Why would the dealer have to do it, when it literally takes 2 minutes to do yourself? Am I missing something?

 

I had no idea it was possible. I showed up at the dealership to ask them. The technician did not know it either. He looked at it, inspected it real fast, and then he said it may be possible, and then just pulled it out

 

You have 120K on the Sienna, and you didn’t know this was possible? Didn’t check the manual, or Google it?

Not everyone treats their Sienna like it's a fun project in the vein of "guys workin' on their cars" .... some people just use it for work or family needs as-is, and maybe start looking into improvements projects only after a while. For example, it did take me a few months to realize that I could actually do the spare wheel mod with $300 worth of parts and average DIY skills.

 

I learnt a year after the purchase that I had Android Auto. I didn't know what Android Auto was lol. I used Google maps on my phone to drive passengers around. Now I do it on the big screen. Honestly I have been driving too much, never got the time to explore my van. It is just a work machine to me, get in and drive passengers around, get out and go to bed. What a life!

 

I think this one should fall in the same category as other general knowledge of the vehicle.
How to stow your third row seats.
Touching the door handle to lock the car if you have proximity fobs.
Rain sensing wipers etc.

I have an 8 seater gen 3, not gen 4,but aren't they the same in the sense that the 8th seat can be stored in the back left corner and not just tossed on the floor?
Maybe the OP has something else in that spot, but it seems a bit odd in that picture with it just laying there.

 

Removing the 2nd row seat, that’s designed to be removed is hardly “working on your car”.

You are looking at the situation from an Archimedean point of view, because you already know that removing the 2nd row middle seat is not a big deal.

But the OP stated they "had no idea it was possible", which means removing this seat looked to them like a project, not a user action. If you think something is impossible, you normally would not try to look it up in the operational manual, hence the request for the dealership to help. For the same reason you wouldn't be combing through the manual to find out how to swap the manual liftgate for a power one.

Conversely, if you think that a certain should be possible w/o project work, and you do not have a pre-existing knowledge of the whole operational manual, you would very likely try to look the thing up i the manual - and not find it, because it's not user-serviceable and therfore will not be in that manual. This will have happened to a few drivers who wanted to remove the left and right 2nd row seats by just flicking a couple of levers, which used to be possible in Gen 3.

I learnt a year after the purchase that I had Android Auto. I didn't know what Android Auto was lol. I used Google maps on my phone to drive passengers around. Now I do it on the big screen. Honestly I have been driving too much, never got the time to explore my van. It is just a work machine to me, get in and drive passengers around, get out and go to bed. What a life!

That's exactly the scenario I thought of. Something similar happened to me around 25 years ago; I was given a stripped-down company vehicle to drive for work. I didn't expect it to have AC, and it did take me a couple of weeks to discover that it did .... you don't know what you don't know .

 

Dude Congrats!!!!
you found a feature!
I always feel super happy when I find something I did not know.
If your sienna does not come with a spare tire, then the cuby on the trunk is used to store the jump seat when not in use.
if you do have a spare tire, then you can just leave it on the trunk


thanks for sharing!

 

just wait until you find out where the seat gets stored: Are there any pictures/reviews out there of an 8 seat...

 

I have an 8 seater gen 3, not gen 4,but aren't they the same in the sense that the 8th seat can be stored in the back left corner and not just tossed on the floor?
Maybe the OP has something else in that spot, but it seems a bit odd in that picture with it just laying there.

You mean my fire extinguisher/air pump/jumper cable cubby is meant to hold that seat???

My (2014) van came with the 8th seat in the cubby already when I bought it used. Honestly, I'm not sure I would have thought about if it was removable or not had it come installed. I did know ahead of time the 2nd row seats were removable, but the jump seat can stay attached to the driver side 2nd row seat when that seat is removed, I believe.

Eventually while vacuuming (which I do about once a year) I probably would have noticed the cupholders under the jump seat and been like "why are those there?" before realizing the seat came out. (That or the pull strap to release the jump seat.)

Long way of saying I 100% see how someone could easily miss that the seat is removable, if someone hadn't told/shown them or they saw a picture of it online, in a thread like this.

 

Read the whole owners manual. This is one of the most expensive purchases in your lifetime. You said it yourself, you depend on this car for your livelihood. Spend the few hours to read it.

 

I have an 8 seater gen 3, not gen 4,but aren't they the same in the sense that the 8th seat can be stored in the back left corner and not just tossed on the floor?
Maybe the OP has something else in that spot, but it seems a bit odd in that picture with it just laying there.

Optional spare tire goes there, a departure from Gen2/3.

Gen 2's 8th seat is too big for that cubby.

 

I did know thats where the spare can go, but is there a storage spot for the 8th seat if the van has the spare?

 

It's just like Gen 2, there is no storage spot, you put it wherever you want - behind the 3rd row, garage, front porch.

Big difference is that the Gen 2 seat weight 52lbs.

 

FUNNY STUFF.. should have read the manual. Or Youtube it.

 

Optional spare tire goes there, a departure from Gen2/3.

Gen 2's 8th seat is too big for that cubby.

If the spare tire is there, but if the van doesn't have the spare tire, the cubby is big enough for the 8th seat. @elementZ linked this above: Are there any pictures/reviews out there of an 8 seat...

The 2021 manual, which indicates the "side auxiliary box, type B" is for "vehicles without a spare tire only" and looks exactly like the cubby in the picture in the link above, and very similar to the cubby on my 2014 8-passenger van, which also holds the seat. So it would appear the seat does fit the cubby in the back, but only if the vehicle has not been outfitted with the optional spare instead.

 

OK, so there's some clarity. Thanks starlight and js.
I have a 2020 8 seater and have the cubby in the back left to store the seat, which is basically where that seat has been since I bought the van.
You have the same thing in a gen 4, as long as you dont have a spare tire. If you do have a spare tire it ends up being tossed in the back of the van........or on the porch. LOL.
I get they cant make room for everything, but it seems pretty odd on Toyota's part to basically tell their customers F it, just toss that seat in back and call it a day.

 

Honda Odyssey and Kia Carnival doesn’t have a place to stow the 8th seat either.

Gen 2 Highlander’s center seat was so small it stowed under the front console.