I have the 2020 Sienna- but it's an XLE premium, 8 passengers. It's my first minivan but it's been great, very reliable, and sounds like it would work well for your family.

If your husband is away a lot, do you really need the 8 seats?

Yes! Op here. Forgot to mention that we are saying goodbye to the rav4…not sure how much we can get for it, as we bought it used many years ago and it’s been nearly totaled (by somebody who stole it) in a major accident. Oldest child is 13 so seems like a stretch to keep it around, as the battery dies without regular use and we have no garage.

So the consensus of those in the know is: buy the used sienna?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that our other car, a rav4, can’t fit our 5 kids. And the current sienna is a 7 seat (as opposed to 8) so we can never drive a grandparent or a friend. It would be good to have two minivans. But yeah we don’t love the idea of dumping all this money into a new car. We do need something very reliable because my husband is away a lot.

If you need two minivans, keep your current Sienna and trade in the RAV4 for a minivan.

This is the answer. And given the other preferences, I would go with the used Sienna.

Pretty sure this is what they're doing. Or like us, they've got a teen ready to drive soon.

I would get the 2020 in a heartbeat. The newer ones have significantly less cargo space.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that our other car, a rav4, can’t fit our 5 kids. And the current sienna is a 7 seat (as opposed to 8) so we can never drive a grandparent or a friend. It would be good to have two minivans. But yeah we don’t love the idea of dumping all this money into a new car. We do need something very reliable because my husband is away a lot.

If you need two minivans, keep your current Sienna and trade in the RAV4 for a minivan.

This is the answer. And given the other preferences, I would go with the used Sienna.

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that our other car, a rav4, can’t fit our 5 kids. And the current sienna is a 7 seat (as opposed to 8) so we can never drive a grandparent or a friend. It would be good to have two minivans. But yeah we don’t love the idea of dumping all this money into a new car. We do need something very reliable because my husband is away a lot.

If you need two minivans, keep your current Sienna and trade in the RAV4 for a minivan.

I got the new one because it’s a hybrid, but that was a priority for me

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that our other car, a rav4, can’t fit our 5 kids. And the current sienna is a 7 seat (as opposed to 8) so we can never drive a grandparent or a friend. It would be good to have two minivans. But yeah we don’t love the idea of dumping all this money into a new car. We do need something very reliable because my husband is away a lot.

I'm the person buying your 150K minivan on trade. Maybe - as Siennas are still expensive at 150K miles. Guaranteed to be more than the 2016 SUV I just bought. Why not trade in the RAV4 instead?

The rav4 is like a 2005.

The problem is that our other car, a rav4, can’t fit our 5 kids. And the current sienna is a 7 seat (as opposed to 8) so we can never drive a grandparent or a friend. It would be good to have two minivans. But yeah we don’t love the idea of dumping all this money into a new car. We do need something very reliable because my husband is away a lot.

What's wrong with your current Sienna? I think I'd try to get it to 300,000 miles. Toyotas are supposed to do that fairly easily.

I would get the newer Sienna just because it's a hybrid. The older model likely will still work for many years to come, but the difference between 22 mpg and 35 will be felt early and often.

Plus 9k for a car that's 4-5 years younger and under warranty feels like the right choice, financially.

We need to buy a newer minivan (currently have a 2015 Toyota Sienna with 150K miles) and we are being indecisive between two options -- paying cash in either case:
A new 2024/25 Sienna LE that's likely to be $46K
A 2020 Sienna LE with 25-30K miles that's around $35-37K

Our dilemma is that we actually prefer the older Sienna to the current redesign -- we like having an actual key instead of a fob, we don't like the redesigned front seat area, and we don't like the idea of spending $10K more for a model we don't like as much as the old one. At the same time buying a used Sienna means not getting a new-car warranty and we're worried that we're being stupid buying a model that's technologically out of date. (Though the 2020 model has some safety features that our current model lacks.) We are not really car people -- this is a utilitarian purchase for a large family and our main goal is reliability and safety-- and we're looking for advice from any of the many, many people who know more about cars than we do. Thank you.