending a week with the 2025 Toyota Sienna, which is so incredibly good, I started to wonder if we made the right choice. I still think we made the right decision, but there are times when an SUV is better, and the Sienna makes me want to switch. Why would you give up fuel economy for speed when a van with a hybrid all-wheel-drive system can easily handle the steep hills in the Ozarks while still getting 33 mpg? When all three kids are happy with any amount of room and parking is still easy, you begin to question whether you need a truck to get to work every day. Yes, it can be used to move things, but most people, including many parents who are too proud to drive a Sienna or a similar car, love this type of car. It’s better for the kids. There are only six new minivans available in the United States, and the Sienna is one of them. Those Chrysler types are almost the same. Since the Sienna has been around since 1998, anyone looking for a family vehicle would definitely consider one. The latest model came out in 2020. It still looks the same. It’s okay because it looks new without using many new ideas, like pixels. Ruby Flare Pearl is a bright red color, but it quickly got covered in dust and dirt because I tried it in the rain almost every day. Naturally, bad weather was great for testing, particularly indoors. In this case, the Sienna is definitely the best choice, and the Toyota Platinum model I rented has many features. There are several power outlets, a monitor that folds down to play your kids’ favorite shows, a chiller in the middle panel that can get as cold as a normal fridge, and even a vacuum. This van always had crushed leaves in it. All new Siennas have an eCVT gearbox and a 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid engine. With the help of two electric motors, that engine makes a total of 245 horsepower. All-wheel drive is available on all trim levels except the Woodland and Platinum, which come standard with front-wheel drive. Before we drove anywhere, I carefully looked inside the Sienna, and right away I saw the gadgets. With the leg rests that stick out, the back seats are basically chairs. The option isn’t available on our 2019 Ford Expedition. I counted 16 cupholders in the Sienna, which is more than our Might Mom-mobile. The middle machine, which looks like a cave, has two USB-C ports that I found. Later, I realized that the space between the driver and passenger footwells could fit four stacked to-go boxes. The stuff was made to be as useful as possible. It’s like heaven for people who have enough things to fill an extra room. Due to all this, the Sienna was already going very fast when I put it in drive. There is a big hill just north of my house that can be used to figure out how fast cars are going. I didn’t think the van would go very far uphill, but it sped up for most of the distance. I thought it would not be quiet, but it wasn’t. Naturally aspirated four-cylinder engines with gearless gearboxes usually need to rev high to get up hills like that one. Still, the electric motors gave it the power it needed to keep going. There are many benefits to the Sienna’s hybrid frame. It uses regenerative brakes when you release the throttle. Even though it’s not clear how, this keeps the battery charged. It also smoothly goes through drive-throughs and parking lots, which is good because I can hardly hear people on those tiny speakers. I hate that the engine starts and stops all the time when you’re not moving. I get that it has to run to power the devices and keep the battery charged, but I’d rather it just run than go through the same steps over and over. While I was visiting Siena for 7 days, I learned something new. If you ever go back to driving a bigger body-on-frame vehicle, you’ll miss how much easier it is to drive a minivan around town because it handles better than an SUV. Rather than using the whole lane, staying in your lane while you’re stopped is a lot easier. Still, I was wrong about how far apart the Sienna’s wheels were, and one of them went up in the air as I moved side to side. I generally enjoyed driving the Sienna. It’s good for everything and everyone. I quickly realized it was longer than I thought and didn’t look like a Camry. In reality, there are nine more inches between the centers of the front and back wheels. We also took a lot of things inside the Sienna with our kids, which can be hard for our Expedition. You can stack as many boxes of canned food as you want in the very deep trunk of the car, up to the third row of seats. We stuffed this giant full of food for our community Thanksgiving dinner, even though one of the seats was raised straight so our oldest member could use it. Besides the good things about driving that I’ve already talked about, I like how smooth the Sienna is. The tech suite is easy to use; the heads-up display is clear and noticeable, the audio system is okay (but not as good as the new RAV4’s; maybe it will get better over time), and connecting our iPad to the TV was easy. The Sienna would be bad if none of these things worked the way they were supposed to, but it is better because they do. If I had to pick a problem, the engine sometimes lacks subtlety. I wish it would check whether it has enough battery to run without one, even though it’s clunky and doesn’t make much of a difference when the gas engine starts. The base model Sienna LE costs $41,615. The XLE, XSE, Limited, Woodland, and Platinum trim levels cost more. All of them come with Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 and a hybrid engine as regular features. I drove the biggest, fanciest Sienna car. The Platinum AWD was worth $61,545 when it arrived at its destination. All-wheel drive costs $2,000, but it’s standard on the top two versions. My test car had a $475 fancy paint job, a $1,415 entertainment system for the back seats, and a $300 1,500-watt inverter with two 120-volt plug-ins. The Platinum trim still has a few choices. The Honda Odyssey is a better choice than the Toyota. For the base model, it costs more than the Toyota at $44,290, but the best model costs less than the Toyota at $53,190. The Odyssey doesn’t have an electric engine like the Chrysler Pacifica and Kia Carnival do. It’s the only one that really fights the Sienna at the top level, since it offers a plug-in hybrid option and a top MSRP in the $50,000s. If you care about gas economy, the Sienna is a great pick because it gets 34 mpg in the city, 36 mpg on the highway, and 35 mpg in mixed conditions. The Odyssey gets just 22 mpg combined, but the Kia Carnival Hybrid does almost as well with 34 mpg in the city, 31 mpg on the highway, and 33 mpg total. The Pacifica PHEV is a choice, but it needs to be plugged in and doesn’t get better gas mileage than the Sienna. But it does have the advantage of going 32 miles on just electricity. My wife should get a Sienna as her next car if I didn’t have to tow a trailer that weighs over 3,500 pounds. But we do it a lot, and it’s easier to have one bike that can do it all if needed. Most people don’t tow, and anyone who drives kids knows that the best choice is usually the one that makes the daily mess easier. The Sienna is one of the very best family cars you can buy these days. I picked an SUV mostly because I thought it would be “cool,” so I can relate to having a pretty normal family. I don’t care much about anything as I get older. If more little kids come with us on the trip, we might have to swap. I would take it.
