All-New Toyota Sienna? Not Yet: Toyota Facelifts And Updates The Seven-Year-Old Sienna, Again

Surely it’s time for a new minivan from Toyota. Despite significant interior updates for the 2015 model year and significant powertrain improvements for 2017, the third-generation Toyota Sienna that launched in 2010 is still kickin’, seven years later.

First, the 2015 Kia Sedona shook things up. Then the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica confounded expectations. Landing shortly is the 2018 Honda Odyssey, which won’t surprise anyone if it’s the best in its class.

Clearly then, it’s your turn, Toyota.

Uh… Toyota, hello? Paging Toyota. Call for Toyota on Line 1, all-new Sienna required on the Princeton, Indiana, production line.

The 2018 Toyota Sienna gets a facelift. A refresh. An update. A refurb. What’s up with that?

The 2015 Kia Sedona, launched late in 2014, brought a new level of luxury to America’s minivan segment. Though not a dynamic tour de force, the third-generation Sedona’s interior instantly caused segment leaders from FCA, Honda, and Toyota to feel decidedly industrial.

2016 hosted the arrival of an all-new minivan from the segment progenitor: Chrysler. The 2017 Chrysler Pacific a is now the minivan of the moment; if not the best minivan purchase then still the best current minivan in which to spend time and drive.

The 2018 Honda Odyssey, meanwhile, was unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit two months ago and arrives at dealers soon. Boasting class-leading fuel economy (Pacifica Plug-in excluded), a new second-row seating arrangement, and vastly improved NVH, the new Odyssey is likely to move the game forward yet again.

Now that it’s the Sienna’s turn, Toyota is seemingly exercising a high degree of caution. Is Toyota unsure about investing too heavily in a segment in which volume has declined by nearly one-fifth over the last six months? Or was the fourth-generation Sienna sent back to the drawing board once Toyota saw how far forward the Pacifica and Odyssey leapt?

“Toyota is very committed to Sienna as it continues to be one of our core products,” Toyota spokesperson Sam Butto told TTAC this afternoon.

While declining to comment on future products, Butto says, “The current generation Sienna launched for the 2011 model year, so I would not say it is quite overdue for a next-generation launch.” Indeed, the first and second iterations of the Sienna lingered for seven model years.

We can read between the lines. “Mid-cycle enhancements, or minor changes, are very common before a next-generation launch,” Butto said, perhaps hinting at what’s to come in 2019 or 2020.

To be fair, the 2018 Toyota Sienna that will be officially unveiled at the New York International Auto Show in April is different. Toyota radically improved the third-gen Sienna’s interior already. Toyota distinctly upgraded the powertrain once, as well, making the Sienna the most powerful minivan on sale in America.

For 2018, the Sienna looks demonstrably different, inheriting a nose more akin to the 2018 Camry’s: massive, rectangular lower intake accompanied by an upper grille that squeezes a low-slung badge between two broad nostrils.

All models also receive the current Sienna SE’s side lower rockers.

But there’s no mistaking this for anything other than a third-gen Toyota Sienna, not on the outside, and not on the inside, where a new infotainment unit known as Entune 3.0 includes standard (basic) navigation.

Toyota Safety Sense-P, with pre-collision/pedestrian detection, radar cruise control, lane departure alert with steering assist, and auto high beams, is also standard on all trims for 2018. Upgrading from L to LE, SE, or XLE will bring 4G LTE capability for five mobile devices. Upgraded JBL audio is optional on the SE and XLE, Toyota says, and standard fit on the Limited. That audio upgrade brings with it upgraded navigation, as well. NVH improvements, by way of a laminated front windshield, have trickled down to the SE, though acoustic front row side glass is reserved for the Limited. There are three new colors, updated rear seat entertainment, and — scanning the press release — larger fog lights, “to convey a stronger presence.”

Yet this 2018 Sienna is the same as the 2017 Sienna, so it’s unlikely that the possession of stronger foglight presence will translate to a stronger marketplace presence. Competitors are primed to grab more market share.

Granted, the Sienna isn’t presently in a terrible place. The Toyota was America’s best-selling minivan nameplate in each of the last two years, though sales fell 28 percent through the first one-sixth of 2017, following the trend of the segment at large.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.