Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna owners

[Angel717]

Anyone want to share their experiences with each of these vans? We plan on buying a minivan this summer and it's now a question of which van to buy (we've narrowed it down to these two). I am hoping some of you would share how satisfied you are with your choice and if you chose one over the other and for what reason.

We haven't done a test drive yet, but that may be the deciding factor for us. I am leaning towards the 2004 Sienna because it has seating for 8 and AWD. Thanks

 

[glo]

I have a 2003 Sienna, and absolutely love it. I miss the largeness of my grand caravan, but the ride is mch smoother and the van reacts better than the other one did...

 

[zakatak]

I have a 1999 Sienna and love it! Drives like a car! Wouldn't go back to any other minivan!

Karen

 

[ColoradoBuffaloMom]

I have a 2001 Honda Odyssey and just love it. I especially like that the back seat folds down into the "trunk" of the van and is then flush with the back part of the van. I can even put the back seat down by myself.

I've heard great things about the Sienna also so I don't think you can go wrong either way.

 

[mom2boys]

99 Ody owner here. We love it. Don't know how we survived without it. 2 months after we bought it we loaded 5 kids into & drove 985 (each way) to Vero & WDW. It held everyone & their gear wonderfully.
You didn't say how many people are in your family. With the Ody, the entire 3rd row folds flat into the floor. This is a wondreful feature. However that only leaves seating for 4 passengers - not a problem for us since we only have 2 kids. I believe the new Sienna rear seats have a 60/40 split to their fold. The Ody's flat folding rear seat vs Sienna's (99) rear seats which folded to the side & still took up some cargo space AND our good experience with Hondas were the deciding factors in favor of the Ody for us. We still have a 90 Accord & a 92 Civic - DH alternates driving each to work.

I don't think you will regret either. Both manufacturers have good reputations for reliability.

 

[Pammy jo]

We have the 2000 Odyssey and love it. When we only had 2 kids the fold down seat sold us. We tested the the Sienna at the time and it didn't seem near as roomy inside. The later models may have changed though.

 

[Angel717]

You didn't say how many people are in your family.

There are 7 of us, so we definitely need the room. The biggest draw to the '04 Sienna is the 8th seat.

Thanks for the input. I'm anxious to test drive both and make a decision. I never thought I'd want a minivan, but now I'm excited about getting one!

 

[Deb & Bill]

I have owned four Toyotas with the most recent one a Sienna. I have never had any problems with any of them. I would buy another in a heartbeat. We kind of like the Highlander, but love the space in the Sienna. Our Sienna is a 2000, I think. When we bought our Sienna, we also looked at the Odyssey, but they didn't have any to try out, so we defaulted to the Sienna which we loved anyway.

 

[clutter]

Love my '02 Odyssey, but the new Sienna sure looks cool!!!!

 

[rascalmom]

I have a '96 Isuzu Oasis, which is the same as the Honda Odyssey - Isuzu got the Odyssey from Honda & Honda got the Rodeo retagged as the Passport. This van has 116000 miles on it. It's made 3 road trips to WDW from Oklahoma & is still going gangbusters. We haven't had any problems with it at all. We have loved the fold-down rear seat. I'd say you couldn't go wrong with Honda, but the extra seating in the Sienna might be good with a larger family.

 

[RNMOM]

We have a 2001 Odyssey and an old 92 Toyota Previa van. Love them both. I wanted the Sienna but DH overruled me due to the larger leg room.

I see the new Sienna has as much room as the Odyssey and I would choose that one. My reason is I want non automatic sliding doors. Can't get that option on the Honda unless you buy the base model that I don't want. I want power windows and locks but not doors. I hate the power sliders. You HAVE to be in park and they are S--L--O--W. When you have teens it makes it tough to drop them off quickly at curbs and such and one of their beefy friends always trys to pull the door and the alarms start going off. I really don't like them.

 

[snoopy]

I hated our 2000 Honda Odyssey so much that I got rid of it after owning it a little over a year. I never felt comfortable driving it, and to me, it never ran "tight". My husband felt the same way. We've owned Hondas for years, we had a Honda Accord that we drove until it had 250,000 miles on it, gave it to my niece, and she is still driving it with close to 300,000 miles on it. I think we got a lemon with the Odyssey. I know other people who have them and love them.

 

[TRAPPED-PARENT]

We have owned Hondas for years and when I was FINALLY able to get rid of that piece of junk Caravan, we bought the 2001 Odyssey. I LOVE it. We've had it for 2 years now and just returned from our trip to WDW towing our smallish popup camper.

It handled the trip through the mountains beautifully and the entire family enjoyed traveling in it.

I've heard good things about the Toyota, so think that you really can't go wrong with either vehicle.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I've got a Quest and LOVE IT! When I went looking, it was between this and a Sienna. When the salesman went to start the Sienna, it wouldn't turn over! I no longer wanted a Sienna.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

another ODYSSEY lover here.

Odyssey is the biggest in its class, and the automatic doors are great for cooling off the car on those really hot days.

We have the navigation system in ours, and it is worth EVERY PENNY we've spent on it. Even when I know where I'm going, the nav system will give me an approximate number of minutes I have left to get there.

TV and leather were not standard back when I bought mine in late 2000, and so I added a tv/vcr combo. I would go for that entertainment system too.

If you ever see an Odyssey SCREAMING past you with TX license plates that say GO2WDW--follow me. You'll know where I'm going....