Minivan Review: 2021 Toyota Sienna XSE

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Heading into its fourth generation, the Toyota Sienna rushes headlong into a shrinking minivan segment with new styling and an electrified hybrid powertrain. As a nameplate that stretches back the better part of 25 years, Toyota is one of the last vans standing in what was once an elbows-out and crowded marketplace.

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I’ll get my powertrain complaints out of the way before diving into other aspects of this well-thought out minivan. For 2021, Toyota has elected to plunk a hybrid powertrain into every Sienna it makes, regardless of trim level. Making just 245 horsepower from its combined gasoline and electric guts, it’s just simply underpowered. Hoofing the Sienna to speed up a highway onramp produces a drone like Charlie Brown’s teacher, except she’s yelling at you constantly. The deployment of a continually variable transmission instead of a unit with real gears. Acceleration is surely even more tepid in heavier all-wheel drive variants compared to our front-drive tester.

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Minivan Review: 2021 Toyota Sienna XSE Back to video

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But — and this is key — the trade-off with this powertrain is its ability to return tremendous fuel efficiency. We saw an indicated 5.3 L/100 km average on an hour’s freeway jaunt while being sensible with the throttle but always maintaining the posted speed limit. Given that performance, keeping this bus in the 6.0 or 6.5 L/100 km bracket on the highway should not be a problem. In the long run, it is far more likely the typical minivan customer cares much more about those types of numbers than outright acceleration.

It’s clear Toyota has put an abundance of thought and effort into the new Sienna interior, starting with the so-called ‘flying bridge’ console which bifurcates the front seating area like those plastic partitions at the checkout counter. It places the gear selector and a couple of cupholders within easy reach, while providing space for a slick wireless phone charger and pass-thru storage area below deck. USB ports appear with the frequency of dandelions on a front lawn and controls for adjusting ventilation — in all the rows — couldn’t be simpler. Driver Easy Speak, part of a $5,500 Tech Package, permits the pilot to clearly pipe their voice to the rear speakers in an effort to address Ungrateful Children.

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Speaking of aft seating, the second row is actually the spot in which most humans will want to reside. This XSE trim features Super Long Slide seats in this area, able to be shuffled up to 25 inches forward or astern. This opens up limo-like legroom (at the expense of third-row passengers, of course) or the simple capability of placing warring siblings in locations not directly adjacent to each other. This is a bigger deal than non-parents might imagine.

An optional rear entertainment screen drops down from the ceiling instead of being mounted on the front seat backs, blocking the view of those cops on your six. Tremendous power-operated sliding side doors have a sensor for hands-free opening when one’s hands are full and — praise the pharaohs — a molded icon on the rocker panel to show exactly where one needs to kick so you don’t stand in the parking lot looking like Leo Messi scoring goals.

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Annoyingly, since this is a Toyota, material quality falls off faster than third-period Maple Leafs as one moves into the rear cargo area. Chief amongst complaints from family units who sampled this machine was that the third-row bench doesn’t fold completely flat. Where the Chrysler Pacifica tacos and flips this perch so the hard seat bottom becomes a flat load floor, engineers at Toyota simply elected to sandwich the thing — as if one were closing a book — and drop it into a deep well just ahead of the rear bumper.

This sounds okay on paper (or even the digital screen you’re reading) but in reality it is a poor solution. Since the seat back and not bottom now serves as the cargo floor, flimsy carpeted flaps are required to hide the now-sunken headrests in an attempt to cover vast crevasses into which various and sundry items will surely fall. As a parent, your author can guarantee that things will get lost down there — headphones, small toys, gummy bears, you name it. The walls of this area are also encased by hard plastic which is admittedly fine (and easily washable) for kids who are probably going to make a mess anyway but the materials are flimsy and feel cheap for a $53,000 bus.

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So let’s climb out of the cargo area and back up front into the land of the living. This is a nicely styled vehicle, and not just in a left-handed ‘for a van’ type of compliment. The front fascia is said to have been inspired by the Shinkansen Japanese Bullet Train, with headlights wrapping around the sides as if they’re being sculpted by the wind. In fact, there’s plenty of aero sculpting all over the Sienna’s new bodywork, including dips and flares towards the rear. The sliding door tracks neatly disappear into the base of the rear side windows.

It’s clear Toyota has placed an abundance of thought into practical aspects of their new Sienna and, save for that folding rear seat, it all functions extremely well. Perhaps more importantly for some, its hybrid powertrain is sure to save money at the pump while the available all-wheel drive permits some comparison with SUVs and crossovers in terms of surefooted winter driving.

The minivan market might be shrinking rapidly but the ones which remain — like the 2021 Sienna — are exceptionally good at their job.