New Oddy vs. New Sienna- pros/cons/preferences?

In a few years, we may be getting a minivan (what we have now works fine, but it's a smaller SUV and is crowded with 3 kids). There is the endless debate of Honda vs. Toyota. I'd love to hear what you have, why you chose it over others. Info like safety specs, car seat installation etc. is fantastic! As of right now, I have no preference although I know I will want a newer one that is fully loaded (once you have a DVD player and back up camera I'm not sure how you downgrade from that )

This thread has a lot of opinions on the matter in it.

My personal preference of the 2011 line up is an Oddsey.

1. It looks cooler IMO. In the 2005-2010 line up i preferred the look of the Sienna.

2. It has 5 full sets of latches from what i hear, with a 6th TT. The Sienna has 3 full sets of latch, no extra TT.

3. If an 8th seat is an issue for you, the Sienna 8th seat isn't car seat friendly. The Oddy 8th seat is.

4. The Sienna got "lesser" safety ratings for front pass. female occupants and this would bother me because although the van is "mine" for everyday use, its also our only family car so anytime we all head out together i ride passenger since DH thinks i "drive like a grandma"

Those are my main reasons for what i would choose. With that said i haven't driven either - if the Oddy still drove roughly more like a truck, i might just get over the Sienna flaws. Hate trucks, hate driving something that handles like one, and since that was the #1 reason i chose Sienna over Oddy 3 years ago, if that was still a significant difference, i would choose Sienna. Ugly tale lights, lack of LATCH, and all!

I researched, made pro/con lists, and test drove each (in different weather conditions on different road conditions) for several months before making my final decision. I was getting rid of a year and a half old minivan I had a lot of dislike for and I wanted to cover all my bases so I didn't find myself in the same situation later on.

I chose the Sienna. Mine is an 8-passenger, however, I do not use the 8th seat. It's not child seat friendly. It would be if it sat on the same level as the captain's chairs, but it doesn't, so it's not. I fit fine in the 8th seat (I'm petite), as would a child who 5-steps, but that's about it.

The Sienna is "taller" than the Ody (not by much in specs, but it's significant when you're inside the vehicles), which was a large factor for me because my oldest rides in a HBB in the 3rd row and needed "room to grow" in the booster. The 3rd row seats, headrests, and seatbelts were a better fit for my 8-year old. He will not be in a HBB forever and when that time comes, I need to know he'll fit well back there. Not only was he more comfortable with the Sienna headrests, but the seatbelt fit his body better, and he was closer to 5-stepping in the vehicle seats. Because I have 2 older kids (8 and 7), those factors topped my list.

The Sienna only has 3 complete sets of LATCH (each captain's chair and middle 3rd row), there are no "extra" top tether anchors. This was a non-issue for me because even if I have a 4th child, I will only have booster riders in the 3rd row. The 3rd row outboard headrests do not come off and do not adjust (they are plenty adequate, however). Again, a non-issue for me, but still something some people should consider, depending on their child seat situation.

The driver and front passenger seat seatbelts fit ME better in the Sienna. I'm probably the size of 6th grader, so this was important to me.

There were no armrests on the Ody's captain's chairs. Ordinarily, I suppose I could overlook that, but my DS1 and DD didn't like it and since those are seating positions they would be using, I considered their opinion.

I preferred the drive on the Sienna, hands-down. One of the times I test drove the Ody, it was raining. Whether it was the tires or the brakes or both, it handled so poorly, it just didn't sit well with me. The Ody also handled poorly on gravel. The Sienna hugs the road and was a lot smoother. I also got a tighter turn out of it and overall better brake time (in dry weather on normal roads).

I've had mine since March and I've put a little over 8,000 miles on it. I average 22 MPG city. It's been on a 2,000 mile roundtrip road trip and performed like a champ. We were comfortable, no complaints (well, except for the bird that committed suicide on my grill somewhere in Indiana...), and everyone was happy. I even spent a good portion of the ride in the 3rd row entertaining my 2nd row RF'er and I was comfortable.

I know some people say the cabin materials (plastics) appear cheap in the Sienna, but that wasn't something that pinged my radar, much like the fact that the Ody is homely didn't. They just weren't important enough to *me* to make either the pro or the con list.

Both the Ody and the Sienna are IIHS Top Safety Picks for 2011. The Sienna received 3 stars from NHTSA for overall frontal (dinged for female front passenger - I'm assuming chest Gs). I stressed out about that for a little bit and then filed it away under, "For me, I'm OK with that", since I'm usually the only passenger in my vehicle and it's very rare (and when I do, I sit as far back from the airbag as possible). It's more important that I keep my driver and rear passengers safe and, for us, the Sienna does that.

That said, that's why I chose the Sienna for MY family. Nothing can replace the importance of *your* family's needs and/or preferences and the importance of test driving - multiple times, in different weather, on different road types.

ETA: I preferred the transmission in the Sienna as well. As someone who is a firm believer in a standard transmission (and hates driving an automatic), I felt like the Sienna had healthier shifting patterns.

It sort of seems to be about personal preference on this one. For car seats the 2011 and now 2012 Ody since that model year was just released.. seems to be the best choice since it has the most LATCH and TT. That said, I'm sure that other people like other components about installing in the Sienna.

We picked the 2011 Ody b/c it had a top marks for all parts of crash safety. The Sienna faltered in one part... the front passenger.

The Ody has great tech components like the HDMI hook ups. I'm sure things will change in the future. I also prefer the look of the Ody though it is controversial. I have had many people compliment my car and say it is the best looking minivan they have seen. I prefer how the Ody drives over the Sienna. The Sienna power steering seems fake and over boosted....which is something that really bothers me.

Lastly, the dashboard in the Sienna drives me crazy. It seems very disjointed.. like there's no flow to it. Maybe over time one gets used to it but I just didn't like it. The Ody seems more well laid out. Oooh... one last item.. I don't like the tracks on the floor os the Sienna for the 2nd row... they seem to collect dust and food like crazy and I don't like that mess in my car. (Sorry.. seems like I've ranted it a bit now... but you asked for opinions.


We have had two 2011 Odys... one Touring and one Touring Elite.. we leased the first but decided we wanted the TE. We put 12k miles in 7 months on our first one and have 7.5k miles on the second one in 4ish months. We really like it a lot.

Both are very good minivans. I'll rehash my opinions.

I've visited the dealer multiple times for a total of hours checking out the Odyssey. Only a shortish test drive in good weather on normal roads. Drive feel counts some, but not that much to me since this is a minivan.

Aside from dealership visits, I also took a trip with a bunch of inlaws from SF down to LA and back with rented Siennas. Two rented Siennas to be exact. Two of my brother-in-laws are Toyota mechanics so they get great employee rental rates.

To sum it up, I have every reason to buy a Toyota (free service and free or discounted parts) and I'd hands down get the Odyssey. Even the Toyota employees admit the Odyssey is clearly better this time around.

My experience is in California. No rain yet and all on relatively normal roads. No gravel, etc. I did drive on dirt a bit but for like 50 feet so I don't think that counts much.

Odyssey:
Pros - 2nd row is very versatile and easy to use. Love the 8th seat with easy access LATCH and how the seats can slide sideways to increase width. Legroom just feels a ton more than the Sienna (dunno actual measurements or if seat bottom design has anything to do with it, but I can stretch out my legs pretty far in the 2nd row pushed all the way up which means I also can stretch out legs in the 3rd row). I felt pretty cramped in the 3rd row in the Sienna, altho the 2nd row is ok. Ergonomics in driver's seat felt more natural. Materials overall are WAY better than Sienna. Cool Box is neat. Center console seems much more useful. Love the trash bag ring. Cupholders are normal. Car seat usage is better (more options, where tethers are attached, etc). Better electronic options. Rear a/c is stronger, has much better controls, and blows at your feet if you want (I didn't think the Sienna's rear a/c was too bad... or too good... until I tried the Honda's).
Cons - Steering does feel more numb than is typical of a Honda (and seems worse than the Sienna). Looks are polarizing (I'm ok with them, but DW thinks the Sienna looks better and she's got better fashion taste).

Sienna:
Pros - Xenon lights more readily available. AWD is available. White Pearl paint is available (colors in general look better than what Honda offers). Steering is better.
Cons - Throttle is kinda jumpy (stupid Toyota trick they've done for years to make a car feel more powerful than it is). 2nd row seats are harder to adjust and are nowhere near as versatile. I kept tripping over those damn 2nd row seat tracks too (apparently they collect dirt/food easily as well). Quality of materials overall is pretty ghastly (think mid-90s Hyundai or earlier... possibly worse; I felt some really sharp edges in places which is normally found on bad Chrysler products and not Toyotas). 8th seat isn't as useful. Not as many car seat useage options. AWD gas mileage is atrocious according to bro-in-law. I find the looks to be uglier than the Odyssey (on the outside it's just moderately uglier, but I HATE the Sienna's dash; hey, I'm from LA - we spend a ton of time inside of cars due to traffic so interiors are VERY important to me). A lot of the cupholders are slanted, meaning you better have a solid cap on your cups and can take your time to find the hole to put it in properly (old Sienna did this too and I find it absolutely asinine).

As you can see, some of our opinions are conflicting. So, it's really important to try them out.

As a frame of reference, passengers range from petite to slightly fluffy. Adults are generally 5'1 - 5'10 with one 6'ish guy (but he was a driver and never sat in the back). Kids are all in normal ranges from 1 - 12.

Overall, nothing really annoyed me about the Odyssey. Any gripes are relatively minor. Like the steering wasn't as nice as I'm used to from Honda, but it's not like it was bad. The only other thing that bothers me is the black side mirrors (even on higher models). That's pretty much it. Conversely, I was constantly surprised by little cool features.

The opposite was true of the Sienna. Little stuff constantly popped up that annoyed me. Not much impressed me. I did like how I could get pearl white and a panoramic moonroof, but that's just on the highest model. Could I live with all of it? Sure. But since there's such a better and contrasting option, I see no reason to. I mean, even that recliner seat that they brag about is the stupidest thing in the world. It's utterly useless. To use it, you have to push the 2nd row all the way back, and the front seats all the way to the front. That means no one can sit in the 3rd row or drive the car unless they're SUPER short. The commercials show/joke that the husband uses it to sleep in the garage... but that's about the only time you can use it (stationary). If you're gonna sleep in a minivan, just toss out the 2nd row seats and fold down the 3rd row. You'll get more room.

Update: white pearl is now available. 2012 brochure and stuff is out. Only available on the Touring tho, but the white pearl on the Sienna is only on the Limited as well.

We have the 2011 Odyssey. I chose it b/c it came in blue.

Oh, and lol I THANK whoever was watching over us when we chose it b/c it can fit 6 carseats. 5 latches, and tether in every seat for the kids! I think it's carseat friendly and then some! It has wide mode so you can put 3 huge carseats next to eachother in the second row. I didn't get 2 RF Advocates together (that would pass a perfect install) but it was close. You can even move that 8th seat up and have easy access to baby, or use it to puzzle seats.

I only cared about safety and was pleased to learn the crash ratings were great, after we bought it. We got no extra features and don't use anything like DVD, Navigation, etc. Only wanted that 8th seat.

The only reason we didn't look at the Sienna was b/c husband noted how Toyota vehicles kept killing people with stuck accelerators, and then all the recalls. So he would not look at one.

I did test drive both and they seemed equal there. I prefer the Odyssey because it makes my carseat life a breeze.

I think it is something only you can decide. They are both great vans and both offer different things.

For me personally I would choose the Sienna for the following reasons.

1) I prefer the looks of the Sienna over the Ody
2) I prefer Toyota over Honda
3) top tethers are not a big deal for us since we have older kids and the kids that do need top tethers would be covered with the Sienna
4) I liked the Sienna I had and it was a great van...if I ever had to go back to a van I know I would love the Sienna.

I love my Sienna, but if it died tomorrow (which I'm not expecting...it's been mechanically perfect so far), I know I would end up replacing it with an an Ody for pretty much one reason. The 8th seat. The flexibility of having a real 8th seat has been huge for us and I just can't see giving that up yet.

It also doesn't help that I think the rear of the new Sienna looks like a beaver face or something else ridiculous. I'm not overly crazy about the look of the Ody either....the bent line of the windows bugs me a bit and it looks so small, but overall practicality will always win with me.

We have been looking at both recently and I think we are leaning toward the ody if we get a van. I like the looks of the Sienna better but the Ody is roomier and we liked the way it drives. I also think the seat tracks in the back of the Sienna would get nasty quickly, even though we don't eat in the car. We also liked the back up camera in the Ody better than the Sienna.

We aren't looking at the top of the line models in either. Right now we are looking at the EX-L for the Odyssey and the XLE for the Sienna. Oh, and Dh and I both hate the wood trim the Sienna has. Blech.

That being said Dh really loves the Honda Pilot and is trying to convince me that will be a better fit for us.

sirrahn said:

It also doesn't help that I think the rear of the new Sienna looks like a beaver face or something else ridiculous. I'm not overly crazy about the look of the Ody either....the bent line of the windows bugs me a bit and it looks so small, but overall practicality will always win with me.

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OMG I was just behind one while running errands and thought of your statement. I totally saw a beaver face...now that will be ingrained in me forever.

Hey, don't hate on beavers.

I do admit, I don't love the seat tracks on my Sienna, but I vacuum the swagger wagon daily, so I don't have a filth problem.

bnsnyde said:

The only reason we didn't look at the Sienna was b/c husband noted how Toyota vehicles kept killing people with stuck accelerators, and then all the recalls. So he would not look at one.

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After extensive testing by all sorts of people, that has pretty much been determined to be false. There were like two (like less than a handful) that were strange and no one could really tell what happened, but it's been pretty well established that there's nothing really wrong with Toyota accelerators that's from some weird electrical gremlin. The floormats were a problem, but that was an easy fix and a sharp reminder to follow directions. But the mysterious acceleration was pretty much the same thing that happened to Audi back in the 80s: user error and media hype gone out of control. Turns out, having black boxes in cars is pretty handy as legal protection for car companies.

DaniCPST said:

OMG I was just behind one while running errands and thought of your statement. I totally saw a beaver face...now that will be ingrained in me forever.

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LOL Sorry!

We had to pick between the two recently and ended up with the 2011 Sienna. The biggest factor was room. My wife didn't fit in the driver's seat of the 2011 Oddy, I didn't fit in the passenger seat (my head hits the ceiling), and our 3 car seats didn't fit in the 3rd row of the Oddy. The 2011 Sienna also had better leg room which I'm kind of sensitive to because everyone in my family tends to be 6'+. I'm 6'2", 240lbs, and I can sit easily in the driver seat, 2nd row, and 3rd row without moving any of the seats and have *plenty* of room. Toyota changed their "legroom" spec for 2011 and showed it dropped about 1 foot of legroom but it actually grew by about an inch (no car has ever lost 1 foot of leg room). Clearly they've changed their measurement to something like knee room as no car has ever lost 1 foot of leg room. Consumer reports measurements confirmed the Sienna has the most legroom of basically any vehicle available (minus cargo vans and such). For 2011 they did lose 1" of hip room in the third row just as the specs say, but it still isn't as small as the Oddy.

As for cons of each, they both are loud. The irony of that is before 2011 the Sienna was very quiet. The Sienna now has fairly loud wind and road noise. The Oddy has good wind noise but very loud road noise (although better than 2010). The majority of 7/8 passenger crossovers (GM, Ford, Chrysler) will give you a much more relaxing ride with respect to noise.

If you go toward the high end, the Oddy is the techno gadget champ. At the low end the Sienna wins. Obviously the Oddy has the more baby seat friendly 2nd row as detailed here.

Lunch is over, but I'll finish a pro/con list later. I probably would have picked the Oddy if we fit into it, so if you're a smaller/medium family it may be a great choice.

Jason

That's fascinating. We're a shortish family (wife's side and mine). That said, the legroom is something that really bothered me on the Sienna whereas I felt I had more room in the Odyssey. Weird. Maybe it depends on body shape? Long torso vs long legs? I've got long legs. I'm shaped like a female model apparently (I'm a guy), whereas my wife is long torsoed. The Lexus has never had a problem, but we have to make some very extreme seating position changes on the Camry whenever we switch due to how we fit in it.