Video: What’s the Best Minivan for 2021?

I'm Jennifer Geiger, mom of three and proud minivan owner. And I'm Kelsey Mays, dad of two and would-be minivan owner but for my wife's objections. We took four of the main players remaining in this dwindling class, and we put them through a battery of tests. Everything from extended handling loops to evaluations of each row of seats, cargo testing, and much, much more. All four of these minivans have been updated or redesigned in the last couple of years. Let's see how they did in our test. (energetic upbeat music) In 4th place is the Toyota Sienna, a vehicle that Toyota fully redesigned for the 2021 model year. Now as a hybrid, still with available all-wheel drive as is the example we tested, a very well-equipped, but fairly pricey Platinum edition. Now the Sienna held its own in a few categories, but it lost six of them. And that really ended up helping it bring up the rear in our comparison test. We'll start with the front seats now. I don't know about you, Jennifer, but you know, these seats had a little bit of lacking headroom in our moonroof-equipped model here. The front passenger chair, it's power adjustable, but there's only four adjustments, so you don't get a height. Just not whole lot of space and adjustability up here. You know, I'm a little shorter than you. So I fit just fine in the first row, but I agree with you on the passenger seat. A height-adjustable passenger seat should be equipped at this level. It's Platinum trim level. My biggest problem with the first row is kind of ergonomics. I just didn't feel very comfortable with this split center console. I felt that it kind of looked awkward. The arm rest is not adjustable, and it just kind of felt like it was hemming me in a little bit. And again, top trim level, some of the materials just didn't kind of meet my specifications for what a premium trim should be. Speaking of adjustability, second row here. It's very, very adjustable to sit in. You can slide forward and backward like 24, 25 inches. That's double what you can get in some of these other minivans. And so there's really, really good confines to sit here as a passenger, but to actually use it, you know, for more utilitarian functions, doesn't do so great. For starters, you can't take out these seats. You can kind of squash them forward. They sort of accordion into this collapsed position, but you know, you can't remove them, which limits the amount of total cargo space you can get. And then there's accessing the third row. Yeah, so, the seats themselves, you're right, they're very comfortable. They also don't fold, which I think really limits their usability. And then third row access is not easy, partially because of the seat travel. Yeah, you gotta like, move them forward. And then they don't remember the old position. So to put them back into place, it's like two or three different steps. The uninitiated, you know, passengers getting in at the airport that you're picking up aren't going to know what in the world to do. Back in that third row, it makes me look back and exposes another limitation here. The rear window in the Sienna is quite small. And you might not think that's a big deal, especially in our test car here, which kind of takes care of it with this virtual camera-based rear view mirror. So you have all that obstruction, but if you're not getting that feature, the inherent sight lines looking straight back in the Sienna, not very good. The third row, in general, not my favorite place to be out of all of these minivans. The seat itself is kind of in a raised, knees up position. It's very firm, so it's not super comfortable. And there's not a lot of amenities back there in terms of cup holders, USB ports, storage. It's just not a great third row. Yeah, especially for how much money this thing costs. I mean, value was kind of a big thing here. I will mention, despite being one of the most expensive minivans in the test, the Sienna did have, you know, a number of features. Being a hybrid, it gets in the mid-thirties for EPA highway and city mileage combined. That was obviously clearly the leader in this pack, so it got points there. It's also got things like a couple of years of free maintenance, but you add all up how much this van costs. And it's a lot of money for, you know, just kind of a medium amount of van. Another big miss for me is in family-friendly features, which I think caregivers are really looking for in this class. It does not have a vacuum, which other vans have. It has a really basic rear entertainment system. It's just one screen that comes down. Others have the dual seatback touchscreen option, which I find really cool. My kids find really cool. And it doesn't have an in cabin camera and all of the other vans do. And that's another helpful feature to keep tabs on backseat shenanigans while you're driving. <v Kelsey>We'll touch real quick on drivability. The Sienna being a hybrid, lots of power upfront. It kind of plateaus after that, which you get going up long on ramps. It doesn't really have a lot of top end power. Ride quality was fine, pretty controlled, but a little bit firm I thought. In terms of handling, Toyota did hold its own here. Really balanced just with a good amount of kind of weight distribution over the front and rear. Not something I got in any of these other three vans. <v Jennifer>Yeah, I thought it had a really comfortable ride and handling balance, especially compared with some of the other ones. Acceleration, I agree with you, especially from a stop. That was surprising to me. It had a great amount of power, which I really liked. Where I was let down was with noise. There was a lot of engine noise, especially when it was pushed. A lot of CVT groan. Wind and road noise were average, but put it all together, and this was a very loud minivan. <v Kelsey>It did hold its own, I should also mention, in terms of safety and driver assist features. But ultimately too many things in the loss column. <v Jennifer>Yes. That brings us to third place, with the Honda Odyssey. Now, it's one of the older vans in this test. The current generation having been around since the 2018 model year. Honda gave it some updates for 2021, but maybe not enough. Yeah, the Odyssey lost six categories, and ride quality was a big one. On serene, smooth roads, which those don't exist near me very often, the ride was fine. But on anything else, rough pavement, railroad tracks, the ride was really jittery. Really had an uncontrolled feel. Overall just really uncomfortable. Yeah, it was kind of a one-two punch. The suspension seems tuned a little bit firm, and chassis control is not great either. There's just a lot of shiftiness and kind of body movement. If you drop a wheel into a rut or something, there's some extra movement that kind of lingers around. It's one of those vans that, you know, if you drive it by yourself, not having driven anything else, you think that it rides okay. Once you drive it back to back with these other vans, it's pretty clear that it does not. True, and I'm also not a fan of the powertrain. This felt like one of the slower of the vans. The engine just really took its time and felt super slow from a stop. And then the transmission behavior felt really kind of jerky and there was a lot of kickdown lag. And it just overall wasn't very smooth. If we're talking about major flaws, we have to also get into that multimedia system. It bears mention, we have a top trim level here of the Odyssey. It's got the bigger of the available screens. It's only an eight-inch screen. The Kia Carnival had a larger than 12-inch screen, measured diagonally. I noticed some lag between menus here. Again, Honda just updated this for the 2021 model a year. And it had a major opportunity to fix some of this stuff. It clearly didn't. <v Jennifer>Yeah, it definitely feels like it's an aging system. The graphics looks really dated. It's not as responsive as some other systems. Overall, it was one of my least favorite multimedia systems and tuning knob. All of the other ones have a tuning knob. <v Kelsey>No tuning knob, touch-sensitive buttons you got to use for some of the major shortcut keys. Below it, there's push buttons for the transmission, because that's what you want. You've used those in a number of Hondas that have this kind of style of gear selectors now. Just not an easy setup to use. <v Jennifer>It's very visually scattered and just not ergonomically easy. Yeah, and I mean, it goes beyond that to even kind of the multimedia conductivity. There's only five USB ports scattered throughout the entire Odyssey. Last I checked this can seat up to eight, which that means three people are not gonna have ways to connect their devices. You get to the Pacifica and there's 11. That means some people can connect multiple devices. How's my math? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Speaking of devices, I think it kind of fell flat here in terms of features like rear entertainment system. This car has just one flip down screen. Other vans have, you know, less basic setups. This one does have the vacuum, which is handy, but there's a couple of other things that it's missing, like proximity sliding doors, proximity cargo door. And, you know, ultimately kind of didn't play a great hand in that category. What it did do really well with was storage. I'm gonna need a minute here. Honda has stuck with the floor console upfront. That is huge, because every other minivan, as well as just about every other SUV, has gone away from that to one of these stupid bridge-style consoles that trades, you know, looks better maybe in terms of styling. Makes your cabin, seem more cockpit-y, but you just don't have that big space there ahead of the cup holders, where you can throw, you know, a purse or a diaper bag or something. The Odyssey sticks with that. Now I know in lower trim levels of the Chrysler, you can get that as well, but Honda has it all the way up through the lineup. Deserves big credit for that. I love that space, but my favorite space in the first row is this triple-decker door storage. Tons of room for stashing stuff, snacks, devices, whatever you want. Second row storage is just okay. There's plenty of cup holders, but not a ton of small spaces. Third row, it's got the best third row for small items, storage, cup holders devices, great. There's door pockets in the back of the second row. It's the only one of these four minivans that has that. That means you can stash things there, which is really important because in the third row, generally speaking, in just about any car, you don't have a lot of spaces to stash stuff. The fact that Honda can do that and stash top tether anchors for the car seats kind of below that that's really, really good engineering. Speaking of car seats, it did really well. This van killed it in car seats. It's got three sets of latch anchors in the second row, all exposed, all easy to use. And ample room to install those three car seats side by side. It's also got really easy access top tether anchors, good buckles for kids to grasp independently. It did really well overall for car seats. Now both that second and third row, beyond the car seats, do have a lot of versatility. Obviously we're sitting here on kind of a reverse-facing position of the third row. Honda's got something called the magic seat. It was a pioneer in this with a third row that collapsed into the floor many, many Odysseys ago. Now it's got second row seats that go side-to-side quite a bit. Yeah, so the second row magic seat is actually really helpful. If you take out the middle portion, the two outboard seats go side-to-side and forward and back independently of each other. If you have that middle seat in, you can put it all the way forward so your front row people can access a kid in that seat much easier. It just makes the van very flexible. Yeah, a nice big aisle there to get from the second row all the way back to the third row if you want to push them all the way to the side. Or if you want to squash them all to one side, then there's a nice big walk-in space for anybody to get in. Remember, it's all about making it easy for that person who's never been in your van to get in at the airport and easily get to the back. Yeah. <v Kelsey>So some really good wins here for the Odyssey. Unfortunately, a lot of notable losses. Ended up in third place. <v Jennifer>Yep. (energetic music) Moving to the top half of finishers in this challenge, and distinctly so if you look at point totals, we'll start with the Chrysler Pacifica. Now, the Pacifica is technically the oldest model here, the current generation has been around since the 2017 model year, but two things stick out. First of all, Chrysler's been making vans since like the beginning of time, and it knows how to make vans. Second of all, these updates that Chrysler made for the 2021 model, you're kind of midway through this generation, we're quite a bit. Yes, Chrysler does minivans very well. And I love this van. There's so much going on here. I took my family on a road trip with it, and there was so many features to keep everybody happy and comfortable. Family friendly features is one of the areas where it really stands out. In-cabin camera is pretty good. Rear seat entertainment system is the best of the bunch. The dual screens that flip up, touch screens. They do a lot. HDMI, games, stream things, plenty of things, even DVD. Plenty of ways to keep the kids happy. There's also a vacuum for cleaning up messes. And then stow and go, which is a perennial useful favorite of mine. Quickly turns the second row into a cargo van. Yeah, you can tumble these seats, essentially, all the way into the floor. Just about every van out there has the ability to do that with the third row. Chrysler's really pioneered the ability to do that with the second row. Remains kind of a Pacifica-only feature here and really makes the van stand out. I'm gonna go back to what you said about keeping the kids entertained because entertainment isn't just about toys and stuff. It's also about keeping them calm. And the way this fan rides is head and shoulders above all the other vans. Until I got into the Pacifica, I had this kind of general recollection. I remember the Pacifica riding pretty well. We've owned one, you know, a long-term vehicle here at cars.com. It was our 2017 Best of vehicle for the year. So we have a lot of experience with it. The other vans all kind of ride firm. The suspension tuning is firmed. There's varying degrees of kind of discombobulation with the chassis. The Pacifica pretty much has none of that. I mean, it's got a nice soft suspension. And that is the way every minivan should ride. This one definitely has the best road manners. i agree with you. And one area that stands out for me is with steering. The steering has a really natural feel. It's very direct, it's firm, it's connected to the road. Other minivans kind of felt a little bit light, a little bit numb. This one just felt very maneuverable and very just driver directed. One of the updates for 2021 was to the Uconnect multimedia system. The system was already great. It just got better. The screen time is very responsive. The graphics are really crisp and clear. And it is way more customizable. So you can decide what you want to put on that home screen. You can connect two phones. So if like your wife wants to connect a phone and you want to connect a phone, it just makes it a lot more versatile. It also has wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, which I love. Only one here to do that. Only one of the vans. And it also has Amazon Alexa compatibility, which I find really helpful. Yeah, and all of that has the potential to really make it overly complicated. But Chrysler does a really good job here of user-friendliness. There's physical volume and tuning knobs, lots of other physical controls, none of that touch sensitive crap. Just really, really easy to use. Front seats, I also gave pretty high marks on. There's lots of controls. You get height adjustment for the passenger seat as well as the driver's seat. Nice interior quality just in terms of the leather seats in our car. We have a top trim level. You're close to a top trim level here. It didn't quite translate, I thought, into the second row, in terms of just overall comfort. Part of the problem with, part of the sacrifice, I should say, of the stow and go is that you don't get forward backward adjustable seats. Now on a higher trim level, you can, but those seats don't stow, we don't need to get into that. The point is, in this car in particular, these seats don't move forward and backward. What that means is for grownups sitting in the front row and sorry, the second row and the third row, you can't negotiate the most leg room. Yeah the seats themselves are also not as comfortable as other vans. They're a little bit flatter, a little bit firmer. And I think that is to do with that stow and go mechanism. And then you're right. The sliding factor really cheats the third row occupants. Yeah, that was kind of one of the relatively fewer losses of the Pacifica. Another one, car seats. Car seats was a huge loss. So the Pacifica's latch anchors are buried. So they're harder to find and harder to connect to than in other vans. Same thing with the top tether anchors, which you need to use for a forward facing car seat. They're also buried in the seatback carpet, which makes it difficult to find. Some of the buckles were also flappy, so kids buckling up independently might have a hard time grasping them. So overall, disappointing for car seats. Yeah, a couple other minor things that the Pacifica lost in. One was value. This was the most expensive vehicle in the test. It had a lot of equipment, you know, power adjustable third row seat, obviously a panoramic moonroof with a skylight over the third row. So very, very well equipped, especially given that ours has all wheel drive even. But a lot of money right around $55,000, the most expensive in this group. This is not a budget van, but it does have everything. <v Kelsey>Yeah, pretty much comes out with everything you'd want as a family for a very, very nicely equipped van. <v Jennifer>Yeah. (upbeat music) And that brings us to our winner, the 2022 Kia Carnival, which replaces the Sedona in Kia's lineup. It's got a lot more goodies than the Sedona. And it's also the value leader in this minivan challenge. Yeah, the Carnival wins because it really only stunk it up in one category. We'll get to that in a minute. But it held its own everywhere else and knocked it out of the park in one important area, that's value. Now, if you've been watching a lot of these challenges that we do here at cars.com, it should be a surprise to nobody that the Kia wins it for value, but it's unmistakable here. This is the second from the top trim level of the Carnival. This is the SX. And at its current pricing, as tested, it's way less than anything else. <v Jennifer>Yes, it is loaded with family-friendly features, which is an area that it did really well in this challenge. It's got a great cabin view camera. It's got a really solid rear entertainment system. It's got a very flexible second row seat that we can get into in a few minutes. It's just a really nice overall package. <v Kelsey>It doesn't have a couple of the features that others have like real leather seats. Kia's got vinyl seats here, but they do a pretty good job. They don't have things like a heated steering wheel or a sunroof, so there's a few kind of bells and whistles that you get in some of the other vans that are missing here. But, you know, in exchange for that it's right around $8,000 less than even the average price in the group, let alone where some of those more expensive vans end up. And you also get Kia's excellent ten-year powertrain warranty in with that. <v Jennifer>Among its wins was interior quality. And remember, this is not the top trim level, but it has kind of a top trim level vibe inside. Fake wood looks very natural. The stitching on the leather looks very nice. It's not real leather, but it's very convincing. Overall, it was just a very handsome, well put together cabin. I wasn't wild about kind of the penny pinching on some of those capacitive touch controls, but everything else felt like it was really screwed in well together. I mean the gear shifter, the way it operated all kinds of buttons and knobs, the few that were there. And you know, the stalks on the steering wheel. Everything like that felt like it imparted a high level of quality. We contrast that with something like the Sienna where the gear selector felt like it was gonna fall off in your hands. So I mean, this kind of really gets at that. Powertrain, that's another area I was really impressed by. Plenty zippy in terms of overall acceleration. Nice amount of torque from low to high across kind of the band of RPM. And a really good transmission. This is an eight speed. Fewer gears than some of the others, but it goes to show the number of gears doesn't matter as much as how quickly it reacts. And it reacts really quickly. You get on the gas on the highway, kickdown, very fast. I was surprised by how quick this felt for how heavy and long it is. It was very sprightly from a stop. One of the quickest minivans of the segment. And you're right, the transmission was just seamless. It was no nonsense. It did what it was supposed to do in the background. It also has best-in-class cargo room, which I think families really care about when they're loading the van with stuff. Yeah, it didn't get the top cargo scores. Part of what we calculate into that is kind of the other features that help with cargo space. But we test our own cargo, independent third party testing here. We don't just take the manufacturer spec. We found that to be problematic in the past. But you can check all that out at cars.com/news. That brings us to this, which had the best of the group. About 8%, 9% more than the Odyssey, which was at the other end. It also did really well in car seats. Really great accessible lower latch anchors. Could fit three car seats across the second row. Buckles were easy for kids to grasp. Overall, very car seat friendly. Again, cargo, car seat. These were areas where the Kia didn't win, but it did very well. And that was kind of the tale of the overall Carnival. I mean one category after another, after another, it didn't win that many categories, but it really didn't stink it up in any particular category, except one. <v Jennifer>Let's talk about that. I got to get into it, it's storage. So remember when we were talking about in the Odyssey that blessed floor console? (Jennifer laughing) This has a cursed console. This is a big bulky flow-through console. Now Kia had that with the Sedona as well, and I found that just as disagreeable. No different here. It's bulky. There's not a ton of room to store your stuff. There's some compartments here and there, but you know, there's only you get your kind of standard cup holders and a few other things. There's not a bunch of door storage. I mean, you go back to the second row to the third row. There's just not a lot of space in the passenger area and driver area to store things. That was one of the problems that I had when driving this with my family is there's just not enough small item storage spaces for all of their stuff. Their snacks, their devices, whatever other little stuff that they bring to the car. It's just didn't have it. So, overall, some important wins. A lot of areas where the Carnival held up just fine, even if it didn't win the category. And really only one kind of major loss. Put it all together, Carnival comes out number one. (energetic upbeat music) In a lot of our comparison tests across multiple cars, the point totals are really close together and it's hard to kind of decide on a very clear winner or loser. That wasn't so much the case today. The Honda and the Toyota brought up the rear while the Kia and the Chrysler led the charge. For more details on this minivan challenge, as well as information about how we test cargo and car seat checks, visit cars.com/news. (energetic upbeat music continues)