2011 Toyota Sienna consumer reviews

We recently purchased this, our 3rd Sienna, having passed our 2004 model on to our son and his family. It had only 121,000 miles on it and was good for another 100,000 or so but what the heck... Our Sienna previous to that was a 1998 model with 112,000 miles on the odometer which we sold outright and still occasionally see tooling around town with God knows how many miles on it! That's 233,000 Sienna miles since 1998, not to mention the 80,000 + miles weve put on a Toyota Tacoma pickup but that's another story... If you need a van and want reliability, you cannot do better than a Toyota Sienna. 'Nuff said.

When comparing the different versions of the Toyota Sienna 2011 if Bluetooth is an important feature then you really don't have much of a choice. The reason is that the Bluetooth with Navigation package is much more advanced than the standard Bluetooth that comes with the Limited Edition and it is only available for the XLE model. Three of the top five most critical Bluetooth profiles are absent from the standard Bluetooth package on the LE and they are Phone Book Address Profile (PBAP), Synchronization (SYNC) and Object Push Profile (OPP). Of these three profiles the fact that PBAP was left out is an atrocity!!! Aside from the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and the Hands Free Profile (HFP), PBAP is undeniably the most important profile as far as making phone calls is concerned. It boggles my mind why Toyota would have left this out!!! Instead, owners are forced to manually add a MAXIMUM of 20 entries into a "Phone Book" which is merely a lookup table that tries to pull up a phone number based on how "you the owner" decided to record the matching voice tag. For those people who might actually bother taking the time to add any entries into the "Phone Book", limiting the number of entries to 20 only adds insult to injury! Considering most people on average have at least 3 phone numbers per contact (i.e. home, work, cell) Toyota is really limiting you to only 7 contacts. A true and correct implementation of Bluetooth would have (at the very least) included the HFP for voice dialing in conjunction with A2DP, PBAP and SYNC. Using this "industry standard" approach results in a seamless experience instead of the excruciatingly painful and ultimately futile one that users will have to endure. Unfortunately I don't see many complaints on the Internet regarding this shortcoming and I believe it's for good reason. Bluetooth is still a very new concept for most people -especially in cars and especially for the Sienna's target demographic which is still soccer moms. For most moms this will be their first encounter with a Bluetooth equipped car and they therefore have nothing to compare it to. For them, not having to look at their phones to dial, put them up to their ear or take their eyes off the road is a fabulous thing and since they don't know how things "should be" they don't care because as the old saying goes, "ignorance is bliss". But this is actually what angers me the most because it doesn't have to be like this and it shouldn't have to be like this. I just paid $30,000 for a brand spanking new Sienna 2011 and it can't perform the simple task of synching my wife's address book from her iPhone to the car so she can can simply hold the talk button and say "Call Steve Smith on mobile/home/work etc.". SHAME ON YOU TOYOTA!!! For more information on Bluetooth profiles you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_profile. Toyota, I think you guys should seriously consider going through the list and reading it over very carefully. Then have one of your engineers pair his/her cell phone with the current system installed in the 2011 Sienna LE ($30,000) versus a 2010 Kia Forte ($13,000) and tell me which experience is more pleasant.

I'm thrilled to have a new 2011 Sienna Ltd AWD. I sold my XC90 to get into the Sienna. I was tired of squishing everyone into the Volvo. I would have considered the new Ody. as well; but it doesn't come with AWD, which is a godsend up North. The Sienna is almost perfect; except for the latchs in the 3rd row. There is only one latch, and it's in the middle of the bench. I think it would be better situated to have two on either sides. And that is literally the only fault I have with this vehicle!

Had to order a car to get the color , south pacific xle with no extras like: $200roof rack and $250 floor mats. Bought our own all eather atters for much lessssssssssssss. Love the car, but still learniing about all the bells and whistles.

This is our second Sienna - couldn't be happier. We intended to buy our first lease, but the dealership worked with us, and we were able to lease a new Sienna.

We bought this Toyota Sienna because it seemed to be the best of the few minivans still available, and after 5000 miles, we think we made the right choice. It seems to be very well made with no rattles or squeaks. The paint has no flaws. The leather interior is very comfortable, although the front seats are too wide to provide adequate lateral support. The interior materials are very luxurious except for the plastic top of the instrument panel. The performance is excellent and the fuel economy is 21.5 mpg. I particularly like the 6-speed transmission. The shifter is well located with good shift feel and it shifts to 4th when slid into manual mode. It can be upshifted or downshifted by moving the lever fore or aft. Things I would change: the middle seats don't remove completely (they leave a "chassis" in the floor tracks). The center middle seat is too narrow for adults.

Our new Sienna is comfortable, roomy and handles well. It has some great features that come with the basic model. If you are looking for comfort, buy this one.

We are so in love with this van! We've had it a little over 10 weeks and it has not disappointed. The comfort is unsurpassed, the handling superb, it's roomier than any minivan we've ever seen, and it's so much fun to drive. There is one flaw however. The radio antenna is mounted on the right side just below the windshield. We hit an overhanging branch on the road and it whipped the antenna back and the little ball on top of the antenna made a hole in the windshield and started two huge cracks. We had it replaced by a certified glass specialist. We had to pay the $100 deductible and we feel Toyota should pay that. They will be hearing from us soon. Since this happened we've heard of two other of these cars that have also had to have the windshield replaced because of the antenna. The glass guy told us we can get a shorter antenna that may eliminate this problem in the future. We're looking into that.

We drove a Honda Odyssey and enjoyed the vehicle. We were almost ready to ink the deal, but said we needed to a least look at the Sienna first. We did and we never looked back. The interior is larger and much more spacious than the honda. This is primarily due to the ability to move the second row seating using a slide and glide system that allows you to push back the seating, which make viewing the dual 18 inch video monitor quiet easy. You can also slide the second row seating all the way forward and up against the front seats and collapse the fold away third row and you can all all most anything you can fit into a minivan without having to remove the second row seats. The van has excellent power with a 266 HP engine. It drives like its on rails. Many complain that it does not a responsive feedback. I've driven corvettes and porsche's and they are correct the response is not the same, but then again, I'm not sure how often I need to take a turn at 110 mph on a winding test track or open oval. Here's a huge shock to those with this argument, "its a minivan". It handles excellently for that purpose. You turn, and it turns. you can pass, park and cruise on any road at any legal speed with ease. The interior is well appointed and the styling is very easy on the eyes. The Honda reminded me of Track Housing and the Sienna was more of a custom model. You know when you are sitting in something that says, class and the Honda says welcome "Joe Average". That said, there is one annoyance. The van does not have any side body molding. Huh? Get ready for Door Ding city. This seemed like a huge oversight. It's small, but little details do matter. The navigation is also a bit clumsy, you have to wait for a beep to give a command and many times you get back a the wrong response. The stereo is top drawer JBL with too many speakers to count. The sound is excellent. The vehicle drives very quite and the A/C blowers, unless you have them wailing at full blast are not noticeable. The road noise is great, so good in fact our kids complain when we talk as they can hear us over the wireless headphones. The car is easy to maneuver. The Nav System screen become a full 180 degree back up camera and the bumpers have rear assist parking sensors. There is much more to like such as head room, iPad and iPod USB and two 100 normal electrical plug ins, fog lamps, luggage rack, oh and the back sliding door windows roll down. no kidding. It also as keyless push button start. If you are in the market you owe it to drive on at least for comparison. We got the XLE and the dealer took several thousand off the MSRP and with the options the vehicle was over $1,000 cheaper than the Honda with a 72 month BtoB warranty and a full year of free unlimited car washes and free maintenance to 40K miles. So if you need porsche like handlng and are looking to take the family on thrill rides around Daytona, then this van is not for you, but if you are looking for a top notch luxury ride with room for up to eight with tons of storage, than the van is certainly worth a look.

Purchased this 2011 Sienna XLE last month. I love it except for 2 annoying traits. When accelerating, the engine emits a throaty growl louder and more irritating than a Toyota should be. Only when accelerating, the growl can be felt in the hands on the steering wheel, a very annoying vibration that goes away when not accelerating. It can also be felt while at a stop light, but if I shift into N while stopped, the vibration goes away. Anyone else experience this?