By Twain Mein

Pros:

• More utility than a Swiss army knife. This is one car that can handle most anything you throw at it, including seating for 8 passengers and lots of space.
• It offers a limousine-like 58 cubic feet up front and in the second row seats, as well as 38 cubic feet for parcels (behind the third row) and up to 149 cubic feet with the seats folded flat
• Car-like driving despite its behemoth size
• Thoughtful and convenient features such as the “magic” third row seats, low rear liftover, “conversation mirror”, and built-in cooler for drinks and sandwiches up front
• Serene ride and luxurious appointments
• The family-hauler records a respectable 19 mpg

Cons:

• Exterior styling is a step backwards
• Minivan stigma
• Not available in all-wheel drive

Driving impressions
Though minivans have a negative stigma, I was excited to drive the new Odyssey. Rolling up in traffic, looking down at other commuters, I was as pumped as if I were driving a BMW 7-series. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t challenged to any drag strip races and women drivers didn’t pay me a second, let alone first, look. Hah! Little did they know what they were missing!

This car has it all – leather, beautiful appointments, Bluetooth®, navigation system, and the intangibles of practicality. I had a stupid grin driving this rig as if it was the best car on the road. But for some reason the 2011 model didn’t feel as vault-like as the previously tested 2008 Odyssey model. It felt slightly less refined, though I can’t put my finger on exactly why.

Styling
The styling of recent Hondas and Acuras has been a bit disappointing, most notable with the Acura TL. They have transitioned from elegant and flowing lines, to more “dramatic statements” that leave me cold. Unfortunately, the new Odyssey suffers the same fault. In particular, the third row windows feature an abrupt drop in the third window crease. It steps down from the second row, giving a drooped-butt appearance to an otherwise attractive car. Why didn’t they just continue this in a straight line? The effect is irritating.

Build
Hondas have excellent build quality though their sedans and coupes often feel a bit “light”. The minivan, on the other hand, is positively Sherman tank solid. In particular, the sliding doors operated with the precision and sturdiness of a bank vault door. The seats seemed bullet-proof and immune to abuse from rambunctious kids clamoring about.

Interior Comfort and Ergonomics
The interior of the Honda Odyssey is like a safe haven from shark-infested waters. Inside, it is truly serene. Beautifully appointed leather seating comforts passengers throughout. The “three (er, six) on the tree” gear shifter is easy to use and its location frees up space for the massive center console that features an ingenious “coolbox”. The coolbox is a bin on the floor that has cooled air circulated in to keep drinks and snacks cool for the ravenous youth that typical mini-van owners will be hauling.

In the second row, my girls were thrilled to watch their favorite DVDs on a wide screen monitor. Honda has designed the monitor to be wide yet not overly deep, so it doesn’t block the view while the driver is looking in the rear-view mirror. Well done!

Going way aft, the third row “magic” seats are amazing. By simply tugging on their tether, you can pull up or push down the third row seats. Upright, they have excellent head room and acceptable leg room for my six foot frame. Folded, they disappear flat into the rear storage bin. Additionally, this rear storage area is located about knee-high which makes it incredibly easy for shorter Moms to place daily groceries. This really is an incredibly well-thought out car.

Nits? Though powered by 650 watts, the sound system wasn’t remarkable. The speakers seemed “flat” and didn’t offer a lot of dynamic range. Additionally, using the Bluetooth connection for my iPhone was somewhat problematic in that it didn’t automatically turn on. I had to manually turn on the connection each time I entered the car to use my cell phone with the internal system.

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Likes:

• Smooth and quiet ride
• Star Safety System is standard on all Sienna models
• Tri-zone climate control
• Dual power sliding side doors with power lift gate
• Front/rear parking sonar
• Dual view widescreen with split-screen capability
• Many, many convenient storage bins and cupholders strategically placed

Dislikes:

• Navigation screen defaults to displaying map view and no option for “night” view when headlights are switched on
• Plastic dashboard materials look and feel cheap
• Second-row seats don’t stow or swivel, and removing them requires muscle
• Top-line versions get pricey

The minivan is one of the great automotive innovations of the past 50 years. It’s been beloved, berated, embraced, and shunned since the Dodge Caravan/Chrysler Town & Country version took the box-on-wheels design mainstream in the 1980s. And that’s a good thing because the minivan takes a stand and makes a statement: “I can carry you and yours and your stuff’ anyplace you want to go … and do it in comfort.” Now, as Toyota introduces the third generation of Sienna minivan, you can add “… and swagger” to that statement.

The 2011 Toyota Sienna is the first all-new Sienna in more than seven years. It replaces the 2004-2010 Sienna and gets expressive new styling, more interior room, and additional safety features. It’s also available with ottoman-style reclining bucket seats and a 16.4-inch widescreen video display. Better fuel economy is on tap thanks to a newly available four-cylinder engine. It joins the V6, itself more fuel-efficient for 2011. The 2011 Sienna remains the only minivan available with all-wheel drive. Note that neither the 2004-2010 Sienna nor the redesigned 2011 Sienna were among the Toyotas subject to safety recalls for unintended acceleration. In fact, the 2011 Sienna is the first Toyota with an electronic override that in effect disengages the throttle when the driver depresses the brake pedal.

Those in the market for a larger family van will generally be pleased with the 2011 Toyota Sienna. The vehicle offers a 266-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission to briskly carry seven or eight people inside. And it has a 3,500-pound towing capacity.

Minivan buyers might not be too interested in sports car handling, but there’s a generous amount of power available if needed, even with a full load. The base Sienna is front-wheel drive, but the LE, XLE, and XLE Limited models are available with an optional all-wheel-drive system offered on the V6 Sienna. EPA estimates are 18 city/24 highway (16 city/22/ hwy on AWD model). During our week of hauling kids, adults, and all their stuff around town we observed 20 mpg overall.

For the first time Toyota is offering a 2.7 liter 4-cylinder engine that muscles-up 187 hp which is competitive with other less endowed V6 engines, the same powerplant available in the Highlander and Venza. Toyota thinks enough mileage-conscious shoppers will be willing to trade power for fuel efficiency. Reports from other sources say the the 4-cylinder mill is more than adequate and splurging for the V6 option is not really necessary. The EPA says to look for mileage in the range of 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway with a combined figure of 22 mpg average.

We drove the Limited model driven by the 3.5L V6 and were impressed with ride quality and snappy throttle response. Steering was slightly weighted at low speeds, but the Sienna had good on-center feel and tracking. The Toyota engineers did a good job of erasing the vague, electrically-boosted power steering feel that plague earlier versions.

Ride and handling is greatly improved over its predecessor by way of retuned MacPherson struts in front and a more traditional Torsion Bear setup in the rear. The sportier SE model, a fifth model added for 2011, receives the new spring package, which includes a lowered suspension of about ¾ of an inch, revised spring rates and an overall lower ride height to assist in more precise handling.

Size Does Matter

Despite the new styling, the 2011 Toyota Sienna’s exterior dimensions change little. The body has about an inch less length and about an inch more width. Height is the same, though the new sheet metal creates the welcome impression of a lower roofline. Also unaltered is the key metric: the wheelbase. This distance between the front and rear axles is a prime determinate in how much space a vehicle can allot for passenger room. Despite no increase in wheelbase, the 2011 Sienna’s reshaped body lengthens usable interior space by about two inches.

The Sienna is wider but slightly shorter than its predecessor. Compared to the 2011 Honda Odyssey, the new Sienna is 2.6 inches shorter, 0.4 inches less wide and has 0.6 inches less height, with a wheelbase 1.2 inches wider.

The 2011 Sienna again matches the Odyssey as one of only two minivans that can seat eight. It also comes in a seven-passenger configuration. For 2011, Sienna’s seats slide fore and aft over a greater span to allow for more leg room in all rows.

While there are many changes, the new model is still quite recognizable as a Sienna. Besides the lower stance, the 2011 Sienna has improved aerodynamics to help boost fuel economy. The SE, which stands for Sport Edition, is visually distinguished from other Siennas by a more aggressive grille appearance, lower side skirting, smoked-lens tail lamps, and unique instrumentation and interior trim.

Major competitors include the Honda Odyssey, Nissan Quest, and Chrysler’s twins — the Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan.

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Back in 1981, when the Talking Heads sang about the “large automobile” in their class-angst anthem “Once in a Lifetime,” and its spirit-shriveling effect on the song’s anti-hero dad, no one had a clue that just two years later, something called a “minivan” would debut, and proceed to enchant, confound, comfort and embarrass scores of dads to come–especially because it all started innocently enough.

With the van no longer the stuff of Beach Boys songs, portals between virginity and crabs, and false memories of family vacay singalongs (instead of the real version where dad swerved the van onto the shoulder, slammed it into park and threw everyone’s luggage out before threatening to take off alone),–the family decided it wanted to actually be able to park their lugging mechanism in the garage, and get more efficiency out of the deal.

And so, the modern incarnation of the minivan was born, and its ob-gyn was Chrysler who, in 1983, delivered the landscape-changing Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager. It was probably on their Voyager’s car stereo that families heard Ronald Reagan say, “It’s morning in America.”

It was certainly morning for the minivan, and throughout the 80′s, it was smooth sailing-image wise for a certain type of American dad. You could sit up high, and not only was Mom suddenly King of the Road during the day, after work, dad was King of Home Depot–able to buy plywood, load it in the car, and have it out to work on in time for Hardcastle and McCormick, Knight Rider, or the A-Team. But then he started to get a little itchy.

Minivans got a little nicer — and the more mom looked at home in her Toyota Previa or Honda Odyssey, the more dad started to feel like the guy in “Once in a Lifetime” when he says, “You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile. You may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife. You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?” And so he got the hell out of there and started driving a Sports Utility Vehicle, and he started to feel like himself again–until SUVs started to look a little too bulky, seem a little too pricey, and according to the cute eco-girl serving his mocha at the Starbuck’s, it made the air a little too dirty.

And so, not just based on the realization that he had become the guy who drinks mochas, again, he started to get itchy. And then again with the Talking Heads song, he thought, “Where does that highway lead to?” For the answer, all he had to do was go to the part of the song that says, “After the money’s gone,” because that highway led to a big, fat recession. It also revealed a distinct philosophical schism between dads of two distinct eras.

Gen X and some Gen Y dads struggle with what the minivan meant when they were coming of age in the 1980s. For some of them, driving one is like raising a hand in the hair and saying, “Hey sad clown of life, do you need a sidekick?” And so dads of that generation with some means (and some “I’m totally over the minivan!” mommies) have forsaken their minivans for the crossover. But for Gen X and Y dads on a budget, or Echo Boomer Dads, the currently in-first-place Chrysler Town and Country; the desperately-in-need-of-a-style-makeover Odyssey; the image-challenged dark horse Toyota Sienna, and the work-horse Dodge Caravan, make all kinds of safety, cargo carrying, price-point sense.

Plus, the Echo Boomer Dads have never even heard that Talking Heads song, but on their way to play softball with the guys, followed by a Red Dead Redemption video-game marathon, they need to drop their kids off at School-of-Rock class, and they need to do it all in the “I couldn’t care less”, bang-for-the-buck minivan. Mommy agreed to cosign the video game marathon AND pick up the kids after class as long as she gets to take her prayer-group girls to a spa/Rascal Flatts Concert weekend in Tucson. So to the guy in the Talking Heads song I say, “THAT’S where that highway leads.”