2007 Toyota Sienna XLE AWD

Seven Passenger Luxury
By Nina Russin

2007 Toyota Sienna

Minivans are all about the passengers. They are the only cars that focus as much on the people in back as the person in the driver’s seat. Minivan passengers get it all: captain’s chairs, DVD players, cupholders, armrests, power points, and individual temperature controls. I’m not saying that power and performance aren’t important, but I don’t think you’ll find a minivan class on the Nextel circuit any time in the near future.

Passengers are an essential part of any minivan road test: last August, Jim Woodman commandeered his family to road test the new Dodge Caravan on a trek up the California coast. This month, it was my turn. My husband and I flew to Ohio to celebrate my mother’s eightieth birthday, joining my eighty-seven year old aunt and uncle for the weekend.

We picked up a 2007 Toyota Sienna all-wheel drive model at the Columbus, Ohio airport, and drove it to Cincinnati where my mother lives. Out test drive included some juicy Friday night rush-hour traffic through Columbus, and two days of driving around my hometown with the rest of the family.

The last time I had driven the Sienna was during the new model introduction in 2003. Since then, Toyota has replaced the original V6 engine with a more powerful block, that delivers fifty more horsepower, and significantly more torque. Translated, it’s not afraid of the passing lane.

The freeways in Ohio are relatively old: built before engineers realized that entrance and exit ramps should all go off the right lanes. Diamond lanes? Forget about it! Drivers who want to speed past traffic should think about buying a helicopter.

The I-70 through Columbus looks like a skein of yarn after my cat’s had at it. In order to stay the course, I found myself weaving from one side of the road to the other, as random exits fed traffic onto other interstates going east and west. The navigation display on the Sienna warned me about the upcoming exits, but I still might have veered off course, had my husband not been there to make sense of the road signs.

I appreciated the beefier V6 engine: I was able to change lanes quickly during very small breaks in the traffic. Elevated ride height is always helpful on today’s roads, since trucks represent over half the vehicles. The Sienna has excellent visibility all the way around: the side mirrors pretty much eliminate blind spots.

While gasoline in Ohio isn’t as expensive as other parts of the country, it still costs more than it did two years ago. I appreciated the exceptional fuel economy that a minivan can offer. Try to find a seven passenger sport-utility vehicle that averages over twenty miles-per-gallon. I won’t say that such an animal doesn’t exist, but those models tend to ride on smaller chassis with less head and legroom for the passengers, and little left over for cargo.

The Sienna made our drive to Cincinnati as stress-free as such a trip can be. Steering is responsive at all speeds, and the brakes are firm and linear. The suspension is comfortably soft, while allowing the car to corner flat at high speeds. All-wheel drive models come standard with 17-inch wheels and run-flat tires, so drivers don’t have to worry about being stranded on the side of the highway with a car full of kids, or in my case, octogenarians.

Vehicle stability and traction control, standard on the test car, allow the driver to maintain directional control in wet weather and on uneven road surfaces. Front, side and side curtain airbags are standard. The side curtains extend to reach all three rows of passengers.

The front seats have excellent lower lumbar support. Eight-way power adjustments on the driver’s seat with a tilt and telescoping steering wheel enables smaller drivers to maintain a safe distance from the front airbag. The passenger seat can fold flat to function as a work surface.

Cupholders in the center console are large enough for bottles. The center bin holds compact discs or small electronic devices. Audio and temperature controls are easy to reach from either front seating position. Redundant audio controls on the steering wheel are standard on the XLE model.

Parallel parking

People who live in the Southwest don’t have to parallel park. In the Sonoran desert, there’s always room for another parking lot. The Midwest is a different story. Cities are older, and nobody wants to walk three hundred yards between buildings in the middle of January.

The area around the University of Cincinnati where we were staying has very little off-street parking. Metered spots on the street are hard to find, and they’re not particularly large. Finding a spot to big enough for a seventeen foot-long car, and shoeing the car into it is a challenge.

As big cars go, the Sienna is very maneuverable. With a 36.8-foot turning radius U-turns, even on a narrow street, are not a problem. The optional rear back-up camera on the test car projects a wide-angle view onto the navigation display whenever the driver shifts into reverse. I was able to slip into metered spaces with a minimum of corrections. My high school driving instructor would have been proud.

Remember gas lamps? I don’t, but they’re part of Cincinnati history, and some urban planner with a death wish has decided to preserve them. Gas lamps worked fine back in the day because horse-drawn carriages don’t move very fast, and horses have an acute sense of self-preservation.

The multi-reflector headlamps on the Sienna normally provide ample light for night driving, but in this case, I longed for a stronger bi-xenon beam. The navigation system was more useful, since the poor lighting renders street signs not obscured by foliage almost impossible to read.

Family outing

Kids can get in and out of any car. Octogenarians are another story. An innocent looking floor mat can become a death trap under shaky knees. A second-row pass-through large enough for the average ten year-old can be an insurmountable obstacle for a person with a cane. Loading my family into the back of the Sienna quickly pointed out the car’s strengths and weaknesses.

The power sliding doors are a win-win. They’re easy to open and close using buttons on the remote key fob, so the passengers don’t have to reach outside the car to close the doors themselves. Sliding doors have the advantage over hinged doors of not restricting access and egress, especially when the car is parked in a narrow space.

While the Sienna’s step-in height wouldn’t be a problem for most passengers, the older members of my family found the car difficult to enter. Although the captain’s chairs are more comfortable than bench seats, the bench seats are easier to slide across. The space between the two captain’s chairs was big enough for my husband fit through to get to the back seat, but the older members of the family found the maneuver impossible.

Seat belt height was another problem. My mother and aunt are fairly petite. The front seatbelts are adjustable, but the second-row belts are not. They found the shoulder harnesses very uncomfortable because they were mounted too high.

Three-zone climate controls come standard on the XLE grade: allowing passengers to adjust the temperature to their liking. Aside from the seatbelts, everyone felt comfortable once seated, with plenty of head and legroom. I could use the conversation mirror in the overhead console to make sure everyone was situated before I put the car in drive. Everyone had a good forward view of the road, with large side windows for sightseeing. The optional moonroof shed extra daylight into the second row.

The Sienna has a large cargo area: it easily held our luggage, groceries and shopping bags. The third-row seats fold flat into the floor to extend the cargo bay making the Sienna bicycle friendly. Buyers who opt for the Limited grade can add power-folding third-row seats. A roof rack is standard on all grades except the base CE model. The Sienna tows up to 3500 pounds: our ALV minimum standard.

All models come with three, 12-volt power points. The rear seat entertainment option on the test car includes two 115-volt inverters that are handy for plugging in a laptop computer.

My husband and I appreciated the upgraded ten-speaker audio system with satellite radio. It made the two-hour drive between Cincinnati and Columbus pass more quickly, and the radio station I listened to as a teenager sound better than I remembered it.

The Toyota Sienna is manufactured at the automaker’s Princeton, Indiana plant. The XLE is one of four available grades, with either front or all-wheel drive. Disabled drivers can add a mobility package that includes power lift-up seats with or without a ramp. The mobility seats are available through Braun Mobility Equipment Dealers, and qualify for a $1000 reimbursement from Toyota.

Base price on the test car is $33,330, putting the Sienna XLE all-wheel drive model in our luxury category. The Sienna isn’t the newest minivan model on the market, but it remains a strong competitor, with excellent ride and handling, and a luxurious, functional interior. The Sienna faced some unusual challenges on our recent trip to the Midwest: all in all, it handled them pretty well.

Likes: Excellent performance with a more powerful V6 engine, and exceptional fuel economy. The Sienna is a comfortable car for seven passengers, with plenty of interior space and a large, versatile cargo area.

Dislikes: Second-row seatbelts are uncomfortable for shorter passengers.

Base price: $33,330
Price as tested: $40,989
Horsepower: 266 Hp @ 6200 r.p.m.
Torque: 245 lbs.-ft. @ 4700 r.p.m.
0 to 60: N/A
Antilock brakes: Standard
Side curtain airbags: Standard
First aid kit: No 
Towing: Yes
Off-road: No
Bicycle friendly: Yes
Fuel economy: 18/23 m.p.g. city/highway 
Comments: Base price does not include a $645 destination charge.