Bought a Toyota Sienna (1 Viewer)

[Ron-P]

Well, last month we bit the bullet and ditched my wife's old 91' Mitsubishi Mirage and bought a certified 2000 Sienna. Forest Green color, of course.
It is the LE model but fully loaded like the XLE (less the TV/VCR and leather interior), captains chairs front and middle with a bench in the back, CD/Tape deck, running boards, roof rack, V6, premium sound, alloy wheels. It only had 28,113k miles on it and is in perfect condition. Not even a ding on the body or mark on the interior.
This thing rides just as nice, if not a hair better than my moms Lexus. Very solid, smooth, quiet, with no boat-like feeling at all.
We test drove the Windstar, Caravan, Town-n-Country and the Honda. In all, the Sienna was far superior in all categories; ride, comfort, interior design, functionability of controls and then there is Toyota reliability, second to none. The Honda drove the worst of the lot, very boat-like. The minute we drove off the lot, I started feeling sick. I sat in the back of every van we drove as I can get car sick. The Sienna was the only van that did not make me feel sick, at all.
My parents neighbor works as the head finance guy for Toyota of Huntington Beach. Out the door, after tax, license and a 100k mile bumper-to-bumper extended warranty, the total was $21,025. Not a bad deal. Saved us 10k going certified used vr. buying the same van new. The new 01' were sitting on the lot at 29k and did not have many of the options that this one had including the 2 captains chairs for the middle row. We were all set to drop 30k+ on a new one, but this one caught our eye.
Never thought I'd buy a van, but for the money, I think we got a really good deal.
Peace Out~

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[Edited last by Ron-P on November 14, 2001 at 10:58 AM]

 

[Bill Catherall]

Excellent! I love the Siennas. Unfortunately when we bought our minivan 2 years ago you couldn't get used Siennas because they were so new to the market and nobody was trading them in. I couldn't afford a new van. So I went with a used Caravan. I like what we got, but I'd prefer a Sienna.
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Bill

 

[Philip_G]

cool!
I like toyota.
actually, I'm the only one in my family not driving a toyota or lexus

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Never thought you'd hear the opinions of a 21 year-old on a van, eh? I'll be quite honest, I like driving the Sienna. It's a real smooth ride, although I wish the brakes would work a lot quicker.
On a side note, however, I still prefer the Tylenol van aka the Previa's, the line that the Siennas replaced.
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[Danny Tse]

My mechanic friend told me Toyota's are bullet-proof in terms of reliability and last much longer than Honda's. Another friend just sold his 90 Honda Prelude with 300,000 miles on the odometer; no rebuilds on engine or transmission. Now I will feel really guilty about selling/trading-in my 2001 Toyota Camry after "just" 150,000 miles in a few years. Toyota used to have a "Over 100K mile" club, is that still going on??

 

[Kolya]

In my experience, Hondas and Toyotas are about even with respect to quality and reliability. Of the four vehicles I've owned, two have been Toyota (82 Tercel, 86 Celica) and two have been Hondas (90 Integra, 98 Integra).
On the subject of minivans, I hate 'em, along with SUV's. If I'm going to spend 25 to 30 grand on a vehicle with space for the kids, it's going to be on something that I can still enjoy driving. Something like the Audi A4 Avant or the VW Passat Wagon.

 

[Brad_W]

This reminds me of an opinion I formed several years ago. I was driving down the road and the beat-up old junky rusted out Ford pick-up truck was in front of me (think Beverly Hillbillies) and it had a bumper sticker on it that read, "I hate Jap Crap." I thought is was pure irony considering the American made junker he was driving. Which lead me to my opinion:
I think Japanese cars are built to last while American cars are built to break down because we give us Americans more business. However, I cannot really prove this opinion since I've never owned a Japanese car. The real irony is that my mother works in a factory making miniature models of factories... oops, Austin Powers mode again. What I meant to say was she works in a factory making parts for American cars. I don't want her out of a job or anything, but does this seem true for you Japanese car owners? I've only owned Chevies and recently a Ford (not by my choice) and they always break down on me. If it's not recalled, then it breaks in a few years anyway.
I guess my point is the American Made idea is meant to be of patriotism, while our cars break down a lot. I know this is a blanket statement and isn't really true for every US car, but in general would you agree?
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[Edited last by Brad_W on November 14, 2001 at 07:53 PM]

 

[Carlo_M]

I loved my 89 Toyota pickup. It was taken away from me in 2000 by an accident, the other guys' fault and the insurance paid up, but you just couldn't replace that reliability. Ran sweet right up to the end, and all I did was scheduled maintenance and oil changes every 4500 miles.
Congrats on the new wheels!

 

[Rob Lutter]

glad you like your Toyota Ron! I am a Toyota man myself... I drive a 2001 Rav 4... it is soo much fun to drive, good gas mileage too (about 32mpg by my watch).
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[Rob Lutter]

hey, 401 posts... woohoo!

 

[Stephen L]

Nice choice Ron , I just saw this van at the auto show in Boston last week and came away impressed.My wife liked the Sienna & suprisingly the Kia Sedonna the best out of the vans.I suspect once we get to test driving them the Toyota will shine.In the next year we are planning on buying a new van and another vehicle for myself(hoping for 2002 Nissan Altima:yum .Toyota looks like they did a good job with this vehicle, goodluck.
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Steve

 

[Bill Catherall]

Brad - "Japanese" cars are built right here in the USA. We are not putting Americans out of work by buying Japanese cars. Also, it would be bad business practice to build something that will fall apart in hopes of getting the customer to buy another one sooner. The competition will swipe away that customer, because who would want to buy the same crap again? (Well I guess Microsoft is the exception to the rule...oh wait...no competition.) The fault lies in bad engineering, not a "patriotic conspiracy."
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Bill

 

[Stephen L]

Brad last time I checked I belive Honda & Nissan build in Tenn. and Toyota builds in California. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Ford build some models(Focus?maybe) in Mexico??I know Hyundai/Kia are planning on building in the US also.
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Steve

 

[PatrickM]

I definitely agree with the person who said its bad engineering that causes some American (i.e. GM, Chrysler, Ford not American made) cars to break down seemingly faster than their Japanese counterparts.
I own a 1995 Honda Accord V6 which was one of the first Honda models made in the good old US of A and I haven't had a major problem or even many minor problems with this car yet. It still drives like a dream so engineering is definitely the culprit not where it was built and by whom.
Patrick
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[Dome Vongvises]

American or Japanese, one thing's for sure, nothing can beat those wacky Europeans.

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"I don't know, Marge. Trying is the first step towards failure." - Homer J. Simpson
"Let's see, Matt Chmiel has Rini Bell, NickSO has Mena Suvari, John Williamson has Ivana Milisevic, and Steve Gon has Emmanuelle Beart...who the hell do I have???
"It's not Pikeville, Kentucky. It's Pikevool!!! And it's not Louisville, it's Loolvool!!! Get it right, damnit!!!"
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[John Tillman]

Steve,
I think Toyota's are built in Georgetown Kentucky. However, certain models are still built in Japan, as my Highlander is.

 

[Todd Hochard]

American or Japanese, one thing's for sure, nothing can beat those wacky Europeans.

In terms of reliability? Are you kidding me? Who beats Honda and Toyota?
Volvo- nope
Saab- nope
Jaguar- nope
Porsche- nope
VW- nope
BMW- nope
Audi- nope
Mercedes- only the diesels come close
Let's not talk about French or Eastern European cars

.
I know of a bunch of Hondas, owned by friends, above 250K miles (including a '91 Civic with 545K and counting!!), and a '79 Toyota pickup with 355K miles, but I've never encountered a European car like this.
The Europeans make great driving cars, but they don't last as long as the Japanese.
Todd

 

[Sean Conklin]

A 1962 Dodge Dart with a 361 V-8 holds the record for most miles on an internal combustion-gasoline engine without any internal engine or transmission work, the only replaced items were tires, starter, water pump,alternator, of course brakes, tune-ups, ball joints and other steering parts.
1.4 million miles

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There was a Mercedes diesel that had over 1.5 million, but was found that the pistons had to be reringed shortly after 1.0 million miles(it wouldn't start due to loss of compression)
And there was a Volkswagen that had almost 3 million miles but....4 engines and a few rebuilds in between(I think this is the most miles documented on a "Chassis".
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Sean
"I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said.......I drank what?"
[Edited last by Sean Conklin on November 15, 2001 at 06:47 PM]

 

[Michael St. Clair]

My family has owned a ton of american cars and a lot of japanese cars to boot. I'll take a good european car over almost any of them any day of the week.
To me there is a tradeoff between reliability and the quality of the drive. The rice burners are just too boring in general. And the contemporary american ones are just too unreliable.
I drive a Miata right now, and will keep it for a few years. I know it is supposedly made in Japan but I don't believe it, dammit. Somehow the japanese made a european car! A neat trick!

 

[Rob Lutter]

for the record... my Rav4 is made in Japan... although most of Toyota's cars and trucks are now built in America... a few still come from overseas.
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[Edited last by RobLutter on November 16, 2001 at 06:30 AM]