2014 Sienna Replaces 2000 Ls400

[1990LS400]

Those of you who use the Club Lexus forum may have already seen some of these photos. After 10 1/2 years of driving my beautiful white 2000 LS400, I bought a fully optioned 2014 Toyota Sienna Limited to replace it and sold the LS400 a few days later to the same former co-worker who bought my 1990 LS400 in 2003.

The photo of the LS400 was from when I stored it in a friends garage to make room for the Sienna in mine.

The Sienna is shown beside the 2012 Prius v wagon my wife drives.

I've ridden in and driven a lot of "minivans" and our Sienna seems far from those. Let's call the Sienna an MPV (multipurpose vehicle) which is what vehicles of this type are often called in the rest of the world.

It's like the "Lexus of MPVs" with radar cruise control, Pre-Collision System (PCS), memory driver seat, a 10-speaker JBL audio system with subwoofer, CD changer, DVD player for front and rear video screens, ottoman rear seating, power stowing third row seats, power rear side doors and back hatch. roller blinds on the four back side windows, rain sensing wipers, automatic dimming HID headlights and on and on.

This is definitely a vehicle I can live with. I'm not going to go screaming around curves in it like I sometimes did in the LS but it handles quite nicely and rides at least as well and probably better than the LS. A 119.3 wheel base makes a big difference.

There you have it. I may occasionally hang around here but I'm already on the Sienna Chat forum with member name "Geezer1".

Thanks to all for your help over the years.

[lenore]

What kind of mileage does it get. Good choice, I have always liked the Sienna....I so want that collision avoidance, My driving skills get worst as I get older....Some how those mature driver courses just don't change my habits.....

[1990LS400]

The EPA ratings are identical to the revised ratings for my departed 2000 LS400 but on regular gas: 18 City / 25 Highway / 21 Combined. My wife would have liked for me to have bought a vehicle that gets better gas mileage. We had planned to get a 2014 Highlander Limited Hybrid which is rated at something like 27 mpg city/highway/combined but my night vision is too bad to go back to halogen headlights. PCS and radar cruise control are also available on the Highlander Limited Hybrid.

PCS was my #1 on my "must have" list but getting it meant having to buy the most fully optioned Sienna which pushed to retail price, including a few accessories (hood film, door edge guards, mudflaps), to a hair under $50K.

We purchased the Sienna through the Costco Auto Program which made the purchase especially simple. The participating dealer had already ordered a Sienna Limited from the factory and was able to modify the order to get the color, equipment and accessories we wanted. Getting the accessories installed at the factory was far less expensive than having the dealer install them - about 60% of the accessory retail price with no installation charge. On top of that, we got a $1,500 rebate that was offered in six midwestern states from April 1 to May 5.

The only "problems" in the purchase was that our Sienna does not have the promised Entune and arrived without the trailer hitch and harness we ordered. Toyota has suspended installing or selling trailer hitches for the Sienna for unknown reasons. I had confirmed with the dealer salesman that our Sienna would have Entune on the day I ordered it and several times before it arrived. The salesman was even stuggling to get the non-existing Entune to function while I was taking delivery when he finally gave up and I drove away after their normal closing time.

It turns out that Entune is available on the less expensive Siennas and not on the the top of the line Limited with the 10-speaker JBL audio system. Entune isn't all that great a product but I subscribe to Pandora and am used to leaving my phone in my pocket while listening to Pandora through the Entune in our Prius and through the aftermarket Kenwood in the LS400. The Toyota dealer is supposed to be looking for a solution that will provide Entune in our Sienna but I don't know how it could be done without replacing the audio system - which I doubt that Toyota would warranty.

I don't really understand the division of the features between PCS and the adaptive cruise control. When using adaptive cruise control and the car ahead in the lane slows down, the Sienna's brakes are automatically applied - sometimes forcefully - but the seat belts do not tighten. It seems to be a two-stage system where automatic braking happens first and then the seat belts are tightened just before the moment of collision. Regardless of how it works, PCS and adaptive cruise control were the reasons I wanted a new vehicle.

Replacements for the "missing" trailer hitch and harness should arrive from etrailer.com within the next day or two since etrailer is just 300 miles east of me - same place I bought the hitch for my 2000 LS400. The class III Curt hitch I'm getting is probably better than the one Toyota was selling and has a larger 2-inch receiver.

[lenore]

Wow, sounds like a great vehicle, I too have looked at the Highlander Hybrid...I do love my Hybrid RX400h, but have been driving the heck out of it. 144k miles now.

[landar]

Congrats Jim. I also have a 2010(gen II) Sienna Limited and love it. In fact we are an all Toyota family. I am also on the Sienna Chat site under, what else?, landar.

Don't forget about us here and do check in from time-to-time. You are a great asset to any forum.

[1990LS400]

Thanks guys. I'm planning to drop by occasionally to keep you all in line. :whistles:

I keep discovering features in the Sienna I didn't expect. Not only do the third row seats stow flush with the floor, they also have buttons on the front corners of the seat cushions that electrically recline the seat backs - very cool. And I discovered the deep "hidden" storage compartments below the arm rests of the third row seats - they contain headphone jacks and volume controls and plenty of space to store headphones.

I installed my Curt class III trailer hitch and wiring harness yesterday -- instructions said it should take less than two hours but I took about six hours. I'm too old to be laying on my back under a car - I hurt all over today.