Friday, March 27, 2009

2009 Toyota Sienna Limited AWD - Short Take Road Test

An all-wheel-drive minivan for those whose only excitement is climatic paranoia.

BY JARED GALL



Vehicles with four driven wheels have about them an aura of romance; the potential for off-road adventures or sideways rally action can have that effect. Minivans, on the other hand, have about them an odor of stale milk and other perks left behind by those occasional consequences of romance: children. Can adding all-wheel drive to a minivan make it a more exciting vehicle?

In a Word?

No.

And Then the Long Version


No Sienna—no minivan this side of the diminutive Mazda 5, for that matter—is what you’d call tossable, nor do they boast the ground clearance necessary for off-road excursions. Minivans aren’t about excitement. They are perhaps the most honest vehicles on the market, holding dear only one function: maximum practicality. No matter who prepares it, the recipe for such versatility is always the same—sufficient interior space to host your next family reunion, far more cup holders than seatbelts, and enough map pockets to get you to Betelgeuse by way of the Horsehead Nebula.

Since that stuff is the same from minivan to minivan, it’s really the features that grab the headlines in the minivan market. Since the birth of the breed, the race to provide the latest and coolest equipment has been a competitive one, and the success of a particular feature has always led to its adoption by every major player in the game. The Sienna, however, remains the only one to offer all-wheel drive. (Others have offered it in the past, but have dropped it from their minivans.)

We’ve long championed the purchase of a good set of winter tires over all-wheel drive. In our own winter-traction testing, the only dynamic arena in which all-wheel drive conclusively outperformed winter tires was straight-line acceleration, particularly uphill. In handling and braking tests—which measure the more important aspects of safe driving, especially in inclement weather—the installation of winter tires on a front-drive vehicle provides better performance.

A Bundle of Compromises

All-wheel drive also comes bundled with a set of compromises winter tires don’t make. Not only is the all-wheel-drive Sienna available strictly in seven-passenger configurations (front-wheel-drive Siennas can be outfitted with up to eight seats), but the extra 240 or so pounds of the all-wheel-drive system combine with a gearing change to drop highway fuel economy from 23 mpg to 21. All-wheel drive also costs anywhere from $2200 to $3200 more (depending on trim level), which would buy a lot of Huggies for the functional family, or separate one-week vacations for a dysfunctional one.

On dry pavement, the all-wheel-drive van returned performance just a bit behind that of the front-wheel-drive Sienna from our last minivan comparison test. Zero to 60 was accomplished in 7.4 seconds and the quarter-mile in 15.8 at 89 mph—still blisteringly quick for a minivan. We don’t normally like vehicles based solely on straight-line speed, but when it comes to minivans, there’s little other excitement to be had.

Handling was likewise down just a bit, at 0.74 g on the skidpad compared to 0.76, and this Sienna bested the comparo van by 23 feet in the 70-mph-to-0 braking test—188 feet to 201. The differences are likely due to the smaller P215/65-16 tires on the Sienna in the comparison test versus P225/60-17 rubber on our AWD tester. The AWD Sienna also had run-flats.

Not so Many Siennas at Track Days

Of course, talking about minivan performance is like rating Ferraris based on their towing capabilities. And so we move on to the important stuff. The Sienna ranks mid-pack in interior space, but leads the charge in cargo volume with 44 cubic feet behind the third row. Comfort in all rows is near the top. However, the interior design is starting to look dated, and the materials seem to be growing cheaper. Of particular concern is the faux-wood trim on the driver’s door pull that creaks and groans like a melting ice shelf any time you touch it—which is every time the door is closed.

We also noted that the second-row right-side seatbelt repeatedly engaged its pretensioner without provocation, forcing the passenger to repeatedly unbuckle, let the seatbelt retract, and buckle back in on long drives. We remember this annoyance from our long-term Sienna in 2004. It doesn’t happen in the other seats because the mountings are different—the problem seatbelt is integrated into the seat for easier third-row access, while the rest are mounted to the pillars.

The engine is strong and quiet, but the transmission in our example seemed prematurely tired, with harsh shifts occurring under a variety of different circumstances and a reluctance to downshift until the van had warmed up. We’re unsure if the latter was simply the transmission’s programming—an attempt to preserve the engine before it was warm—or a more sinister problem.

One Way to Get Picked: Be the Only Choice

As mentioned, people looking for an all-wheel-drive minivan can choose between a Toyota Sienna and a Toyota Sienna. Opt instead for a front-wheel-drive minivan and a set of winter tires, and suddenly your options include every mini on the market. And anyway, reducing the challenge of accelerating up an icy slope will deprive you of the only excitement your minivan may ever offer.

Specifications

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 7-passenger, 5-door van

PRICE AS TESTED: $40,549 (base price: $38,610)

ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 24-valve V-6 aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection

Displacement: 211 cu in, 3456cc
Power (SAE net): 265 bhp @ 6200 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 245 lb-ft @ 4700 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 5-speed automatic

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 119.3 in Length: 201.0 in Width: 77.4 in Height: 68.9 in Curb weight: 4623 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 7.4 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 20.5 sec
Street start, 5–60 mph: 7.7 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 15.8 sec @ 89 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 111 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 188 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.74 g

FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city/highway driving: 16/21 mpg
C/D observed: 17 mpg
*Stability-control-inhibited

Car and Driver

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