If you need to move a lot of people and a lot of things in a relatively reasonable footprint, a minivan really is the best option. It has been for 40 years, and despite the segment not seeing the same sales volumes it used to, the Toyota Sienna is unbelievably hot right now. Toyota could’ve rested on its laurels and kept printing money, but it hasn’t. The 2025 Sienna is here and it’s got some sweet new upgrades, to the point where you could basically live in a fully loaded model.
You’d need an eagle eye to spot the new Sienna from the outside. Aside from some new wheels, new badges on the doors, and darkened trim on XSE and Woodland Edition models, there isn’t much in the way of updates. However, it’s what’s inside that counts, and the updated Sienna gets some excellent new toys.
Let’s start off with the headline features — the vacuum and the FridgeBox. The vacuum sits underneath the center console and you plug the hose in at the back of the console. Simply plug the hose in, flip a switch, and hoover up all the little debris kids and pets leave behind. Crumbs, boogers, hair, you name it. It’s definitely not the first vacuum integrated into a minivan, but it’s a welcome addition.
As for the FridgeBox, it’s exactly what it sounds like. This console-mounted minifridge promises to chill Capri Suns like an absolute villain, ensuring a consistent stream of refreshment for those long road trips. Of course, it could also be a boon to any teenagers looking to take their parents’ minivans to bush parties, so you know, use it responsibly.
However, the vacuum and the FridgeBox are only standard on the top-tier Platinum trim, optional on the Limited, and unavailable on everything else, so how about something new on every Sienna trim? That’s right, it’s radar for your kids, or as Toyota calls it, Advanced Rear Seat Reminder. How does it work? Easy — a radar unit in the headliner scans for movement within the second-row and third-row seats. Once the vehicle is parked and locked, as a first warning, it’ll blink the hazards and sound the door lock chime nine times if movement in the seats is detected. Ninety seconds later, it’ll sound the horn. Four minutes after that, your car will send you a text, and six minutes after that, it’ll call the emergency services. Now, if you left the doors unlocked, walked away, and the radar picked up a child in the rear seats, it’ll do all the same stuff except honk the horn. Nifty.
Every 2025 Sienna gets the new-generation Toyota infotainment system, displayed on an eight-inch touchscreen on the base LE trim and a 12.3-inch touchscreen on all other trims. Add in a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster on XSE, Limited, and Platinum trims, and you get tech that’s right up-to-date. Of course, Toyota hasn’t forgotten about the physical stuff, updating the console, seats, and dashboard with nicer materials and tighter fit-and-finish. Yep, sounds like Toyota, alright.
Under the hood, this is still the same Sienna as last year, which means you get a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine connected to a two-motor/generator or a three-motor/generator hybrid system depending on whether you pick front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive. Figure 245 combined horsepower, either 36 or 35 mpg combined, and a towing capacity of 3,500 pounds so you can tow a magical liopleurodon that’ll guide your way to candy mountain.
Pricing for the 2025 Toyota Sienna hasn’t been released yet, but given how the 2024 model is still subject to markups, it doesn’t really matter. Expect it to theoretically stay fairly close to the pricing of this year’s model, but as always, that could change depending on how your local dealership’s feeling. Still, the 2025 Toyota Sienna ought to be rolling into dealerships by the end of the year, and it’s sure to make families very, very happy.
(Photo credits: Toyota)
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We have a 2021 Platinum, and overall it’s been a good van. My main gripe is the quality of the front and rear camera resolution, as they must have been taken from a Game Boy color. It’s laughable how bad it is.
The vacuum and fridge were supposed to be released earlier but there were issues with distribution.
Great stuff from Toyota. A friend of mine works for Toyota in sales and he was telling me that these are still selling from MSRP and they can’t seem to keep any in stock aside from the occational reservation that fell through. I am actually surprised by this because for the longest time it seemed that people avoided minivans like plague. I’ve always been on the camp that if you have more than two kids just quit messing around with SUVs and get a minivan. You would have to buy a Suburban to get anywhere near the same utility.
Only four years late… fridge and vacuum were promised for 2021 MY.
Anybody have any experience driving the hybrid Sienna versus the 300hp NA version that it replaced?
After reading how much slower they are to get up to highway speeds, and that passing on the highway kinda sucks, I avoided the hybrids (also saving $10k+) and ended up with a 2018 a few months ago.
While I love it, the transmission could be a bit better programmed at parking lot speeds.
I had one for a few days while my car was in the shop last year. No problems or complaints about power from me–seemed like a great van.
It’s not fast, but it’s a minivan, it doesn’t need to be.
No, it is not nifty.
How often does this happen such that it is a severe health issue?
Also, shouldn’t we Darwin these offspring anyway?
If anything, it should be, as most unnecessary accessories are, able to be disabled.
Stop being a honk for the vehicles you review. I know it is the way to get more vehicles to review, but it make the article less credible to discerning readers.
And, yes PHEV is what’s needed in the minivan market. It would require 10X more batteries, which take up 10X more battery space. That means the seats will have to be (EASILY!) removeable and not merely fold-into-the-floor-able.
Or at the very least, a hybrid battery that is maybe two or three times as large as the Prius’s/ct200h’s.
this is a really dumb post
“Darwin” offspring? Are you kidding me, dickhead? We’re talking about kids here.
A new piece of tech that just might save lives would be nifty. Unless you’re a complete dickhead. Which you appear to be.
You are right. I apologize.
I wanted one of these soooo badly…until I saw the $5000+ dealer markups on the literal bottom of the barrel LEs. They were already quite pricey, and this put it right out of my range. Super sad, it’s really the only minivan worth even thinking about anymore…don’t talk to me about the Chrysler Pacifica, DT…least reliable vehicle in ‘murica right now (according to Consumer Reports, anyway).
In Canada, I bought mine new in 2016 for about $42,000. A current new equivalent model would cost me $70-$75k.
I can’t believe people actually pay these prices.
I gotta say, I’m not wild about the rear-seat movement detection thing. My mom used to leave us in the car all the time when she went into the store or something, it was totally normal and fine. It would not have been fine if the car fucking called the cops on her after 6 minutes.
yeah, but that’s actually not fine, so no
There should be a way to turn it off for older kids, as you run into the store, or talk to a neighbor and the car is on. I think the key things it could save are infants and dogs, and that’s where a call would help. I do think its a bit dystopian though, and wouldn’t want the call feature on my car, honking could be fair, but calling is too far for me.
This is all well and good, but still no PHEV option. First one between Honda or Toyota that offers a PHEV van gets my purchase. Until then we’re hanging onto our current Odyssey.
would you pay 75k + dealer markup for a phev minivan because that is probably what it would cost. no way they would do that on the base model. Considering there is a multi year wait list for the Rav4 prime PHEV toyota does not have the capacity to offer any more large PHEVs. Most likely the Highlander/Grand highlander / Lexus TX would be next
I could have walked into a dealership 3 weeks ago and bought a Prime
All they need to do is add a few more chrome horizontal lines between the headlights, and they’ll have a Lexus minivan.
“If you need to move a lot of people and a lot of things in a relatively reasonable footprint, a minivan really is the best option.”
I understand a lot of the minivan love here on this site, but I also have enough personal experience to know that minivans are not an end all be all.
They’re great if you need to move a lot of people *who are children below a certain size, but large enough to not need car seats*. Most minivans have a third row cramped enough that it’s entirely unsuitable for adult(or teenager) habitation, but also it’s cramped enough that you can’t get a kid into a car seat back there.
I also have an intense and burning hatred of transverse V6s, because I work on my own cars. Not sure if the hybrid turbo 4cyl in this Sienna makes serviceability worse or better.
So just like most 3 row SUVs? But to be perfectly fair, I’d wager the 3rd row of a minivan is typically roomier than the 3rd row of a similar-ish SUV, while also being easier to get in/out of thanks to sliding doors and lower entry level. An Odyssey is 6″ longer than a Pilot, but also has 6″ more rear leg room. A Sienna is about 2″ longer than a Grand Highlander, but has about 4″ more rear leg room. A Carnival about 6″ longer than a Telluride, but also has more than 6″ additional rear leg room.
To get comparable legroom you gotta usually go to full size SUVs, which are substantially more expensive and bigger. A Wagoneer is a whopping 10″ longer than a Pacifica, but it’s 3rd row only has 0.1″ more leg room than the van.
Oh, no question, a minivan is generally better in this regard than “comparable SUVs”. All of us here know that a Highlander is just a worse Sienna and a Pilot is just a worse Odyssey, because crossovers in general are just hatchbacks/vans/wagons but worse.
The only 3rd row I have experienced that was worse than our Grand Caravan was in a Honda Pilot, which also had significantly worse ride quality.
Or, different people who live in different places have different needs that don’t fit into your binary segments. For instance, my crossover (CRV) is better than the hatches/wagons I’ve owned over the years because of AWD and ground clearance. Something that’s beneficial to me may not be beneficial to others. Not everyone on this site (as you claim) still has to repeat that ‘crossovers=bad’ mantra to be considered an enthusiast.
IDK my buddy just bought a new Pilot and the 3rd row is perfectly fine for an average adult man. No complaints for the 2 hour trip we just took yesterday
“Most minivans have a third row cramped enough that it’s entirely unsuitable for adult(or teenager) habitation, but also it’s cramped enough that you can’t get a kid into a car seat back there.”
Compared to what else with a third row?
Full-size passenger vans, which would be great if the crash/safety standards of smaller vehicles applied to them.
Again though there’s the caveat of “relatively reasonable footprint”. Arguably a full sized passenger van does not offer that.
I guess, to me, they’re the next logical step up from a minivan, and they can still fit in a normal parking space.
But I get it.
The 2007 Expedition LWB we replaced the minivan with, which can comfortably carry eight 6′ tall adults and as much cargo as you want. I imagine that Suburbans/Yukons, Wagoneers, and newer Expeditions are similar.
Or any fullsize passenger van.
Yes I know these are fairly huge and much thirstier than a minivan, but that’s what it takes to carry a lot of adult people AND their crap. A minivan is great for carrying up to 7 people if some of them are children, but only 4-5 adults really fit, and they don’t usually do a good job of hauling all the junk that a family/group of 7 entails.
But if you want to carry 4-5 people and a moderate amount of junk, there are plenty of sedans and wagons that can do that too. Minivans kinda only make sense for families who have children in a certain age range, which is how they have gotten the reputation for exactly that.
While later models of Suburban maybe got bigger, my 2018 Sienna’s 3rd row is substantially better in all aspects compared to the 3rd row in the 2001 Suburban. An the Volvo XC90 my parents had for a spell.
I can fit 6 adults exceedingly comfortable with easier ingress/egress than any comparable SUV. Full sized van is really the only thing beating minivans before you get into actual buses.
The target though was “If you need to move a lot of people and a lot of things in a relatively reasonable footprint, a minivan really is the best option.”
A 2007 Expedition LWB and Suburbans/Yukons, Wagoneers, and newer Expeditions do not fit in a “relatively reasonable footprint”.
No turbo here, it’s just the NA 2.5 that they’re putting in most models.
Third row seat comfort seems to have gone backwards in more recent vans compared to vans from say the 2000s. I’m not sure why, my theory is that it’s related to making the seats easier to fold in the floor, resulting in some compromises for overall comfort.
You’re absolutely right.
Our 2003 Grand Caravan(without stow and go) had a backseat that, while hideously inaccessible, was not actually that bad when you got back there, and was actually okay for adults.
Our 2008 Grand Caravan(with stow and go) had a backseat that was considerably more cramped, lower to the floor, harder, and worse shaped. It had to be this shape to fold properly. It also had much worse road noise, presumably because the Stow and Go took the place of some of the noise insulation.
This. My folks had an mid-90’s Astro and the 3rd row seats were pretty much identical to the middle row. Probably interchangeable. There were like a hybrid buck/bench style that were super comfy if you weren’t sitting in the middle. But they were a b*tch to get in and out of the van.
I drove my adult friends around on a vacation to OCMD two years ago in a family member’s 2014 Sienna. They fit in the back row well enough. Admittedly not long trips, but nonetheless–they weren’t packed like sardines.
Most of the adults in my life fit in the 3rd row of my Voyager just fine, including myself. Meanwhile I don’t comfortably fit into the 3rd row of any SUV I’ve ever been in. We use our van to transport friends all the time.
Modern minivans are pretty enormous, and well-packaged.
That has not been the case with the two vans I’ve owned: a Sedona and an Odyssey. Maybe the rear seat isn’t super comfy for really long trips, but it’s serviceable, especially if you move the front seats up a bit. And on the few times I’ve had to put a car seat in the very back the sliding doors made it much easier with their giant openings and not having to worry about bonking other cars with the door.
I guess a Suburban and the like solves the space problem you speak of but with a much larger footprint. The last 3-row SUV I rented was a Highlander and given roughly the same size as our van, the back seat (both rows) had less legroom (especially the third row) and less cargo space. The interior packaging of the van was so much better that it wasn’t even close.
I feel like this implies there’s a better option for that… which there really isn’t. I guess something like a Ford Transit filled with seats, but that’s not a valid option for most non-polygamist families.
“Most minivans have a third row cramped enough that it’s entirely unsuitable for adult(or teenager) habitation, but also it’s cramped enough that you can’t get a kid into a car seat back there.”
Hard disagree here. I’m over 6′ tall, and ummm… not a young person. I have ridden quite comfortably for hours at a stretch in the 3rd row of several different Honda Odysseys. I’ve owned one for many years, using it for road trips a few times a year. And I’ve ridden in the third row of a few other Odysseys.
The third row of the smaller Mazda MPV was less comfortable, but that was a considerably smaller car than minivans of the last couple decades. And strangely enough, the asymmetric footwell of the front passenger seat in the Odyssey is not so comfortable during long rides. But your statement about the 3rd row really doesn’t hold water in my experience.