Never Buy a Used Sienna Without Checking THIS First!

in today's video we're going to look at how the toyota sienna has held up after almost eight years of ownership and 85 000 miles on the road i'm going to tell you outright that i believe that the toyota sienna is the best minivan over other comparable used minivans although i do believe it is the best option for used minivan it has had its issues and i will discuss those in this video so the one feature that i kind of wanted when i bought this vehicle and i wasn't sure if i was gonna get it or not but i don't regret not getting it now is all-wheel drive at the time all-wheel drive for this vehicle was about two thousand dollars more than the price of the vehicle that i got which is front-wheel drive the big disadvantage of an all-wheel drive is one they come with run flat tires and they don't come with a spare tire the run flat tires are they have a much shorter service life and so i'm currently only on my third set of tires but if i was going with those run flats i believe they only last about ten thousand miles per set at a thousand dollars for a set of tires i don't think i'd wanna be replacing them every ten thousand miles this sienna rolled off the dealership lot in late 2013 and i later purchased it used in 2015 with 22 000 miles on it before my ownership this was a fleet vehicle and had been in one front-end collision where the airbags did not deploy while purchasing through a high-volume retailer i overlooked some cosmetic issues with the repairs until after acquiring it the hood alignment is off by just enough that if somebody is paying attention they will notice it additionally there is some paint overspray in places that could have been prevented the sliding door system on the toyota sienna has had two issues since i owned it the first issue was that the sliding door on the driver's side stopped working after about two years of ownership this job was covered by the dealership and it is covered under a manufacturer's customer satisfaction program the second issue that i've had with this door is that the latches that retain the door closed have started to wear out so there's a rubber coating on the latches that when it wears out it allows just enough of a gap so that if i accelerate and decelerate i hear a soft thumping sound as the door kind of shifts back and forth in its place the most disappointing part about this maintenance concern is that i have replaced these latches at approximately 50 000 miles and now with almost 85 000 miles the problem has started to surface again the final exterior issue with the toyota sienna is with its windshield this is a very large windshield and it is easy to break this one has been broken and has been replaced and the trim does not seem as tight as it was before the replacement job the first item under the hood that i want to talk about is the transmission you really can't see the transmission with the hood open like this and it does not have a dipstick so you cannot check its fluid i have towed approximately 8 000 miles with a fully loaded trailer sometimes actually getting right up to the limit of the gross vehicle weight rating and with that amount of towing i have also changed the transmission fluid two times to change the transmission fluid is kind of complicated because there is no dipstick and you have to get the transmission to the correct temperature and measure the level with the bottom open it's super complicated there are some good videos about that on youtube but the point is for a vehicle with such a reliability rating it should have a dipstick so you can at least get that piece of mind of what is the level in the transmission in addition to that i am skeptical of toyota's guidance on replacing the transmission fluid they claim that the transmission fluid is a lifetime fluid but if you are towing you should inspect it this concerns me because even if you are not towing perhaps you are in the desert or someplace where you're going up and down mountains frequently you could be doing just as much wear and tear on the transmission as someone who is towing frequently i estimate that the total maintenance cost for this vehicle has been approximately three thousand dollars over its life this included 12 oil changes a recent brake pad change all around one replacement battery and now i'm on the third set of tires other than operator error issues the exterior of this vehicle has held up exceptionally well the factory paint is not peeling anywhere and the trims are tight wherever they are within the vehicle so now i'm going to show you inside of the toyota sienna some issues that i've had over the last six years and under the sienna one big issue that i've had that i've remedied with an aftermarket part so one thing i've been really happy with is these arm rests on some other vehicles i've had the armrests have started to kind of cave in after a lot of exposure or a lot of use but these ones have held up fine there's no play so when i lean on it you know if i have to shift my weight while i'm driving i don't have any issues with that at all the all auto window switches are still all fully functional as well as the lockout the lock and unlock buttons still work no problems at all the coin holder here still works again with no issues i should probably organize those coins but i don't really use them as much as i would have in the past the power mirrors still work without issues traction control button works perfectly well as well as this power door switch so in the entire driver's compartment and passenger seat there's only one item that still or that does not work any longer and it is this conversation mirror originally you were supposed to be able to push it up and as you can see it didn't pop back down there i have to pop it down like that and pop it back up and it does still work it just doesn't work as it was designed to work back in 2011. these factory privacy curtains still work as designed and you can see where over the years kids have been pulling on it and they've caused it to kind of fold up but besides that they do function they don't actually black out the windows at all but they provide a little bit of privacy and a little bit of sun protection for those long trips plenty of cup holders throughout the 2011 through 2020 toyota sienna platform i have two here there's also one in the door down there one in the door down there there's four up front here and additionally there's two and two more in the side panel back here so this middle seat in the back has had some alignment issues and it has been like that since i purchased it i believe that may have happened before i purchased the vehicle and as you can see from opening and closing there is a little bit of wear on this rubber gasket right here however it doesn't really impact the use of the seat i do want to point out one more thing so if i remove this middle seat completely underneath you can see this hinge right here has been beaten up with use so the rubber tip on it is bent and almost broken off it does still function fully but i wonder how that happened maybe the kids putting it in and being rough with it or just maybe an issue with the way the hinges work so this is how that pin sits in the seat but if it's not lined up perfectly then it will not line up to lock into place so now i'm going to mess with this for a few minutes get it lined back up properly in its tracks locked into place but once it is locked into place it is a secure seat and here we are locked into place the seats not going anywhere so as i said in the other part of this video i have had issues with this door it currently works perfectly right now what happens sometimes is when the weather is really hot it seems like the gasket that holds the door sealed this gasket right here gets a little tacky and it it kind of adds some resistance as the door opens so when the door opens it has that initial resistance to opening that when it's overcome then the door opens fully so this button you see here prevents the seat belt from falling down completely when it's not in use i did have to replace this at one point they were actually never there when i owned the vehicle or purchased the vehicle but i added them later and that just helps so when the kids do jump in the back seats of the van they're not searching for that seat belt adapter all the way down here in the vehicle so one interior component that has not held up to the abuse is this back armrest cover at some point this broke off luckily when it is in place you know it doesn't rattle around it doesn't make any noise and it doesn't bother me it just goes there and for the most part i never use this thing unless i have my fade and camper configuration and then i just put stuff like flashlights in there the hvac controls are all fully functional i almost never use this rear control panel i pretty much always use the front control panel and the reason is with my children they're not necessarily focused on what the temperature is they will just say hey i'm hot or i'm cold and then i'll manage the temperature from the front so even in 2014 we did have the three zone climate control so we have like the driver side we have the rear and then we have the passenger side one thing i do notice if the driver wants it on like 75 degrees because they're cold and the passenger wants it on like 65 degrees in the end i think the interior temperature of the vehicle does kind of balance to that midpoint somewhere around 70 and the two zones will actually compete with one another so it's not a huge deal but it is something if you do have at least this old of a tri-zone climate control it is something that maybe at this point was still kind of gimmicky so all of the panels in the trunk have held up well to the use over the years i will show you inside of the jack compartment where i have a couple of items stored so in the jack compartment i do keep a tire repair kit so in here i have a plastic bag in this plastic bag as you can see i've had to repair plenty of tires and so i keep an extra set of tire repair gear so you you clean the hole out with this you put one of these on and you push it through seals up the tire pretty good and sometimes i need this to pull maybe a nail or a screw out of the back tire the second thing that i have back here is the hose to fill up my air shocks so that is one of the issues that i've had with the sienna is when it is fully loaded before i installed these aftermarket airbags the back of the sienna would bottom out even with only like two or three hundred pounds if i hit a bump for example with my tow hitch it would drag but by adding these airbags this thing can be pretty much as stiff as i want it to be when i'm towing or i have the vehicle fully loaded so in my everyday travels i do carry jumper cables i have a small toolbox here if you're doing anything more than with a small amount of tools like this on your toyota sienna you're probably having a bad day but in my time with this vehicle has never left me stranded i also carry this little air pump that allows me to fill up the air shocks and also it allows me to fill up the tire if i have issues with that repair and of course i do like to keep a portable power station and a solar panel back here along with these lights i do a lot of camping and it's just nice to have this there's also a chair right here that folds out just a little bit of comfort items that i need for a quick camping trip hey thanks for watching my video if you want to see how this minivan looks set up as a camper click on this video over here if you're feeling lucky click on the video down here and if you haven't subscribed be sure to click the subscribe button right here and i'll see you on my next adventure

Channel: Off Grid Adventure

Views: 305,906

Keywords: toyota sienna, car review, Toyota, Sienna, Minivan, Used minivan, Minivans, Used minivans, Odyssey, Pacifica, 2014 Sienna, 2020 Sienna, Siena, Toyota Siena, Toyoda, Toyoda sienna, Toyota van, Van, Mini van, honda odyssey, used van, best minivan, best minivan to buy used, best used minivan, best minivan to buy

Id: FQEVbhAxV9I

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 31 2021