As a former owner of the a 2004 Toyota Sienna XLE Limited, I felt the need to fill you in on a few things I've noticed about the 2011+ Honda Odyssey.
First, I can't believe it took Honda over 6 years to figure out that the power sliding doors needed a button on the inside of the car for the middle passengers to push to close or open them. The 2011+ Odyssey does have these. Previous years you had to reach around and grab the handle to use the power open/close. Kudos to Toyota!
The second thing that I felt Honda missed the boat on was the lack of a Radar/Laser cruise control. Toyota/Lexus has been using this technology since 2001 and I'm just surprised Honda has chosen not to have it. Toyota wins here.
Third is the middle row of seats. While it is a feature for some to have a full middle row of seats, I'd rather have captain chairs with folding arm rests in that row. Unfortunately, Honda decided that the middle seat in the second row can be used as a seat and a fold down arm rest with cup holders. Remove the middle seat and you are left with no arm rest. Toyota wins on this one too.
Of course there are other things that the modern Honda does better than my old 2004 XLE Limited, but these three things were obvious after spending less than a week of the Honda. I have to give praise to a few things... over 27 MPG on the highway for the Honda. Best we got with the Sienna was 25 MPG highway. DVD controls are in the front of the van close to the driver. Sienna required you to load the DVD in the player in the rear. Not too handy when you have young kids strapped into car seats. Trailer hitch seems to be several inches higher on the Honda and will probably NOT require me to install air bags inside the coils like I had to on the Sienna. Entry/egress of the Honda seems alot lower. The whole van seems to be more car-like and less mini-van. The kids can easily get into and out of the van... no running boards required. Sliding second row seats make getting into the very back alot easier. Sienna's middle seats didn't have as much sliding travel and made it more difficult to get adults into the third row.
I have to hand it to Toyota however. The 2004-2010 Sienna was a great van. We'll miss her.
First, I can't believe it took Honda over 6 years to figure out that the power sliding doors needed a button on the inside of the car for the middle passengers to push to close or open them. The 2011+ Odyssey does have these. Previous years you had to reach around and grab the handle to use the power open/close. Kudos to Toyota!
The second thing that I felt Honda missed the boat on was the lack of a Radar/Laser cruise control. Toyota/Lexus has been using this technology since 2001 and I'm just surprised Honda has chosen not to have it. Toyota wins here.
Third is the middle row of seats. While it is a feature for some to have a full middle row of seats, I'd rather have captain chairs with folding arm rests in that row. Unfortunately, Honda decided that the middle seat in the second row can be used as a seat and a fold down arm rest with cup holders. Remove the middle seat and you are left with no arm rest. Toyota wins on this one too.
Of course there are other things that the modern Honda does better than my old 2004 XLE Limited, but these three things were obvious after spending less than a week of the Honda. I have to give praise to a few things... over 27 MPG on the highway for the Honda. Best we got with the Sienna was 25 MPG highway. DVD controls are in the front of the van close to the driver. Sienna required you to load the DVD in the player in the rear. Not too handy when you have young kids strapped into car seats. Trailer hitch seems to be several inches higher on the Honda and will probably NOT require me to install air bags inside the coils like I had to on the Sienna. Entry/egress of the Honda seems alot lower. The whole van seems to be more car-like and less mini-van. The kids can easily get into and out of the van... no running boards required. Sliding second row seats make getting into the very back alot easier. Sienna's middle seats didn't have as much sliding travel and made it more difficult to get adults into the third row.
I have to hand it to Toyota however. The 2004-2010 Sienna was a great van. We'll miss her.
