Question Sienna vs Odyssey

A while back I book marked a very helpful discussion about the Sienna vs Odyssey. Since then our computer crashed. :-/ What I am specificially looking for is the break down of top tether anchor options for each year. (It seems like they switch in 2011- that Toyota has a bunch before '11 and Odyssey has a bunch after '11?) Does anyone know off the top of their heads which thread I am talking about? It was posted for someone else to refer to when they were asking about the same thing. We have baby 5 due in January and our current mini van is hobbling along, so we're looking for something with eight seats. From what we've seen so far, we're leaning towards an older Sienna. We don't like that you have to buy the top model to get eight seats in the Odyssey, and the jump seat in the older Siennas acutally looks like someone could sit in it somewhat comfortably. Our kids are 7, 6, 4, 18 mo, and due in January. We currently have the older kids in Britax Frontiers, the ones with the side impact wings. The two of them take up the entire back row. We have two Radian XTs, a Complete Air, and the baby will be in a Britax Chaperone. We're assuming it would work best to keep the Frontiers in the back row for the 6 and 4 year old, put the seven year old in a regular booster (can we do that?) in the jump seat, and then have the 4 year old in one of the Radians out board, with the baby out board behind the driver in the Chaperone. Any suggestions as to which year span of which vehicle would work best with our kids and car seats? Or even if you could just post a thread to a similar question, that would be great! Thank you so much!

I'm not sure which thread, but here is the break down. Ody 2006-2010 has 5 top tethers (everywhere but the plus 1 seat) and 3 full LATCH Ody 2011+ has 6 top tethers and I think 5 LATCH positions. Sienna ??-2010 has 5 top tethers (everywhere but one of the 3rd row spots) Sienna 2011+ has 3 top tethers (captains chairs plus 1 in 3rd row. We have an '06 Ody and love it. We have 4 kids; 9, 6.5, 4, and 2. We had 2 RF until the a few months ago. I like how this model lets us move a captains chair over to create an aisle to the 3rd row so having 2RF was easy. With you having 5 though, the new Ody is probably your best bet.
ETA: The plus 1 in the new Ody is much bigger than the older ones.

Unregistered said:

A while back I book marked a very helpful discussion about the Sienna vs Odyssey. Since then our computer crashed. :-/ What I am specificially looking for is the break down of top tether anchor options for each year. (It seems like they switch in 2011- that Toyota has a bunch before '11 and Odyssey has a bunch after '11?) Does anyone know off the top of their heads which thread I am talking about? It was posted for someone else to refer to when they were asking about the same thing. We have baby 5 due in January and our current mini van is hobbling along, so we're looking for something with eight seats. From what we've seen so far, we're leaning towards an older Sienna. We don't like that you have to buy the top model to get eight seats in the Odyssey, and the jump seat in the older Siennas acutally looks like someone could sit in it somewhat comfortably. Our kids are 7, 6, 4, 18 mo, and due in January. We currently have the older kids in Britax Frontiers, the ones with the side impact wings. The two of them take up the entire back row. We have two Radian XTs, a Complete Air, and the baby will be in a Britax Chaperone. We're assuming it would work best to keep the Frontiers in the back row for the 6 and 4 year old, put the seven year old in a regular booster (can we do that?) in the jump seat, and then have the 4 year old in one of the Radians out board, with the baby out board behind the driver in the Chaperone. Any suggestions as to which year span of which vehicle would work best with our kids and car seats? Or even if you could just post a thread to a similar question, that would be great! Thank you so much!

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Just bumping your thread. I didn't have any luck when searching for the Sienna vs Odyssey thread (though I remember reading it at one point!), so I hope someone will have that link for you soon. I think a booster is an appropriate choice for most 7 year olds, because they can generally sit properly without moving around and stay in place by that age.

Edit: I took so long searching; I see that MommyShannon responded so no need to bump!

I don't think you can get a regular booster in the jump seat. I can get a Bubble Bum, but I don't think a HB Graco Turbobooster would fit. We love our 2013 Sienna as we felt it drove better than the Odyssey, was cheaper, and has better reliability, but the current Odyssey definitely wins for car seats.

You can see my kids' set up in my signature - my 6 and 8 year olds definitely are fine in their booster seats, and when my baby comes, I will have the 6, 8, and 10 year olds in the third row, which will still leave the jump seat open for a friend/passenger.

One thing to note: I'm not sure about older Odysseys, but the newer ones have the 8th seat in all but the lowest trim line. We have the middle trim line (I forget what it's called, but not a Touring) and we could have gone one trim line lower and still gotten that 8th seat.

We have a 2008 Sienna (6 kids ride in it on a daily basis) and I LOVE it...I can get practically any car seat I want in that 8th seat. Two Frontiers in the back would fit, but not side by side with seatbelt installs...the middle of the third row is pretty narrow when installing with a seatbelt, not even really wide enough for a FF Radian --its doable but I personally don't like it (though RF installs beautifully). Only seats I really like to put in the middle of the third row when installing with seatbelt are a BubbleBum, RF or FF MyRide, or RF Radian. However, if you're installing with LATCH, the two Frontiers should fit next to each other, since the LATCH is offset.

The Turbobooster fits very nicely in the middle of the middle row...I had one there a few nights ago.

The only potential concern I would see with your intended setup is third row access for your back row passengers...are you going to have them climb through the back? If not...how are they going to get around the installed seats in the middle row? There's not enough room for kids to get between the side of the van and the seatback without at least partially flipping an outboard seatback. I'm not familiar w/ the size of the Chaperone base, but you might be able to flip that seat back and let them squeeze between the seat and the side of the van -- but in my experience (with a BabyTrend base) that turns hairy real fast on days that someone is in a bad mood or otherwise uncooperative LOL.

When I had a similar setup, I ended up switching the baby and the Turbobooster...then I could pull the booster out without issue and completely flip the seat to make plenty of room for access to the third row.

We just looked at an '11 Ody today. We've also got #5 on the way and are trying to fit 2 rf'ing convertibles and 3 boosters.

You get 8 seats in the Ody in all but the lowest trim package (LX is 7 passenger; EX, EX-L, and Touring models are 8). I tried a turbo in the jump seat and it was fine. We're not looking to put a booster there, but I wanted to try all options out.

My kids are 10, 7, 7, and 2 (with baby on the way). We'd put the rf'ing kids in 1 outboard and middle of second row, with a NBB in the other outboard seat, and then two HBB in the third row. My kids had no trouble squeezing into the 3rd row with just sliding that outboard seat with the booster on it forward...popping the top of the seat down until it hit the booster bought them plenty of room to get back there even though it didn't lay flat (nor did I have trouble getting my pregnant self back there with the top folded down a bit).

I really despise minivans, but honestly, as we've searched for something that will work best for 5 kids with the seats we are working with, the 2011+ Ody has won hands down against everything else we've looked at.

jennzee said:

I really despise minivans, but honestly, as we've searched for something that will work best for 5 kids with the seats we are working with, the 2011+ Ody has won hands down against everything else we've looked at.

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I love my minivan. People only despise them before they get one. Join us on the dark side.

LC2003 said:

I love my minivan. People only despise them before they get one. Join us on the dark side.

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Haha! That's what everybody says . Our current vehicle is paid off, so we're going to try our darndest to make it work after the baby comes (which means I get a foonf!), but if it's just too much of a headache, then we are minivan bound.

jennzee said:

Haha! That's what everybody says . Our current vehicle is paid off, so we're going to try our darndest to make it work after the baby comes (which means I get a foonf!), but if it's just too much of a headache, then we are minivan bound.

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The space is so great. And the Toyotas and Hondas drive so well - I can parallel park my Sienna better than in any small sedan I have driven. I love to drive - own stick shift Mazdas (zoom zoom) as our second car - and my Toyota satisfies me just fine!

We love our current gen odyssey and you only have to get and EX or higher to get 8 seats. EX is the second lowest trim level. On the sienna... On the highest trim levels they take out the 8the seat I believe.

tl01 said:

We love our current gen odyssey and you only have to get and EX or higher to get 8 seats. EX is the second lowest trim level. On the sienna... On the higher trim levels they take out the 8the seat I believe.

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No, only on the AWD models do they limit it to 7 seats. You can get an XLE with 8 seats if you get FWD.

LC2003 said:

No, only on the AWD models do they limit it to 7 seats. You can get an XLE with 8 seats if you get FWD.

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I'll switch my comment to highest trim level. I don't believe the limited comes as an 8 passenger... Does matter if it is FWD or AWD.

LC2003 said:

I don't think you can get a regular booster in the jump seat. I can get a Bubble Bum, but I don't think a HB Graco Turbobooster would fit. We love our 2013 Sienna as we felt it drove better than the Odyssey, was cheaper, and has better reliability, but the current Odyssey definitely wins for car seats.

You can see my kids' set up in my signature - my 6 and 8 year olds definitely are fine in their booster seats, and when my baby comes, I will have the 6, 8, and 10 year olds in the third row, which will still leave the jump seat open for a friend/passenger.

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As far as reliability... My experience wasn't great with the Sienna. My 2012 sienna had two lemon buy back worthy issues as confirmed by a lemon law attorney and Toyota too... I have the paperwork that shows that they agree the issues exist and only once they couldn't fix them... Did they then try to tell me they are normal. The issues didn't exist on other Sienna's I drove while my car was in for service. Toyota didn't stand behind their product. I have had a much better time with Honda standing behind their minivans. One of the issues was there from the first drive home and I would have returned the van but there's no cooling off period in california.

tl01 said:

As far as reliability... My experience wasn't great with the Sienna. My 2012 sienna had two lemon buy back worthy issues as confirmed by a lemon law attorney and Toyota too... I have the paperwork that shows that they agree the issues exist and only once they couldn't fix them... Did they then try to tell me they are normal. The issues didn't exist on other Sienna's I drove while my car was in for service. Toyota didn't stand behind their product. I have had a much better time with Honda standing behind their minivans. One of the issues was there from the first drive home and I would have returned the van but there's no cooling off period in california.

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What were the issues? Did you get rid of it under lemon law? What was the resolution? I was just quoting Consumer Reports on reliability.

L and limited are only 7 passenger. We did not consider either of those trim lines. I never saw an L on a lot and we would not spend the bucks on a limited.