The 2021 Toyota Sienna minivan is many things: technologically advanced, fuel-efficient, and well equipped. Beautiful? Not so much.
Marking the model’s first redesign since the 2011 model year, the fourth-generation Sienna trades its forebear’s boxy and upright looks for more modern wares. Despite its more contemporary design, Toyota’s new minivan is not attractive in the conventional sense. Blame a mishmash of styling details that lack any sense of cohesion.
Penned by its California and Michigan design teams, Toyota’s latest Sienna boasts a front end inspired by the mug of Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains. High-mounted, swept-back headlights pair with a large lower grille to give the Toyota people mover a distinct if hard to love face.
The same goes for the van’s side surfacing details, which include overstyled rear haunches that blend into a set of Supra-esque taillights. Those rear lamps, meanwhile, frame a busy-looking tailgate, replete with an integrated spoiler that protrudes beneath the rear glass. (Toyota credits a molded resin production process for the feature.)
Whether the new Sienna’s disparate design is worthy of carrying on its predecessor’s self-proclaimed title of “swagger wagon” is a matter of personal taste. (Or is that marketing persistence?)
Swagger Wagon! Part Deux
Look, Honda went weird with the Odyssey in 2018, and the brand’s minivan did not seem to suffer for it. That’s because most minivan buyers don’t shop for looks, but practicality. The Sienna’s real sense of swagger comes not from its design but from its powertrain, which forgoes segment norms by ditching the prior model’s V-6 engine for a gasoline-electric hybrid setup. With a total of 243 horsepower, the van’s 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and two electric motors are down 53 horses compared to the old 3.5-liter V-6.
In this case, less power leads to greater fuel efficiency, and Toyota estimates the 2021 Sienna sips a gallon of fuel every 33 miles in combined city and highway driving. That’s 12 miles per gallon better than the most efficient 2020 Sienna and 3 mpg ahead of the 260-hp Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid in its gasoline-electric drive mode.
Unlike the six-cylinder Pacifica Hybrid and its 16.0-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, though, the Sienna’s smaller battery pack lacks plug-in capability. Although the Sienna offers an EV mode that allows it to travel short distances at low speeds on electricity alone (there are also Normal, Eco, and Sport driving modes), the Toyota van’s EV driving capabilities fall far short of the Chrysler’s EPA-rated 32 miles of electric-only range.
What the Sienna lacks in emissions-free driving capabilities, it makes up for with its 3,500-pound maximum towing capacity. That sum matches the figures put up by V-6 competitors such as the Honda Odyssey and Kia Sedona. It also handily trumps the Pacifica Hybrid, which is “not recommended” to tow. That said, the standard gas-swilling Pacifica’s 3,600-pound towing capacity remains the segment’s best.
Furthermore, an available motor mounted on the rear axle allows Toyota to once again offer the Sienna with all-wheel drive. In certain situations, such as accelerating from a standstill, as much as 80 percent of the powertrain’s available grunt comes courtesy of the rear motor. The addition of all-wheel drive to the 2021 Pacifica, however, means the Sienna no longer serves as the lone minivan option that pushes power to all four of its wheels.
Comfort King
Like its Avalon, Camry, RAV4, and Highlander stablemates, the Sienna uses a variant of the Toyota New Global Architecture platform (TNGA-K). The rigid structure promises noticeable improvements to the minivan’s handling and ride quality while also allegedly reducing interior noise levels.
A quieter cabin is far from the only enhancement to the Sienna’s innards, and the van welcomes a new-look dashboard that includes a standard 7.0-inch gauge cluster display and 9.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. Additionally, the dash now formally connects to the van’s center console, which houses the shift lever and myriad storage cubbies, as well as an open area below for holding larger personal items.
“People driving minivans feel like they are driving a bus,” Kevin Hunter, president of Toyota’s Calty Design Research, Hunter said. “We wanted something more personal. So we redid the interior, dash, and center console.” Middle-row passengers benefit from additional stretch-out space courtesy of the Sienna’s available and appropriately named “Super Long Slide” bucket seats, which provide up to 25 inches of fore and aft adjustability. The second row also includes integrated footrests on higher-spec Sienna models. Notably missing from the van’s middle row, however: fold-into-the-floor seats like those of the (non-hybrid) Chrysler Pacifica. Lower-spec Siennas, meanwhile, trade the extra sliding ability of the Super Long Slide buckets for a second-row bench that raises overall seating capacity from seven to eight and includes a middle section that folds into the floor when not in use.
Safe and Sound
Available in LE, XLE, XSE, Limited, and Platinum trims, all 2021 Sienna models come standard with advanced safety and convenience features such as automatic front braking with pedestrian detection, automatic high-beam headlights, lane departure warning, lane centering, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and power sliding doors.
Of course, Toyota still incentivizes buyers to move up the trim level ladder by reserving options like kick-activated power sliding doors, a power liftgate, front and rear parking sensors, and an in-dash navigation system.
Likewise, Toyota reserves the coolest and kitschiest features for the high-end Limited and Platinum trims, which offer heated/ventilated front seats, a power tilting and telescoping steering column, and a built-in vacuum. The flagship Platinum model also adds a refrigerator, a 10.0-inch head-up display, and a 360-degree camera to the mix.
Although Toyota remains mum on pricing details for the 2021 Sienna, the company’s decisions to fit a gasoline-electric powertrain as standard equipment and add to the model’s roster of safety and convenience features are sure to raise the van’s base price. Given that the new Sienna does away with the outgoing van’s $32,760 L trim, it’s likely the redesigned model’s starting sum will match—or come close to—the $35,580 Toyota charges for the 2020 Sienna LE. In other words, expect the 2021 Toyota Sienna’s cost of entry to straddle the line between those of its V-6 counterparts from Chrysler, Honda, and Kia, and the gasoline-electric Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid.
The post 2021 Toyota Sienna: Hybrid Power to the People Mover appeared first on MotorTrend.
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