In a lot of ways, my family is a stereotypical American one. My wife and I have three kids, two in car seats. Our bunch is simply too big to fit in a crossover with a teensy third row where the trunk should be. So, we have two options: A full-size, body-on-frame SUV or a minivan. In stereotypical American fashion, we opted for the former, and a week with the 2025 Toyota Sienna was all it took to make me question our choice because it’s that darn good.
There are legit cases where an SUV is the right pick, and I still believe we chose wisely, but everything about the Sienna makes a potential switch mighty tempting. When a van pulls big Ozark hills without a problem thanks to hybrid all-wheel drive and still gets 33 miles per gallon doing it, you start to wonder why you compromise efficiency for power. And when all three kids are happy as clams with all the room in the world, yet parking is still a breeze, you begin to ask if a truck-y daily driver is even necessary. The answer is “yes” if you ever have to tow anything, but for most folks—including many parents who are too proud to drive a Sienna or similar—a vehicle like this is perfect.
And I can just about promise the little ones will like it more.
The Basics
With the Sienna, Toyota sells one of just six new minivan models available in the United States (and two of those are practically identical Chryslers). Anybody interested in buying such a family hauler is likely to consider one, and because the Sienna nameplate has been around since 1998, people are familiar with it. The current generation was introduced in 2020.
The styling has gone largely unchanged ever since then. I’m alright with that, personally, as it looks plenty modern without relying too heavily on new-age motifs like pixels. My tester was painted in Ruby Flare Pearl, a deep red that was quickly covered in mud and dust since it rained almost every day I had it.
Nasty weather made for good testing conditions, of course, and that’s especially true of the interior. This is undoubtedly where the Sienna shines, as the Platinum model that Toyota loaned me had all kinds of gadgets. I’m talkin’ about a coolbox in the center console that’s nearly as cold as a standard fridge, a flip-down monitor that streams your kiddos’ favorite shows, a plethora of power outlets, and yes, even a vacuum. Crumpled leaves never stood a chance against this van.
You’ll find a hybrid 2.5-liter four-cylinder in every new Sienna built, paired to an eCVT. That powertrain makes 245 combined horsepower with help from two electric motors. All-wheel drive is available, though front-wheel drive is standard on every trim but the Woodland and Platinum.
Driving the 2025 Toyota Sienna
Before we went anywhere in the Sienna, I took a good look around the interior and noticed those gadgets I mentioned straight away. This sucker even has extending leg rests, effectively turning the rear seats into recliners. Our 2019 Ford Expedition definitely does not have that.
The Sienna also has more cupholders than our might mom-mobile, as I counted 16 in total. The center console is borderline cavernous with two USB-C outlets down there somewhere, and a clever storage space between the driver and passenger footwells is big enough to stack four to-go boxes, I later found out. Practicality was figured into every part of this rig. It’s almost like heaven for people who haul around enough stuff to stock a spare room.
All this is to say that the Sienna had a good headstart before I ever yanked the shifter into “drive.”
As soon as you leave my house and head north, there’s a big ol’ hill that serves as an effective test for any car’s acceleration. I wasn’t expecting much from the humble van, but it surprised me by gaining speed with the pedal pressed about 75% of the way despite the steep incline. It didn’t make a ton of noise doing it, either, as I worried it might. Naturally aspirated four-cylinders paired to transmissions without gears usually have to zing pretty high to climb grades like that one, but torque fill from the electric motors helped it mosy right along.
There’s a lot to like about the Sienna’s hybrid system, really. It employs regenerative braking when you let off the throttle, but it isn’t super noticeable, and it helps keep the battery charged up. It also coasts silently through parking lots and drive-thrus, which is great news since I can hardly hear anybody on those little speakers anyway. One gripe I do have, though, is that the engine kicks off and on a lot when you’re parked. I get that it needs to run to power the accessories and keep the battery topped off, but I’d rather it run all the time than repeatedly cycle over and over.
Driving the Sienna everywhere for seven days proved something else to me. A minivan’s road manners are not only noticeably better than an SUV’s, but they’re so much better that you’ll miss how easy it is to maneuver one around town if you ever go back to a larger body-on-frame vehicle. Staying in your lane is a lot easier when you don’t take up 100% of it when sitting still. That being said, I did find myself underestimating the Sienna’s wheelbase, dropping a rear wheel off the pavement a time or two when making a right or left turn.
All in all, I loved driving the Sienna because everybody fits in it so well, and the car itself fits well in the world around it. I quickly got the hang of its length and realized that was more of a me problem, thinking it was just like a Camry when it’s actually nine inches longer from the center of its front wheels to the center of its rears.
We also hauled a lot of stuff inside the Sienna in addition to our kids, something that proves to be tricky at times with our Expedition. It helps that the trunk is incredibly deep, allowing you to stack case upon case of canned goods back there before you even reach the height of the third-row seats. Even with one chair in its upright position to fit our oldest, we crammed so many groceries in this thing for our community Thanksgiving feed.
Highs and Lows
Along with the positives I already mentioned about the driving experience, I like how frictionless everything is in the Sienna. The tech suite is easy to use as the infotainment is good (if not quite as good as the new RAV4’s, but maybe that will come in time), the heads-up display is clear and easy to read, and even the TV was painless to operate as we hooked our iPad up to it with an HDMI cord. The Sienna would actually be bad if all these features didn’t work like they were supposed to, but because they’re actually functional, it’s just that much better.
If I had to nitpick, I’d argue the powertrain is at times unrefined. I’m not saying it’s clunky, and you don’t notice a big shift when the gas engine kicks on, but I just wish it would make up its mind on whether or not it has enough battery to run without it.
Pricing, Features, and Competition
You can get into a Sienna LE for $41,615, and it goes up from there with the XLE, XSE, Limited, Woodland, and Platinum trims. Every one comes standard with the hybrid powertrain, and Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 is baked in. I drove the Mack Daddy of all Sienna minivans: A Platinum AWD that clocked in at $61,545 after destination.
As far as options go, you’ll pay $2,000 for all-wheel drive until you get to the top two trims, where it’s already included. My tester also had the $1,415 rear seat entertainment system, $475 premium paint, and a 1,500-watt inverter with two 120-volt plug-ins for $300. You can still get some add-ons with the Platinum trim, but not many.
The Toyota’s most logical rival may be the Honda Odyssey, which has a higher base price of $44,290 but a lower ceiling of $53,190 for the top trim. Importantly, however, the Odyssey is not offered with a hybrid powertrain; the Kia Carnival and Chrysler Pacifica are. In fact, the latter comes with a plug-in hybrid option, and it’s the only one that really comes close to the Sienna on the high end with a max MSRP in the upper-mid $50,000 range.
Fuel Economy
If fuel efficiency is a top priority for you, the Sienna is a winner at 34 miles per gallon city / 36 mpg highway / 35 mpg combined. The Kia Carnival Hybrid admittedly comes close at 34 mpg city / 31 mpg highway / 33 mpg combined, but those two are leagues ahead of the V6-only Odyssey, which manages just 22 miles per gallon combined. You could spring for the Pacifica PHEV, but you have to plug it in, and it still can’t match the Sienna at 30 mpg combined (though up to 32 miles of electric-only range is a distinctive feature).
Value and Verdict
If I never had to tow a trailer weighing more than 3,500 pounds, then I’d be twisting my wife’s arm to get a Sienna as her next car. We do that fairly regularly, though, and it makes more sense to have one ride that can do it all if you need it to. Most people don’t tow, and anybody who taxis kids around knows that whatever helps the everyday scramble go more smoothly is probably the best choice.
I think the Sienna is far and away one of the best family cars in production today. I say that as someone who, again, has a pretty stereotypical family, right down to the part where we chose an SUV in part because of its supposed “cool factor.” The older I get, the more I learn that doesn’t matter as much to me. Maybe one day, if we have any more little ones to take with us everywhere we go, we’ll be forced to make the switch. I wouldn’t be mad—not even a little bit
Toyota provided The Drive with a seven-day loan of this vehicle for the purpose of writing this review.
2025 Toyota Sienna Specs | |
|---|---|
| Base Price (Platinum AWD as tested) | $41,615 ($61,545) |
| Powertrain | 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid | continuously variable automatic | front- or all-wheel drive |
| Horsepower | 245 |
| Torque | 176 lb-ft (gas engine) 199 lb-ft (front e-motor) 89 lb-ft (rear e-AWD motor) |
| Seating Capacity | 7 |
| Cargo Volume | 33.5 cubic feet behind third row | 75.2 cubic feet behind second row | 101.0 cubic feet behind first row |
| Curb Weight | 4,725 pounds |
| Towing Capacity | 3,500 pounds |
| Ground Clearance | 6.3 inches |
| Fuel Economy (est.) | 34 mpg city | 36 highway | 35 combined (AWD) |
| Score | 8.5/10 |
Quick Take
It’s easy to dismiss the Sienna for something “cooler”… until you drive one for a week with your kids in the back.
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