2013 Toyota Sienna Consumer Reviews

I purchased my Sienna XLE AWD in late January 2013 and I now have 13,000+ miles on it. I am EXTREMELY disappointed with both the vehicle and Toyota’s response to one particular problem. The radio has a very bad echo which occurs on multiple stations but frequently on one particularly station, which just so happens to be my favorite station. It appears to be a reception related problem since I can duplicate it every time I drive certain routes. Understand that this is a local station, with very good reception, along the same routes, in every other vehicle I own, or have owned. I encountered the problem the first time I drove the vehicle and every time I drive the vehicle. The dealership has “worked” on the problem three separate times. The first two times, they told me they were able to duplicate the problem (on routes nowhere near my normal driving routes). Both times they “did some diagnostics” but were unable to fix the problem. We arranged for a third visit when they could have a Toyota district service rep available to review the problem. They kept the car for three days. At they end of the three days they told me that they had replaced the radio with a radio from another, new Sienna on their lot. It performed exactly as the original radio (with the echo). Therefore, they said, the radio was functioning as designed and there was nothing they could do to solve the problem. The dealership apologized but said that they had worked closely with Toyota and that it was Toyota’s decision. I open a claim with Toyota’s national hotline. I got a call from a very polite man who told me that he had investigated the problem. He gave me enough specifics (both specifics of the problem and the names of service personnel at the dealership) to satisfy me that he had indeed looked into it. His bottom line however, was that, although Toyota acknowledged there was a problem, the radio “was functioning as designed” and therefore they could (would) do nothing to correct it. Really?!?! I guess when you only pay $40,000+ for a vehicle, a working radio is too much to expect. I also asked the dealership (on my first checkup) to look into what I believed was extremely excessive road noise. They did look into it but before they even did so, they said it was most likely, you guessed it, functioning as designed. When I picked the car up after that appointment they told me that the noise level was “normal” for that vehicle due to a combination of wind noise from the design and road noise from the run-flat tires. That was disappointing to hear, but I understand a problem that can’t be fixed until the vehicle is redesigned. My third problem with the vehicle is with the GPS / backup camera screen. I did buy the GPS option, really to get a larger backup screen. THAT WAS A BIG MISTAKE. The screen does not have a visor and the angle of the mounting often renders it useless in bright sunlight. In addition, the “upgrade” to the larger screen for the backup camera, does not include the projection lines for that camera screen, a very useful tool I see on virtually all backup screens on 2013 vehicles. Lastly, the gas mileage is terrible. I knew going in that, with the AWD, it wouldn’t be good but I was hoping for something close to the rating of 20 -21. The actual is 17 – 18. Poor performance in my opinion for a 2013. There are definitely the positives you expect from a mini van – comfortable room for seven people, lots of cargo room, etc. However, I am very disappointed with Toyota Corp. compared to the car company I enjoyed years ago as the maker of my Avalon. That was a great car and we got great service throughout the 212,000 miles we put on her. Unfortunately, Toyota Corp. has changed and this is the last one of their cars I will purchase.