2005 Toyota Sienna Owner Test-Drives 2015 Sienna
CARS.COM — A lot can change in 10 years. Just a decade ago Twitter and Instagram didn’t exist, and I was a newlywed with no children. Now, Twitter and Instagram are part of everyday life for many people, and I drive a 2005 Toyota Sienna with my three children and husband.
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As the march of time has exhausted both my 2005 minivan and me, I’ve wondered whether 10 years have brought as many major changes to the Sienna as they have to so many other things. I recently drove a 2015 Toyota Sienna Limited with all-wheel drive to find out.
Improvements
When I conceived this test, I assumed I’d be noting a handful of major and technological improvements to the 2015 Sienna. That’s too easy, though. After the first few days in the 2015, I realized that it shines thanks to the cumulative effect of small improvements and additions.
The seats support this point perfectly. At first glance, the 2005 and 2015 seats look similar (ignoring the fact that my 2005 seats — and everything else in the van — are horribly dirty) with driver and front passenger seats, second-row captain’s chairs and a third-row bench for a grand total of seven seats. (Seating for eight is available on the 2015 Sienna.) However, the 2015 captain’s chairs collapse and slide forward for easier third-row access; they also slide 23 inches back and forth along tracks in the floor, allowing for a lot of legroom flexibility.
The third-row bench has the same 60/40-split folding ability to which I’m accustomed, but the 2015’s seats fold flat with one swift pull of a lever. After years with our 2005 Sienna, I remain the only person in my family who can get the third row to fold flat, which is a multistep process.
A small but important improvement comes with the third-row head restraints that flip up and down at the push of a button. I like the head restraints down when not in use because it improves my rear visibility. My children were able to easily move them into the up position when sitting in the third row. My 2005 Sienna’s head restraints are stuck in a permanent down position — whether it’s from years of sticky residue buildup or a lack of herculean strength on my part is unknown. What is known is that having head restraints that move makes a big difference.
My children noted that the rear window switches are much easier to reach on the 2015. There are also 10 cupholders and four sets of Latch anchors in the 2015, as opposed to the 2005’s nine and three, respectively. Heated side mirrors are standard on the 2015 Sienna Limited and great for those of us who live in frosty climates.
One of my favorite updates is the shallow storage bin with a rubber mat on the 2015 Sienna’s floor below the center stack. I’m constantly putting things on the floor of my 2005 Sienna, and I’m quickly frustrated as everything rolls around and gets dangerously close to the gas and brake pedals. This floor bin with the rubber mat stops that nonsense.
On the safety front, the blind spot warning system with rear cross- traffic alert is a great feature for any car. Who couldn’t use a little help when backing out of a parking spot or trying to change lanes on the highway?
The coup de grace, however, were the standard dual moonroofs. It was upon discovering these that my children simultaneously exclaimed, This is the best car you’ve ever gotten!
Disappointments
While my children were 100 percent sold on the 2015, there were some things that I didn’t like. Take the tire pressure monitoring system: The 2015’s system is the same as the one on my 2005 Sienna; nothing has changed in 10 years. The system alerts you when a tire has low pressure, but it doesn’t provide any information beyond that. I’d love to see the Sienna offer a system that not only lets you know pressure is low, but also tells you exactly which tire needs attention. Other cars have this technology, and it makes life a smidge easier.
Toyota’s available Driver Easy Speak feature also continues to fall short of expectations. It’s intended to amplify the driver’s voice through the speakers so those in the second and third rows can hear the driver more easily. Brilliant in theory, but not yet in practice because the microphone is awkwardly placed in the ceiling and therefore doesn’t catch the driver’s voice as well as it should. I applaud this idea and hope that Toyota continues tweaking it.
And no matter how far we’ve come in terms of hybrid, electric and battery-powered cars in the past 10 years, the fuel economy on the 2015 Sienna remains nearly the same as the 2005 Sienna. The 2015 Sienna with all-wheel drive gets an EPA-estimated 16/23/19 mpg city/highway/combined; the 2005 Sienna with all-wheel drive gets 16/22/18 mpg.
As much as I’d like to say my minivan-driving days are dwindling, they’re not. With three kids, their gear, a big dog and my husband, we’re a family that needs the flexibility of a minivan. After driving the 2015 Sienna, I could happily make the leap into it from our 2005 model.
