Toyota Minivan Plays It Cool

KONA, HI – Some people think minivans are uncool. Andy Lund begs to differ.

He proudly sports a shirt with “Swagger Wagon” emblazoned on the back. That’s what Toyota dubbed its Sienna, aiming to anoint the minivan with a bit of hipness.

“When we said we wanted to make a cool minivan, some people said, ‘Are you crazy?’” Lund, chief engineer for the refreshed ’15 Sienna, tells WardsAuto at a media event here.

Minivans serve a utilitarian function as movers of lots of people, especially kids. Consumers, who might have owned sporty coupes as carefree singles, now own minivans as parents of youngsters. Parental responsibilities come with sacrifices. Soccer moms, not rap stars, drive 8-passenger minivans.

But Sienna product developers sought to create a vehicle that, yes, ably moves people around, but, no, isn’t a loser cruiser.
Lund cites the vehicle’s enhanced curvature, including a sloping front end. “Designers wanted to get out of the boxy look” typically associated with minivans, he says, likening the Sienna’s exterior look to that of a “power sled.”

While the sportier SE version’s take rate is only 16% of the mix, it’s designed to appeal to people who want a touch of minivan pizazz.

“The SE is not for someone who’s just buying a minivan because they’re parents and need a vehicle like that,” says Lund, who was born in Japan where his American father was a missionary. “The SE is for someone who wants to make a statement, even in a minivan.”

But Toyota executives acknowledge minivans, even sporty ones, aren’t dream cars.

“It’s not a real aspirational vehicle, but it is functional, especially for young families and they’re important for us,” says Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager-Toyota Div. at Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.

Chrysler first introduced the minivan in 1984. It was an instant hit, elbowing out station wagons as family haulers of choice.

More than 478,000 small vans, most of them minivans, were sold in 1985, according to WardsAuto data. In 1993, deliveries surpassed the 1million mark. The peak year was 2000 with sales of 1.2 million, 7% of the light-vehicle market.

In subsequent years, minivan sales went up and down, but mostly down, dropping below 1 million in 2006, as CUVs gained favor for offering both functionality and expressiveness.

Last year, 571,695 small vans were sold, representing 3.68% of the market. That doesn’t relegate the minivan to niche status, but it’s about half of what sales were 14 years ago.

“The segment is up a bit this year, but it’s not a big segment,” says Fay. “And yet, anytime you can get 10,500 sales a month is great.

It’s a smaller pie, but there are fewer automakers at the table. The height of minivan popularity saw many more. Ford and General Motors introduced assorted models such, as the Ford Aerostar and Chevrolet Lumina, but never found success in the segment. Other automakers, such as Nissan and Mitsubishi, have gotten in and out. 

Only Chrysler, Honda, Kia and Toyota remain. “It helps that there are only four players,” Fay says. “We’re all close to each other in sales. It’s nice not having a lot of competition”

Toyota sold 121,117 Siennas last year, an increase of 0.8% over 2012. The automaker expects the freshened ’15 Sienna will boost sales. But no one predicts a return to the glory days of minivans.

Toyota touts its entry as the only one on the market with all-wheel drive.

Main improvements center on interior upgrades including more luxurious and softer materials, chrome accents, a heated steering wheel, 3-zone climate control and a rear-seat entertainment system. That comes with Blu-Ray capability, HDMI input and a SDXC card reader that plays 10 different audio and video formats.

In focus groups and the like, “customers voiced a desire for interior improvements,” Lund says.

A new interior feature is Driver Easy Speak. It features a built-in microphone to amplify the driver’s voice through the rear speakers. That way, a parent behind the wheel doesn’t have to shout at his or her kids in the back, Toyota says.

Well, one could say irked parents still can shout at misbehaving children, and now get a microphone to do so.

But Toyota bills Driver Easy Speak not as child-discipline tool but as a way to prevent head-turning driver distraction. Assume the automaker never considered installing a robotic hand so that exasperated parents could keep their eyes on the road, yet still point a finger at backseat miscreants.

Instead of something like that, Toyota filled the Sienna with safety features. Those include eight airbags, a blind-spot detector, standard backup camera, enhanced stability control and a brake-override system.

A 3.5L V-6 engine generating 266 hp at 6,200 rpm powers all five trim-level models. Suggested retail pricing ranges from $28,600 for the base L model to $46,150 for the LTD Premium with AWD.

The Sienna was styled at Toyota’s design center in Newport Beach, CA, and engineered at the Toyota Technical Center in Ann Arbor, MI. A plant in Princeton, IN, builds it.

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