2015 Sienna gets facelift inside, out
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As with the 2015 Camry, Toyota’s Sienna minivan has been tweaked inside and out to make it more appealing. The upgrades start with an infusion of style, add some new technologies and welcome features and finish with a rethought cabin. The Sienna is available in both seven- and eight-seat configurations.
The biggest change, aside from the new-look nose and LED daytime running lights, is the upgraded interior. The dash starts with a significant improvement in the materials (now soft touch and accented with contrasting stitching), a redesigned instrument panel with smarter gauges and a 4.2-inch TFT screen, delivering information in a clean and clear manner. The seveninch touch screen that dominates the middle of the dash is new and very iPad-like in its execution. It looks like one and it is capacitive, so it recognizes swipe gestures. The format is very easy to use and ushers in a new infotainment age for Toyota.
For the kids, a new rearseat entertainment system is good news. The dualview entertainment centre is Blu-ray compatible and it can show one widescreen image on the 16.4-inch colour display, or two separate movies. Toyota’s new EasySpeak picks up the driver’s comments via a microphone and relays them to rear-seat riders through the rear speakers.
The versatility remains with a second-row seat that slides up against the back of the front seats.
The third-row seat is available with a power option, which eases the switch from kids to cargo. With all seats up, the Sienna offers 1,110 litres of space, 2,470 L behind the second row and 4,250 L with all seats out of the way.
As before, all Sienna models are powered by Toyota’s ubiquitous 266 horsepower 3.5-litre V-6 with 245 poundfeet of torque and arrives with a six-speed automatic transmission. Toyota needs to put some work into its powertrains, as the stand-pat mentality will see the Sienna’s fuel ratings rise as a result new testing methods.
Under the old three-cycle method, the 2014 Sienna was rated at 11.4 and 7.9 litres per 100 kilometres city and highway, respectively.
Using the new five-cycle method the same car is rated at 12.9/8.7 city/highway.
A no-brainer option, at least for we denizens of The Great White North, is the all-wheel-drive (AWD) system, which automatically reapportions the power split front-to-rear according to need and available grip.
Sienna also displayed decidedly decent handling for a minivan. The steering feel is crisp and nicely weighted and the amount of roll is capped at a reasonable amount.
T he Sienna starts at $30,690. The SE V-6 eight-passenger tester with its Technology package ($5,355), came in at $42,850. The package brings a host of stuff, including navigation, rear entertainment system, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, smart key and a power moonroof.