2006 Toyota Sienna Test Drive

Ultimate Family Van

It's roomy, smart and surprisingly stylish, but still no hybrid version.

Amid all of the chatter about hybrids, high gas prices and the coming Ice Age of the sport utility vehicle, one thing is being forgotten: Too many Americans choose to drive large, wickedly fuel-inefficient cars and trucks, not because they have to, but because they like to. Yet there is still a certain swath of the population that doesn't really have any choice in the matter. If there are more than four people in your family, you buy big, gas-guzzling cars, because those are the only ones than can fit all of you.

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According to the U.S. Census, as of June 2005, a little more than 7.1 million homes in the U.S. consisted of five or more persons — approximately 6.4% of the population. These are people who cannot fit mom, dad, brother, sis and baby — not to mention grandma, Rover, Fluffy and several suitcases — into a Prius. These people need a vehicle that can help them move their extensive family without resorting to sticking the kids in the trunk or strapping them to the roof.

Now, cars such as the seven-passenger Highlander Hybrid SUV from Toyota Motor offers both lots of seats and, under ideal driving circumstances, a purported 31 mpg in the city and 27 mpg on the highway. But sharp-eyed readers will notice that, unlike normal cars, the hybrid's fuel consumption improves in the city. The reason is that the faster a hybrid goes, the more fuel it consumes. If one is living in an urban environment or spends a lot of drive time in traffic, then a hybrid makes a lot of sense. However, if you prefer maintaining at least a 55 mph speed on an open road, many of today's hybrids burn gas just as rapidly as any other vehicle.

Which brings us to the subject of this review: the 2005 Toyota Sienna. If one needs a lot of passenger and cargo room — and no one would buy a minivan if they didn't — then the Sienna gets our vote as one terrific family car. And even though it may not offer the fuel-efficiency of a hybrid, with the top-of-the-line, $37,695 Sienna XLE Limited AWD getting 18 mpg in the city and 24 mpg on the highway, it is on a par with every other minivan on the market — and considerably better than leviathans like the Chevy Suburban. It will be harder to get much better gas mileage, considering that the Sienna weighs between 4,120 pounds and 4,365 pounds. (The Sienna's front-wheel drive versions have a slightly better 19 mpg in the city and 26 mpg on the highway.)

What we want to know, however, is why on earth does Toyota not have any plans to introduce a hybrid version of the Sienna? According to a spokesman for the company, there are no hybrid minivan plans in Toyota's future, even though a hybrid version of the popular Camry is coming in late 2006 as a 2007 model, and a Lexus GS 450h high-performance sports sedan is coming in the spring of '06.

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Here's what is even more curious: It's a good bet that nearly everyone who buys a minivan would happily consider a hybrid option, assuming the price difference isn't too extreme, because people who buy minivans don't buy them for performance or speed, they buy them to haul people and stuff. After all, how fast does one need to go when taking the kids to soccer practice? So, Toyota — and other car companies — should have a natural market selling hybrids to minivan customers. But they don't, at least not in the U.S.

Screwier still: Toyota already makes hybrid minivans, but they are for sale only in Japan. So why not here? In fact, Toyota introduced the Estima hybrid in 2001, which offers such features as improved regenerative energy capture, higher output hybrid batteries, reduced energy consumption in several component systems and performance-enhancing engine controls. More recently it has added a hybrid-drive option to the Alphard minivan. But according to its Web site, "Toyota has no plans to bring Estima and Alphard to the U.S. market."

Of course, that's good news for the Sienna. Without hybrid competition, the Sienna stands out for Toyota as one of the strongest minivans on the market. And in spite of raising fuel costs and pressure from employee discount programs offered by American makers, Sienna sales have held steady with last year's, with August sales — the last month for which data is available — reporting a record 14,479 units moved.

But that makes sense, because the Sienna is one heck of a vehicle. To find out why we think so, read on.