Faults:

Antenna was snapped off upon purchase.

Small leak in power steering rack (supposedly). The dealer said it was leaking and my independent mechanic said it wasn't.

Struts leaking (supposedly). The dealer said they were leaking, and my independent mechanic said they were "wet", but the struts themselves weren't leaking.

Fog light "grille cover" missing on the passenger side (don't plan to replace).

Passenger power sliding door "sort of" works. It won't do anything "completely" under its own power. If it registers that it is "almost" closed, it will finish the job. The window works. It locks and unlocks just fine. Neither my tailgate nor my driver sliding door were powered from the factory. I don't plan to fix the powered door at this time, but I might try to power the tailgate eventually.

Chip in the windshield (I think this developed after purchase - who knows?).

General Comments:

Do you know that feeling when you're shopping around for a vehicle "casually" online for a while, and when you find the right one... and the moons line up... you have to jump on it?

That was this Sienna for me. I've always had this fear that I'd tear apart a vehicle trying to repair it and I wouldn't be able to piece it back together, so I wanted something simple enough to learn on. But, I wanted something modern enough to not have to worry about parts availability and getting it inspected.

I bought this van to have something slightly larger than my 2014 RAV4 to move cargo around. I had previously moved an office chair in the RAV4, and after I saw it took up nearly the entire cargo area, I decided to get a secondary vehicle. I chose the Sienna because I used to work at a Toyota dealership and we had a 2004 Sienna as our shuttle, and I LOVED that car.

The seats in my example are fabric, and is easily the most comfortable seat I have sat in. I'd rather drive this car across the country than the new Chrysler Voyager I rode in a few weeks ago, or even my friend's 2008 Cadillac SLS. I love the driving position, but I wish the clock was higher up on the dashboard. One "complaint" that Toyota fixed in future cars, thankfully, is that the radio preset "toggle" is backward. When I hit it, I expect Preset 3 to go "down" to Preset 4. But it goes to down to Preset 2 instead.

The van makes a grinding noise the first half-mile or so of driving, but otherwise is quiet and smooth. Going 85 MPH feels like you're sitting still. Very smooth shifting and very quiet on the highway. Excellent travel vehicle.

The third row seats disappear easily, but it takes a little muscle to bring them back up. I suspect they were "down" for a long time because the car was driven about 1,000 miles in the 4 years before I got it. The second row seats both tumble easily. I haven't tried taking them out yet, but my friend did and said he couldn't release them. I suspect I'll need to spray the release underneath with WD-40 and see what happens. The interior looks faded, but aged well and clean (gray interior, burgundy exterior, six-point alloy wheels).

I know it's 15 years old, but all the Toyotas my family had growing up are the cars I ended up missing. I'm hoping to have this one for a long time yet. I'm in a few groups online and many people show their Siennas of this era going 200K+ miles.

I will update this review periodically as I own and drive the van.

Faults:

Air conditioner compressor, brakes.

General Comments:

It has been the best vehicle for a family (2 kids, 2 cats and a dog). All it does is run and run (and run some more). We still get around 20 miles to the gallon and everything on the car still works, except for the radio (it won't keep a station consistently) and a bad sensor on the hatchback.