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2020 Toyota Sienna Road Test and Review

Ron Sessions
by Ron Sessions
May 25, 2020
5 min. Reading Time
20siennafrontbeauty1abtsessions ・  Photo by Ron Sessions

20siennafrontbeauty1abtsessions ・ Photo by Ron Sessions

While the broad market acceptance of minivans has waned in recent years with the exploding popularity of SUVs and crossovers, there remains a pretty solid core of buyers: people with young children, pets, aging seniors, and family members with impaired mobility. For them, the minivan makes perfect sense.

The 2020 Toyota Sienna, now in its tenth year since its last major revision, is one of just a handful of minivans still on sale in the U.S. The others include the Chrysler Pacifica and Voyager, Dodge Grand Caravan, Honda Odyssey, Kia Sedona, and Mercedes-Benz Metris. The 2020 Sienna lineup consists of L, LE, SE, SE Premium, XLE, XLE Premium, Limited, and Limited Premium trims. Including $1,095 destination charge, base prices run from $32,660 to $50,435. All-wheel drive is available at extra cost on all models but the base Sienna L. The Sienna can be configured as a seven- or eight-passenger vehicle with either a second-row bench seat or captain’s chairs. New for 2020 is a Nightshade Edition for the SE and SE Premium trims that includes a black-mesh sport grille, black door handles and mirror caps, black-painted 18- or 19-inch alloy wheels, black Toyota badges, and a black rear spoiler.

V6 Power

All 2020 Toyota Sienna models are powered by a 296-horsepower 3.5-liter V6. It’s a proven engine used widely across the Toyota product portfolio. The V6 is smooth and quiet in normal operation but can get a little noisy during brisk acceleration. Mated to a smooth-shifting eight-speed automatic transmission, the V6 provides ample performance for the 4,500-lb minivan. The transmission shift lever is actually on the dash (to free up floor space between the front seats), and its gate has a zig-zag pattern that may seem awkward at first but works quite well.

The EPA rates the Sienna’s V6 at 19 mpg city/27 mpg highway/22 mpg combined for front-drive models and 18 mpg city/24 mpg highway/20 mpg combined when equipped with all-wheel drive, on regular-grade fuel. I managed just above 25 mpg over 150 miles that consisted of mostly interstate motoring. Toyota just unveiled a redesigned 2021 Sienna that will discontinue the V6 in favor of a fuel-sipping four-cylinder gas-electric hybrid powertrain shared with the Toyota Highlander Hybrid mid-size crossover.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Capacious Cabin

Easy to slide into courtesy of a low step-in height and even easier to see out of thanks to a low hood and generous glass area, the Sienna’s cabin looks and feels roomy with good outward visibility. The base L and LE feature cloth-covered seats, with SE and higher trims getting leather-covered front- and second-row seats. The front bucket seats are comfortable enough for all-day stints behind the wheel. Base Siennas have manually adjustable front seats, with a power driver’s seat added in SE and higher trims and a power passenger’s seat standard in the XLE and above.

Standard is a tilt/telescope steering wheel, leather-wrapped in SE and higher trims and heated in Limited models. Dark-tinted rear privacy glass is standard in all trims, and all except the base L model get pull-up manual sunshades for the second and third rows. Cupholders are numerous, with top trims offering as many as 12. Dirt-simple, set-and-forget three-zone automatic climate control is standard in all models. A feature called Driver Easy Speak, standard in the SE Premium and above, is like an intercom that lets parents directly address naughty rear seaters via the rear speakers.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Dual Gloveboxes

The longer you own a car, the more stuff seems to accumulate inside, including in the far reaches of the glovebox. So it’s thoughtful that Toyota puts two of them in the Sienna. In addition to the regular, bin-type glovebox that’s often overstuffed with owner’s manuals and such, the Sienna has a second, smaller glovebox above the main one directly in front of the front passenger. It’s great for stashing things you’d want to get to in a hurry, like your wallet, toll-road or parking-lot tickets, charging cords for mobile devices, and — as we write in May 2020 — the ever-present facemask and hand sanitizer bottle.

And if two gloveboxes aren’t enough, there’s a bunch more stash space in the center console compartment and in roomy pockets in the doors.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Staying Infotained

It may look a bit dated, but the Sienna’s standard 7-inch color infotainment touchscreen is easy to use. There are no tricky touchpads or rotary remote controllers to learn. In addition to the touchscreen itself, content can be accessed using voice or steering wheel commands, analog knobs for volume and tuning, and hard shortcut buttons on either side of the screen.

Audio equipment on all models except the base Sienna L consists of a standard six-speaker AM/FM stereo with a CD player, plus HD Radio, SiriusXM, and 4G LTE Wi-Fi by Verizon. Onboard are five USB 2.0 ports for powering mobile devices. Uplevel trims add a 10-speaker JBL system with Clari-Fi music restoration software to improve the fidelity of compressed music files. In the L, LE, SE, and XLE models, a cellphone-enabled Scout GPS Link system delivers rudimentary navigation. Higher trims come standard with a traditional embedded navigation system. The 2020 Sienna comes standard with Apple CarPlay cellphone mirroring, but Android Auto is not available.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Sliding Second Row

Nice for everyone — but especially those schlepping children, grandparents, and pets around — are the Sienna’s sliding side doors. When opened, these create a wide aperture and are easy to access, even in a tight parking space where conventional swing-out doors can’t be opened fully. These are power operated on all but the base L model.

More flexibility is added via the Sienna’s second-row seats, which can slide fore and aft nearly 2 feet. When in the rearmost position, limousine-like legroom is available for second-row passengers. Moved fully forward flush with the front seatbacks, a parent can tend to a young child in a car safety seat. Sliding the second-row seats slide forward also opens up access to the third-row bench. The Sienna’s second-row seats, however, don’t fold into the floor as in the Chrysler Pacifica or Dodge Grand Caravan but can be removed with a single latch mechanism for added cargo capacity. You may need help, though, as these seats are quite heavy.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Wayback Seats

Far more accommodating than any SUV out there, the third-row seats of the Toyota Sienna can easily handle three full-grown adults. Not only is there plenty of head- and legroom back there, but the path to the wayback seats is better than you’ll find in any SUV courtesy of extra-wide sliding rear doors and, in the Sienna’s case, sliding second-row seats that automatically fold up against the fronts as you slide them forward.

The third-row seat is split 60/40 and can be folded into the floor when not needed. The third-row head restraints can also be pivoted forward and down when not in use to improve visibility to the rear.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Mid-Van Matinee

A 16.4-inch wide-screen Blu-Ray disc entertainment system for rear-seat patrons is standard in upper Sienna trims. It can be configured with two viewable displays side by side or one extra-wide one that’s viewable from the third row.

The system can access content from HDMI and SD card inputs, as well as stream content from Android devices. It includes a pair of 120-volt outlets, a remote, and two pairs of headphones.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Spaced Out

With the third-row seats up, there’s nearly 40 cubic feet of cargo space, courtesy of a deep well that houses the rearmost seats when they are folded into the floor. The well is great for carrying groceries, soccer balls, and other items that might otherwise roll around. With the third-row seats folded down into that well, and the second-row seatbacks slide forward flush against the front seats, volume opens up to a yawning 117.6 cubic feet.

Taking out the second-row seats, however, is the big space enabler, creating a massive 150-cubic-foot cargo area behind the front seats. That is almost 20 percent greater than that available in the full-size Chevrolet Suburban SUV. On Sienna SE and higher trims, a power liftgate eases access to the cargo bay.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions

Practical Pick

Toyota has announced a new hybrid powertrain for the redesigned 2021 Sienna, and the addition of Android Auto and fresh styling will likely be a showroom draw. So will safety technology that will exceed the current model’s standard dynamic cruise control, automatic high beams, lane-departure alert with steering assist, and automatic emergency braking, and its available blind-spot and rear cross-traffic monitoring, 360-degree bird’s-eye-view parking camera, and sonar-based parking assist.

But for buyers who like the look of the current model and appreciate features such as all-wheel drive, sliding second-row seats that can deliver limousine-like legroom, and the Driver Easy Speak intercom, now might be a good time to take another look at the 2020 Sienna. Discounts should be available as Toyota makes room for the 2021 model.

 Photo by Ron Sessions

Photo by Ron Sessions


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