LexusMan77

Good to see the various responses from everyone. So there is a change of plans. Well, my parents decided to put the purchase on hold for now until midyear, but now the Tacoma is put of the consideration. They decided since we have an LX470 for carrying people why not just buy a vehicle built exclusively to carry cargo for their business hence the Tacoma came up. The Tundra was ruled out because it is too big and does not fit in our driveway. The Odyssey was ruled out too. My parents were turned off by the price and the lack of selection(I explained to them its a new model). The Honda dealer estimated our 2004 Sienna trade in value at only $3500, but it has 112,000+ miles.

lamar411

I'm hoping it's either a typo or your sienna is falling apart because $3500 sounds WAY to low. And if your parents are looking at the tacoma, heres a great tacoma forum i'm with. http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/

Good luck.

LexusMan77

Nope not a typo unfortunately. I almost fell off the chair when I heard $3500. The Honda dealer justified it by saying the car needed a repaint and new tires. KBB estimate showed up around $8000 trade in value. Thanks for the link I will check it out.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

I would try another dealer. $3500 is an absolute insult if it is in reasonable condition.

dunnojack

keep the sienna, remove the seats, and use it to haul cargo.

You can get more than $3500's worth of value over the next 75000 miles out of that beater van.

rdgdawg

+1.... WAY too low, paint jobs don't run $4K

UDel

That sounds pretty low but unfortunately if it needs a repaint a decent paint job especially on minivan can easily cost $4K or more plus your talking $500 or more in new tires. You may want to see what a regular used car dealership will offer as sometimes they are not as picky about the condition of the car and may not figure in the repaint if it is not too bad. If they are all saying it needs an expensive repaint which is going to kill what they offer you may want to look at trying to find a place on your own that will repaint it for less, if you do your own prep that will lower the price.

SC400Dre

I am a sales consultant for Nissan and my dealership just received its first Quest. We will be doing our certification process starting tomorrow. At first glance, it is absolutely beautiful inside. It got in after dark so I didnt get a chance to see the outside too well.

LexFather

Thats actually a pretty good idea.

TRDFantasy

1.) Compared to a Sienna SE, this is a moot point.
2.) Honda's interior quality might be better, but in terms of design, that is completely suggestive. In my opinion the Sienna interior design is worlds better than the Odyssey's interior, but to each their own.
3.) Subjective, to each their own
4.) Exposed tracks? Exactly what Sienna model were you looking at? The Sienna does not have exposed tracks, the tracks are covered up almost completely.

Here is a picture of a Sienna LE:



The tracks are mostly covered, and all other Sienna models are the same.

Yes the Odyssey has no tracks at all, but that is because the Odyssey 2nd row chairs have very little sliding range. The Sienna 2nd row chairs need the tracks because of the HUGE sliding range they offer.

You mentioned you were looking at a Sienna XLE, but the XLE has the same covered tracks as the pictured LE above.

5.) Sure, if you ignore the "lightning" character line at the side that completely ruins the look of the Odyssey IMO. Again, styling is subjective.
6.) Not something that would bother me personally.
7.) Big difference in comfort, really? You can get optional 2nd row chairs in the Sienna with footrests. That is not available at all on the Odyssey. The Sienna 2nd row chairs also slide a full 23 inches. If nobody is sitting in the back, you can slide the 2nd row chairs in the Sienna to create some huge legroom. This simply can't be done in the Odyssey. For this reason alone the Sienna IMO beats out the Odyssey in terms of comfort. Not to mention, I prefer Toyota's suspension tuning over Honda specifically when it comes to comfort.
8.) Sienna has aux and USB input, this would not bother me personally.

Incorrect. All Sienna models run on regular gas:

Lenscap2

1. I will not consider the Sienna SE. No matter how it drives, you can't get nav, you can't get rear entertainment and you can't get leather. With two little kids and the fact we often take road trips, these are necessities.
2. Agree, to each his own. I think the Odyssey's interior design is better.
3. Agree, subjective.
4. The exposed tracks are the ones shown in your photo. Yes, they're partially covered. But not all the way. I don't care about maximum sliding range of the 2nd row. I have two little kids in car seats. But those tracks will get filled with crumbs, etc.
5. Agree, styling is subjective. But I not only prefer the Odyssey's styling, but more importantly it's stance. It's simply more car-like and less like a van.
6. Agree, a mast antenna would not stop me from buying a car. But it sure looks out of place on a car in 2011.
7. I could care less about the Limited's footrests (from what I've read, they're worthless for anybody near 6' anyway). But in my van adults will be using the 3rd row (grandparents, uncles, etc.) and the leg room difference there is huge.
8. Having a hard drive is much better in my opinion.

As for the gas, I stand corrected.

I've stated it before. Everyone has their opinion. I prefer the Odyssey. If you don't, that's great. Both are great, it comes down to personal preference and personal needs.

TRDFantasy

To further add to the discussion about the 2nd row, the tracks will only really be "exposed" when you move the 2nd row chairs far back. Besides, only the smallest crumbs and dirt particles will get in there. Large pieces of food and large crumbs will be stopped by the track covers.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

yep, that's why a minivan is good for carrying cargo with the flat space and it's enclosed, much easier than a truck with a camper, depending on your cargo.

thanks, only the parents who watch yo gabba gabba will get that. When I first heard it, I was "what did they just say"????

I was going to send you a pm, but will answer it here since you brought it up:
Three of the issues that you brought up are easily solved

[QUOTE=Lenscap2;6034317]

1. I will not consider the Sienna SE. No matter how it drives, you can't get nav, you can't get rear entertainment and you can't get leather. With two little kids and the fact we often take road trips, these are necessities.

I didn't care for leather. It came with the vinyl/cloth center which is great for us.

As a matter of fact, I hate toyota's, honda's, mb's, bmw's leather.
The only leather that I love is lexus-buttery soft and god forbid lexus makes a minivan

I thought about replacing the stock hu, but it's actually pretty good.
Comes with mp3 disc player, usb player, ipod controller, BT
I was going to toss out the hu and replace it with an aftermarket all-in one. Much cheaper and more functional than getting it through oem anyways.

A $99 garmin 265 is perfect, portable (brought it with me to Hawaii), and no lock out.

Wife just bought a 7" philips double headrest dvd monitor for about $100. Works great and the kids are happy.
However, I'm a little picky and will go for the aftermarket double headrest with built in monitors/dvd for about $300-problem solved


4. The exposed tracks are the ones shown in your photo. Yes, they're partially covered. But not all the way. I don't care about maximum sliding range of the 2nd row. I have two little kids in car seats. But those tracks will get filled with crumbs, etc.


I've gotten a little lazy these weeks considering the rain that I haven't cleaned the inside. Yeah, when I got the van, I said to myself also: stupid design, it's going to filled with crumbs....
I expected lots of crumb down there but surprisingly, it's very minimal.
And no, I'm not defending toyota's design

the sliding tracking is perfect b/c with the 2 kids in the 2nd row, we slide them up when passengers need to access the 3rd row.
previous gen. couldn't do this with the annoying tumble and fold

5. Agree, styling is subjective. But I not only prefer the Odyssey's styling, but more importantly it's stance. It's simply more car-like and less like a van.

I thought the le and xle were pretty good already, but I liked the se much better.

6. Agree, a mast antenna would not stop me from buying a car. But it sure looks out of place on a car in 2011.

Yeah, the antenna is ugly. that's why I'm going to replace it with a stubby antenna.
Might not be a fair comparo but even a damn $80k convertible, I think jag xk, still comes with the antenna

7. I could care less about the Limited's footrests (from what I've read, they're worthless for anybody near 6' anyway). But in my van adults will be using the 3rd row (grandparents, uncles, etc.) and the leg room difference there is huge.


with the munchkins being in the 2nd row, I slide them up and the grandparents have tons of leg room for them


8. Having a hard drive is much better in my opinion.

I plug in an 8 gb thumbdrive for lots of songs. Since it can control the ipod, I also have a 60gb ipod, way more than enough

Basically, I spent about $350 and my se has been perfect for us

Lenscap2

Thanks for all the insight, I appreciate it. I'll take it into consideration as I'm not buying until the 2012s come out. No matter what we get, I'll still have my IS350 to keep me happy

LexusMan77

My parents finally pulled the trigger and got themselves a 2011 Toyota Tacoma SR5 V6 in Magnetic Gray Metallic. Very nice truck. Basically fulfills their needs much better than either the Sienna or Odyssey.