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2011/2012 Odyssey EXL Vs Sienna XLE
I know lot of people would have considered both before buying one. Please tell my why you chose the EX-L instead of the Sienna XLE or the vice-versa?
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here is what we saw.
Odyssey looked better on accessories and overall design. their fold down system flows better. more high tech. Priced higher.
Sienna is similar but on the styles and how thing flows together is a little bit lacking. lower priced.
We owned an Odyssey and had the transmission replaced at 50k. we had issues with it ever since. they changed 3 transmissions and torque converters within a year and we still end up with a noise that would not go away. I think it was their VCM that was causing it as the noise happens when Eco comes on.
Honda's final response was live with it or buy a new car. Saying it is normal vehicle noise. which really pissed us off as it was honda that cause this issue in the first place. If my 70 year old parents can hear the noise while we are driving, it is NOT normal.
Honda dealers said they would sell us the new car at a reduced rate. When we compare the deals with toyota, honda's deal does not seem so nice. They even wanted us to pay 10 grand for model 2 year newer than ours. but all in all, we end up buying an toyota because the deal was better than the honda. plus we were not about to be fool by Honda customer service for the second time.
This is just our experience. it might not happen to you. Good Luck
OMG How can you say that. IMO the Sienna is just a beauty of a van while the Odyssey/Aztek is the ugliest design EVER.!
I guess to each his/her own...
For crying out loud...it's a MINIVAN! Not an object of beauty!
Both are great cars. Personally, I don't like the mushy typical Toyota ride but, again, some may find the Honda to be a bit firm for their liking.
I actually like the look of the Odyssey better, but 1) we have a 2003 Ody with a new transmission at 83K, and I am waiting for it to bust again. 2) the one thing that drives me crazy about my current Ody and the new Ody is the internal noise. It is so loud. Toyota is so much quieter.
If my van broke down today, I would actually go with the Nissan Quest. The interior is great.
I do like the Odyssey, have already taken it on multi hour trip. Kids love it. Much easier to lug 3 kids and stuff around than in our Ford Flex that we turned in. I think we got a reasonable price on it, but there are some aspects of the interior that feel cheap, such as the extensive use of faux aluminum bits that really just look like grey plastic. I wish automakers would nix faux aluminum from their parts bin, its not fooling anyone. A real gear indicator on the actual shifter would be nice rather than a sticker even though it is indicated on the display. Minor touch. Better intagration of the door tracks would also be nice, other manufacturers are managing it, but I suspect the lightening bolt effect of the side profile may prevent a hidden track. But here is my largest complaint, almost gives me buyer's remorse. No fog lights on a $38k car?? WTF. No Roof Rails?? No HID headlights??? A few other minor oversights on the equipment list is very bothersome. I realize that some of these are available as dealer installed accessories, but these things should be standard at this price point in my humble opinion. Its just another example of nickle and diming us to death.
Overall, I am pleased with the vehicle, decent price, would like a little more equipment as standard.
The Sienna on the other had did have some nice options on the LE including AWD, roof rails and backup cams. Their price is much is better (though my insurance company charges more for the Sienna than a comparable Odyssey) and the salesperson at Toyota could actually answer my questions.
The real kicker for me now is the GROUND CLEARANCE! Our family may not be the norm, but we do take our Vans on road trips, camping, dirt roads, snowy roads(sometimes) and our driveway. Our 2001 Odyssey has 6.5 inches of clearance which for most cases is enough, barely. The new Odyssey has lowered that to 4.5 (which was a hard number to come by and not well advertised). Sienna is at 6.5.
So my question is, has anyone had trouble with Ground Clearance? 4.5 inches doesn't seem like much especially when we're fully laden with bikes, racks and oh yes, kids! And NO I'm not interested in some big SUV, just a van that can do it ALL!!!
Another neg was the console - the rear view camera is a small 3" screen vs the 8" on the Ody.
Both test drove nice however. We got an Ody in the end.
The ground clearance is too low on the Honda. I believe it is only 4.5 inches but it is difficult to find out if that is correct because Honda will not publish the clearance. Go to Honda.com and compare let's say the CRV, Pilot and Odyssey. Notice they give you the ground clearance on the CRV and Pilot but not on the Odyssey. Originally it was on their web site but they pulled it off. I believe they pulled it off because some people are bottoming out the front end under certain conditions. I do not have a link handy to problems I found.
Whether or not you plan to tow anything you should know the Honda towing package will cost you about $1500 (about $950 for parts and the rest for dealer installation). The Sienna comes standard with a heavy duty transmission cooler and I believe also a heavy duty radiator). Part of the cost on the Honda is for a heavy duty transmission cooler. With all the transmission problems Honda has had, I wonder if their transmissions would last longer if they ran cooler (especially in Arizona and other hot places).
I know three people who have over 100k miles on their Sienna with zero problems. I know two Odyssey owners including my son who have had transmission and other problems within 100K miles.
The only thing I do not like about the Sienna is that when you take out the second row seats, the roller mechanism for the seats remains in the car so you do not have a completely flat floor in that area.
Woodchukhd
The insulation under the AWD might not be as good as a FWD since they run a drive shaft underneath.
Woodchuckhd
*Background: I am at the end of a lease on a 2010 Honda Odyssey EX-L with Nav and RES. We wanted to get an equivalent.
* Models -- Honda now does not offer NAV + RES on EX-L, so I started looking at Odyssey Touring and Sienna Limited with the Premium Package. I have since started considering EX-L with RES vs XLE with RES + Nav.
* Price: in these models, Sienna is more expensive. Yes, the base price is less than on Odyssey, but once you add the Premium package (which you have to add for the rear entertainment system), Sienna is ~2K more expensive (Touring vs Limited or EXL vs XLE -- same thing).
* Lease: Toyota has better residuals (by 2-3%) and better money factors (0.00066 vs 0.00115). But they are less willing to negotiate, so the lease costs on Honda come out about $50-60/month less than Sienna on average.
* Exterior: don't care -- both look fine to me. It's a minivan.
* Ride: don't care -- both ride fine for a minivan.
* Features/interior... this is where things get wacky
- Nav system: both suck, but Odyssey sucks more. No more touch screen. Oh my god -- the joystick/nob design is terrible and is many years behind. Why they switched? Don't know. the 2010 had a touch screen, and while it was bad, it was usable for input. Sienna is functional, I just don't like the low screen resolution. In the end, I've decided I'd rather not pay for the nav and get an aftermarket Garmin or TomTom for $300. I rent a lot of cars, and see much better systems on Fords, Cadillacs, Audis... why can't they put a decent nav in these?!
Winner: Sienna
- Dashboard/console: Odyssey looks much more polished. The center stack on the Sienna is very functional, but to my eye, ugly. The textured plastic is unattractive. More importantly, the center stack on the Sienna is harder to reach that on Odyssey.
Winner: Odyssey
- Third-row folding system: Both are good. I like the push-button style on the Sienna, but the Odyssey manual system is easy and painless. Overall, not enough of an advantage either way.
Winner: Tie
- Push button ignition: Sienna can have that, but only on Limited. Odyssey can't have it. Ridiculous. My el-cheapo sedan has it. Many new cars have it. Come on, Honda and Toyota!
Winner: Sienna (kind of - Limited only)
- Second row: I know, Honda's done some magic here. But for me, the second row on a Sienna in a 7 seat configuration is just better. The seats are more comfortable, they move further back, and the recliner feature, while not fit for adults, is great. The windows on the Sienna in the second row are also wider, so it just seems roomier.
Winner: Sienna (subjective)
- Sunroof(s): Sienna offers two sunroofs on Limited. Some people say they don't use them -- we do. My three kids loved the second sunroof.
Winner: Sienna (Limited only)
- Auto Folding mirrors: Ooh, Toyota, you've got that one right. Again, Limited only, but it's nice. I park two cars in the garage, and routinely fold the mirrors by hand. The push-button convenience here is useful. Honda, you listening?
Winner: Sienna (Limited only)
- All-wheel drive. Need I say more? I can live without it, but the fact that Toyota offers it is great. The incremental price is small (a little over a grand). The extended cost of replacing a $1600 set of run-flat tires is a bit of a downer.
Winner: Sienna (only if you MUST have AWD)
- Other Options: Both are bad. Odyssey -- why not over nav and RES on EX-L? Answer: to push people to buy Touring. Sienna -- why are the nav and res options so expensive? Answer: to make the buying experience confusing. HID lights? Get the Touring Elite with Odyssey or buy the expensive high-tech package on the Sienna. You do get more flexibility with the Sienna (at a price), but overall it's a tie.
Winner: Tie (Small advantage for the Sienna)
Conclusion:
Still undecided, but I fear I will end up going with an Odyssey EX-L with RES and buying an aftermarket nav. I will miss the dual sunroof, the auto-folding mirrors, the push-button third-row seat, and the push-button ignition. But at $60-$80/month less expensive on a lease than a comparable Sienna, it's hard to justify not going with Odyssey. Unless I can get an incredible deal...
We like the Odyssey but can't get past the exterior design. Wifey didn't like it at first and by the time she came around, the kids thought that it is ugly. I am willing to accept it if the family goes with it
Sienna's has a nice exterior but the interior looks cheap. The handling is a bit floaty too.
Have two more days to decide so the debate continues.
The deciding factors: dual sunroofs and reclining captains chairs in the second row. The kids love it. In the end, the lease was comparable to Ody Touring, maybe a few bucks more.
I like the push button start, push button folding mirrors, and push button folding third row seats. The tilting windows in third row are also nice.
In other words, we chose the Sienna for the features simply not available on the Odyssey.
Sienna-- Pro's: Handling and ride are great. I still think they are better than the Odyssey' s. It's a very responsive car. The seat tracks for the second row are awesome, allowing full range forwards or backwards, and the seats were nice, with decent grade leather. You have a TON of legroom in the second row. Widescreen DVD is awesome, and I liked the overall layout of the dash and controls. The door controls being located in the center also made sense. And of course, a ton of storage, with two glove compartments, consoles etc.
Cons-- The seats came up a little short in the thigh support area for my husband and me. We are both very tall and I wished for an extra inch or two on the seat length. This actually turned into one of the main determining factors for me. The seats were okay, but I could never get as comfortable as I could in the Honda. Also, the fact that the middle seat of the second row was useless became a deal breaker. We have to fit two rear facing car seats in the second row, and not being able to use the middle seat and sit them side by side made it extremely difficult to access the third row. The seat travel allowed you to be able to squeeze past the front of the car seat, if you moved the seat all the way back, but it was a squeeze, and just wasn't practical for our older child (or anyone else) to have to do this day in and day out until the car seats could be front facing, which is over a year from now. Also, I do not think there was as much leg room between the rows if you had to accomodate adults in all seats. On the stereo front, we found the sound quality to be lacking in the standard XLE stereo, and the back up camera screen was also dinky- those things made us then decide to look at the XLE with Nav instead, and also the Limited.
Odyssey EXL-- Pros: Seating comfort was great, and the second row was far more flexible. You can fit two large rear facing car seats side by side and still be able to slide the remaining outer seat forward, or have someone comfortably sit in it. Even though the seats don't have the ability to track back and forth to the degree of the Sienna, there is still plenty, if not more legroom for the second and third rows. The dash layout and materials are a very nice quality and don't have the gimmicky wooden inlays of the Sienna.
Cons: ACCELERATION and handling. The Odyssey EXL is obviously slower than the Sienna, and just disappointed with the get up and go, or lack there of. This fact alone resulted in us leaning more towards the Sienna.
We were leaning towards the Sienna at that point and the dealership bailed us out for a few hours so we could try out with the kids. It was at this point that I realized that the seats were a little uncomfortable. Enough so that I was having to shift around a lot more that I thought I should driving for just an hour. After some more research here on Edmunds, I saw that the Odyssey Touring and Touring Elite both had the extra gear, which resulted in a quicker acceleration time. Back to the Honda dealership we went to test drive a Touring version. And boy, what a difference. Also, the Nav on the Honda is much better than the Toyota Nav in my opinion as it's accessible while driving. So in the end, the seat comfort and practicality, with the better acceleration making it about equal with the Sienna helped me make my decision.
It was a hard choice as the Toyota is a very nice car, and we could have purchased an XLE with DVD and Nav for cheaper than the Touring Elite. The XLE also had keyless entry which was a nice feature the Honda does not offer, but in the end we just felt more comfortable in the Honda and thought it was worth the extra cost.
A few nits to pick but nothing major, it rides and performs like a mini van should, actually better. I have had a few friends / family that have driven my van and remark on how impressed they are in that it does NOT seem like a mini van.... " this thing flies and handles much better than I thought it would" Even my 20 something kids like it.
After the first 2 or 3 maintenance visits I have done all the maintenance via a local mechanic as I HATE dealerships and I have never gotten a break from them and feel they just wait for the opportunity to screw you over when something is not covered. Remember when Toyota and Honda would bend over backwards to make their customers happy?
I looked at this and an Ody and liked them both but at the time (Sept 09) Honda was the one NOT doing any dealing and it would have been a $2500 difference to get the things that came on the Sienna as std plus the discounts Toyota was offering (Honda would not budge, they let me walk!!) and while I liked the styling of the Ody a little better it was not enough to make me lose the $$.
Now I have read about the tranny problems on Ody and the sliding door problems on the older Siennas and have come to the conclusion that every car has it's problems, every manufacturer goes back and forth on how much they want to discount etc. you just have to catch them at the right time.
Bottom line is that I like the Sienna and plan on keeping it for a while. We use the capacity and folding seats a lot - I have a t-shirt / promo business and deliver lots of larger boxes. I actually took out the middle seat in the 2nd row as I do not need it too much and it is pretty easy to put in when I need it.
We also have a camp in Maine and I have toted everything from kayaks (INSIDE and on the roof), bikes and lumber, to kids and adults all over dirt roads and paved in all kinds of weather and am happy. We do not tow our boat with this car.
I will say that I came from a 2000 Chevy Venture 8 passenger and that lasted us 10 years w/ about 180k miles. Good van but Chevy had nothing to replace it with.
Good luck with your choice and safe travels.
Regardless, we were forced to compare the two to obtain a new van. As a prior owner of an Odyssey we were immediately more comfortable with the new version. The controls and feel were similar and we liked the organization of the van. We even liked the 2nd row middle seat set up better. I would say I thought the vans drove very much the same. The Odyssey a little more tight, but the difference was negligible to me. I thought the leather in the Sienna was nicer and the airiness of the cabin was nice. I know it's subjective and I'm picky, but the Sienna was just a bit too unfinished for us. That said, the Odyssey was a few thousand dollars more. I don't think you can go wrong either way, but I'm taking a chance that they've fixed the transmission reliability issues and I get many years out of this new van.
The noise is still as noisy to date but that guy still drives the same way it was driving during the road test three years ago. Our greatest concern with our odyssey is GROUND CLEARANCE, we have been stuck in the snow a couple of times. I will have to switch our honda pilot with my wife whenever we have snow. I couldn't believe this was lowered from 6.5 to 4.5, when Honda actually need to raise it to 8.0 to make weather friendly for Canadians.
So far there has been no mechanical issue with our odyssey, just regular maintennce, If GROUND CLEARANCE is not reversed back to 6.5, we will be shopping for a sienna very soon.