Anyone else pass on all hybrid Sienna lineup?

Broncofan said:

Gasoline powered cars dont get the advertised mileage either, when you warm them up for a half hour..or idle to heat them, either.

For me, the hybrid is "all about saving money". It does not hurt a bit, either, that when I use less gas, it lessens the demand on fuel, so you can save money too (tho you probably wont notice it). In short, the hybrid saves "at least" $100 per month in gas. Probably more, if gas goes higher than $4 a gallon.

Just using EPA, which could be more or less depending on how you drive, here are the numbers:

At 15,000 miles per year, using EPA 36 combined for hybrid, 21 combined (year 2020) for non hybrid, you will consume 24.85 gallons MORE per month. (for the gas model). Or, 24.85 gallons of fuel saved with a hybrid.
If you pay an average of 4.00 per gallon, it will save you right at $100 per month (in fuel) to switch to the hybrid. If gas goes back to $5.00 per gallon, or more, then its $125 per month saved with hybrid sienna. And, in 10 years, who knows how much gas will be? $5, or even $6 or $7 is more realistic considering inflation, especially with gas.

If a hybrid costs $1500 more than non hybrid, you will make your money back, at $5.00 per gallon in less than 1 year. Whenever you can invest and be assured of getting your entire investment back in a year, its almost always a no brainer to go for it (the hybrid).

I buy exclusively hybrids, it seems to be throwing money away on gas guzzling non hybrids. It helps to think about it "as if" you had an old pickup that got 10 miles per gallon or less. You would likely be very tired of buying gasoline and paying 4 times as much as someone with an economy car getting a modest 40 mpg. To me, its like "buying insulation" for your home. It sure beats paying sky high gas bills. The only thing I regret about buying (my past 3 hybrids) is that I did not do it sooner. I would have saved about 100 per month in fuel for a much much longer time.

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jseyfert3 said:

Wikipedia says a 3rd gen with the 2GR-FE engine, which would have been the one in the drag race, has 266 HP. Toyota says the 2023 Hybrid Sienna has 246 net system HP. The engine is only somewhere around 186, but assuming your battery isn't empty, when you floor for acceleration like in the above video, you get 246 HP, not 186 HP.

Wikipedia also says the 1st gen Sienna was ~200 HP, second gen was 230 HP from 2004-2006, and then the 266 HP from 2007-2016 (covering 2nd and 3rd gens), jumping up to 296 HP in the end of the 3rd gen from 2017-2020.

I don't think my 2014 is underpowered, and specs (and video) show for brief acceleration the Hybrid is gonna be about the same. Maybe Toyota took a step back in the "horsepower wars" that seem to affect all cars these days, but it's still got just a little less power than the longest running engine (the 2GR-FE) that was used for 9 years, and more power than Siennas had before that.

Also, I will keep saying: Within a couple years, Toyota will have a plug-in Sienna hybrid, the Sienna Prime, that will have over 300 combined HP. This is based on the fact that the RAV4 ICE is 203 HP, the RAV4 hybrid is 219 combined HP, and the RAV4 Prime is 302 combined HP. The ICE engine between the RAV4 hybrid and prime (plug-in hybrid) didn't change, but the larger battery let them use bigger motors and put out way more HP for short periods.

My gut feeling is that people passing on the hybrid Sienna because it's a hybrid haven't actually ridden in a hybrid. Like many, I poo-poo'd the Prius...then I actual rode in a coworker's Prius and I was like "wow, this this is nice, and it has a surprising amount of power!" Then I watched Weber Automotive's video on the Toyota hybrid transmission and I was like "holy &*@# this hybrid transmission is so simple and WAY less moving parts than a normal transmission!"

If you are passing on a hybrid BECAUSE it's a hybrid, please, go actually test drive one. Or if you have any idea how normal transmissions work and just how many moving parts and fiddly bits they have, watch this video and prepare to have your mind blown how mechanically simple the Toyota hybrid transmission is:

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