Toyota Sienna 2004+

stever

I couldn't find a link the other day, but I remember reading somewhere that the "5" starting digit in VINs was another (recent) US designation.

Steve, Host

dogmom2

I am trying to decide between the LE and XLE models. Does the sunshade work easily and store easily? HOw did your daughter break it? Did she pull on it and it just come down or did it tear? I have a 4yo that can break anything. Do you need the sunshades for her napping in the sun? Thanks. Hop you have a good trip!

hansienna

Toyota wisely copied Chrysler's automatic Triple Zone Temperature Control for the XLE. In the LE, the front passenger and driver must have the same temperature coming out the vents or heater.
    The Sienna has ALL of the best and nice features of all minivans and some new ones not yet thought of PLUS Toyota reliability. Who could want anything more?

libertycat

get the leather and wood trim options. These make the interior BEAUTIFUL.

lok888

I test drove a LE with right hand power sliding door back in March. I don't remember if there is a keyless remote control (not the V.I.P. RS3200 security system) for the power sliding door operation. But I remember I can open the right hand power sliding door by pressing the OPEN switch at the dashboard without putting the car in "Park".

libertycat

at my local dealership which of course doesn't have the Limiteds or even XLEs I want.

bakelly11

There is a keyless remote for opening the door. You can open it by the button near the power door, by the overhead console, or by the hand remote (key).

siggie1

We just returned from our first test drive of a '04 Sienna. It was an LE model with 8 passenger seating. We really liked the front and center feature of this seating configuration. We also want to get power sliding doors and a power liftgate. It appears, however, that the power doors (all 3) are only available on the XLE model, while the 8 passenger seating is only available on the LE. Is there any way to get both 8 passenger seating and 3 power doors on either an LE or, preferably, an XLE?

libertycat

not sure about the power doors on LE though

hlaverdiere

Hi, it appears there is a 6-8 week wait for a Sienna, and, we need to see if we can get a buyout for our 4Runner lease. LOVE my 4runner, but need more room. I was surprised I liked the Sienna more than the Sequoia (too pricey too), I've never been a "van type." The Sienna was beautiful. Looks just like my 4runner inside too (the XLE). Now, I'm wondering what the interior of the LE looks like in comparison, it mentions "black laquer." Unfortunately, there was only one XLE on the lot and they fly away, so to speak. We want the DVD system and while the last 2 vehicles have been leather, trying to cut the price a bit with cloth but having a hard time giving up the sunroof. Also, the hitch is smaller than what we have, meaning our bike rack won't fit and it's a good one. Is a larger hitch available?

lok888

Thanks all! If my memory is right, I can also open the power passenger's sliding door by pulling the outside door handle and do the same for closing. Right? The only thing different than the Odyssey is I can open the power sliding door even the car is not in "Park". But it has a beep tone to warn you first. Right?

libertycat

hlaver, if u like the XLE, you'd droll over the Limited. My dealer hasn't had an XLE, CE, or Limited in stock yet, only LEs. Weird.

momofthree

I just registered my new 04 Sienna in VA and ordered personized tags. They will read:
 NOT MSRP

kgnw1

I have the Limited in Stratosphere Mica. (Dark Blue) The wood trim looks great, but it's only in the front section.

I have pictures of my Sienna here: KGNW's 2004 Toyota Sienna XLE Limited

longdistance1

Sorry for the delay in my response, I haven't been able to check my e-mail in a few days - July 4th holiday activities!!!

I live in Danville, VA

The Limited is awesome! I like the wood trim, but it wasn't a big selling point for me. I got the 'Stone' colored leather, with Artic Frost Pearl. I have to say that I love this color. Other people who posted pictures warned that the true color doesn't come out in photo. Boy were they right!! In the right sunlight, it looks light silver! The wood steering wheel feels weird to me, but I'm sure I just need to get used to it.

longdistance1

Sorry for the delay in my response, I haven't been able to check my e-mail in a few days - July 4th holiday activities!!!

The sunshade works easily and stores easily. I'm not sure how my 6 year old broke it, since it was a couple of days before we noticed it (she said she was afraid to say anything - poor thing, she should have just 'fessed up from the beginning and avoid having to worry about it). I'm betting that she was playing with it (long trip boredom, I'm sure). Anyway, the sunshade in question was the one in the very backseat, passanger side. It hooks on to a 'latch', and it was the latch that broke off. I'll update everyone when I finally get around to repairing it, to let everyone know how it goes.

longdistance1

*$@#! I can't believe you beat me to it! I won't have time to register my vehicle in Danville until next week.

longdistance1

We have had our vehicle now for 10 days and the biggest problem we have encountered is that the shifter gets stuck in Park. This has happened twice so far. We have had to do little tricks to get it to shift to Drive, like turn off the car and then restart it. Has anyone experienced any problems like this? Please advise.

(Also posted in the 2004+ Problems board)

russ1928

I know this is an individual preference but I wonder which most prefer for COMFORT. Leather or cloth . I'm thinking about an XLE and I haven't seen one with cloth seats.

stever

I have cloth in my Quest and leather in my Outback. The cloth seems more comfy to me. ymmv.

Steve, Host

anne72

I'm just wondering if anyone has gotten deals on the LE 8 passenger Sienna? I have contacted 3 dealers and not one has given me a break on the van. I realize it's in high demand so I'm just wondering what, if any, strategy there is to get a good price! I hope someone can help!

Thanks!

itch1

I was able to get $2000 off MSRP on my LE 8 passenger. I did this by emailing all dealers around me and dealing with their internet sales team. I actually found three dealers in MA that were willing to make this deal. I picked it up on Saturday - no gimmicks, no surprises. I placed the order on 4/29. Good luck!

lok888

How about NO MSRP? We can allow up to six charaters or numbers here in MA.

russ1928 - I have cloth in my Camry and leather in my Sorento. The leather is part of the package. It requires a bit more attention like cleaning and conditioning than cloth. We have 90 plus degrees here for over a week. I found leather is no worser than cloth. And you will love the heated seats in the cold climate region. I don't know if Sienna XLE Limited has heated seats. Can someone confirm this?

acedriver

I am going to get flamed for posting this on a pro-Sienna forum, but here are my impressions:

Finally, took a test drive in the new Sienna XLE with Pkg #8 (Leather seats et al) MSRPed at $31K+. The acceleration is nice but the engine does quite a bit of roar when pushed hard. Wifey liked the spacious feel and the leather seats but felt that the dash panel and all the buttons did not look in tune with the vehicle. The 60-40 split rear was impressive and I think that besides the size, it is the MAIN reason for the demand for the new Sienna. I liked the turning radius for a vehicle of this size. The wood trim gives a nice finish to the interior. The power rear tailgate was also a nice-to-have feature. The one touch moonroof was also a nice touch. The passenger seatback folds down completely.

Now for my peeves:
On tight turns, the Sienna corners like a boat. I did not like the excessive lean at all. Due to shape of the windows which sit higher, the blind spot check was a bit difficult. The control buttons are numerous and too confusing - all those auto-climate control things. The notched shifter needs too many twists and slides when changing from Park to Drive. The center console on XLE impedes going from back to front (when parked, obviously). Even with it's size, I still felt that getting into the rear seat was a bit difficult. The pinch protection on the sliders was awful IMHO. I placed my lower arm in the way when the slider was closing and I felt immense pressure, my arm turned about 30 degrees due to the force and *THEN* the slider backed off. I cannot imagine what that would do to a child's arm/hand/foot !! The salesman who had never tried that before, uttered "Oh maan!" when he saw what happened. I dunno if this can be adjusted at some level (maybe the 31000 page manual can tell us), but if not, that is an accident waiting to happen. The van is BIG, no doubt, and it shows when reversing. I had absolutely no idea where the rear end of the van was .. the rear window and side mirrors did not help either. Maybe that is just me from driving a car till now, but that did not install confidence. And what is with the flimsy interior plastic ?? The ones on the rear audio system and the $1.99 conversation mirror, sunglass holder: all that plastic felt cheap (especially because of the price one would pay!) The middle row seats are not true slide-by-side, you need to lift the seat and make it into a bench. The front grill looks better on dark colored models, but on the light colored ones ? The middle logo part looks like a small beak and the grill looks like a devil's grin :-)

So, what did we go with ? The Mazda MPV. But we will carry out that discussion in the "Toyota Sienna V/s Mazda MPV" thread ...

broncoguy

Much of what you said indicates that you went into the process with a bias and found lots of evidence to prove your bias. That is fine and probably the best thing for you to do since you had developed that bias so strongly that you would have regretted purchasing the Sienna every day you owned it.

Enjoy the MPV. It is a fine vehicle.

acedriver

The PRICE was the main bias. If I pay that much for a vehicle, I would like that cost to be reflected. And you could say that I got a thing against paying MSRP (at least in our area, no dealer was ready to budge)

The excessive lean, smaller windows, gated shifter and numerous controls I would have grown used to. But, the pinch protection, reversing paranoia, front grill and cheap plastic is something I can do without.

And later I found out that I should have measured my garage length before considering the Sienna. It would have been just too cramped in there :-) So, everything worked out for the best.

libertycat

russ1928

Steve and Lok888 Thanks for your input.I did find out you can get the heated leather in the XLE.
My problem is I've been spoiled with the comfort of the cloth in my 1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager.It's more comfortable than the leather in my wife's Caddy.

stever

The heated seats will spoil you and they are much more common with leather seats. VW seems to be the only manufacturer that commonly offers optional heated cloth seats. I suppose you could add heat aftermarket to cloth like you can with leather.

I also hear that if you have young kids, you're much better off with leather for easier cleanup of the ice-cream and Reese's Cup spills.

Steve, Host

kklotz

I've had leather in my last two Silhouettes. With little kids it is so much easier to clean than cloth. Granted when you initially sit on the leather in the sun, it's hot--in the winter it's cold, but you quickly overcome the pain!

It was much easier throwing the car seat covers in the washing machine than having to clean cloth seats in the van. When they spilled on the leather seats, it was easy to just wipe up the spills without worrying about staining the seats.

One other big selling point with leather is that it's easier to slide in and out of the seats when you enter and exit the vehicle.

We ordered a FWD XLE on June 25 with the GJ and CF options. MSRP was 35,511--our price was 34,610. It's not a great discount, but I was expecting to pay MSRP. We just received an email from our dealer to let us know that our production week is August 11.

acedriver

VW seems to be the only manufacturer that commonly offers optional heated cloth seats

Yupp! Yeah!! Our VW Passat got cloth seats AND they are heated. And NO! I have not yet had a fire in the car :-)

Ahhhh!!! Wisconsin winters have never felt so wonderful before ...

longdistance1

My dealer says that this isn't a malfunction. This is a safety feature of the Sienna. I was told that you have to have your foot on the break in order to shift out of Park. Apparently, this is to keep little children from accidently shifting into Drive.

acedriver

<Confused>

Don't all automatic trannys do that ? You absolutely HAVE to depress the brake pedal before shifting from Park to Drive.

</Confused>

This is not a safety feature of the Sienna only. Any and all the auto-tranny vehicles have this "feature" :-)

wwest

After all the adverse publicity over runaway Audi's it was decided that it would be best if ALL of us had one foot on the brake before shifting from park.

jeild

Has anyone tried programming the homelink system to hook up to the garage door opener? we got our Sienna LE without the owner's manual (someone stole it!!) so we're kinda trying to figure things out for ourselves for now. any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

samnoe

Hi you, can anyone of you customers tell me if the following are illuminated in the new Sienna:

* Key ring hole
* Controls for power doors (overhead console)
* Both glove boxes
* Center console
* Audio controls on steering wheel

Also do you like the change that the ignition key insert is on the steering wheel column, not in-dash, as most other Toyota's - (and on the previous Sienna) ?

itch1

What a coincidence. I was just at this site before I came over here:

http://www.homelink.com/program/first.html

It seems pretty straight forward. I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow. Good luck!

sancheti

We bought our XLE FWD with option pkg#12. The only other options were carpeted floor mats and pinstripe. Total OTD(out the door) cost including TTL + doc = $32486.02. It had 32 miles on it. I do have to pay the tag charges in my county which I am told run around $300. We love the sienna. We got exactly the options we were looking for and the vehicle in the dealership.

The price was set on phone and there were no surprises once we reached the dealership. They explained all the different functions. They were learning with us about many features of the sienna.

We are very happy.

Thanks for some very good advice on this board.

kgnw1

* Key ring hole - Yes (Ignition)
* Controls for power doors (overhead console) Yes
* Both glove boxes - No
* Center console - No
* Audio controls on steering wheel - Yes

diesel88

We ordered the XLE Limited- No DVD-No NAV, but didn't get to test drive a limited because the dealer did not have one on the lot. Do the wirless headphones work with the JBL system even though we don't have the DVD? What controls, if any, are in the rear seats?

momofthree

My husband and I just recently discovered that when the windows on either of the sliding doors are open, the door does not latch in the open position. Actually the driver's side manual door does not latch and the power door does not latch closed.
We have not had a chance to look it up in the owners manual yet. Maybe someone has the answer. Thanks
Oh, I used the self programming instructions that were recently posted about the auto door locks combinations. Maybe those have affected what my doors do with the windows open?

siggie1

Our local dealer is clueless, and I have not been able to determine from any website whether power seats are available (or standard) on the LE model. Are they?

itch1

Power seats are not standard on the LE.

longdistance1

I haven't experienced this functionality as of yet. Do I have to enable it or something?

I have an XLE Limited

sarniasting

Diesel88, you receive headphones even without the DVD or NAV. You receive a remote controller and there is overhead controls where the DVD would be located. The headphones work great. hope you enjoy the JBL as much as we do.

canuck13

There is a button on the dash that you need to push to turn on the sonar parking assist. There is a graphic that illuminates on the display when the parking assist is activated.

cxc27

Does anyone know what the GVWR is of the AWD Sienna Limited. This is listed on the inside of the drivers door, but I have been unable to locate an AWD vehicle to check. It is not listed on the website. Anyone know?

kpr00

For those of you that have both the Navigation system and the rear DVD entertainment system, can the map on the Navigation system screen be shown on the rear DVD entertainment system screen like in the Lexus GX 470?

I think that a DVD movie can be shown on both screens, as long as the vehicle is in park, but can the opposite be done, where the Navigation map is shown on both screens?

This would be very handy so the rear passenger could enter in the destination information while the vehicle is moving, which is currently not possible to do on the Nav screen for safety reasons.

Can the rear DVD entertainment system play music CDs like in the GX 470?

If so, can the rear passengers listen to one CD placed in the rear DVD entertainment system using the headphones while the front passengers listen to a different CD placed in the front CD player that is behind the Nav screen?

discgolfer

I don't know about your other questions, because I don't have Navigation. I could not locate one with Nav. I do have the DVD though, and...

Can the rear DVD entertainment system play music CDs like in the GX 470?

Definitly YES. I have done it.

If so, can the rear passengers listen to one CD placed in the rear DVD entertainment system using the headphones while the front passengers listen to a different CD placed in the front CD player that is behind the Nav screen?

Yes.

mmms

My 2001 Subie Outback has heated cloth seats, also no interior fire. It wouldn't be the exterior covering of the seats I would worry about, it would be the same materials they use on the inside, i.e. foam cushion etc.