2026 Toyota Sienna -- Even MORE to Love for 2026! (What's New??)

What's going on YouTube? So the Toyota Sienna has long been a family favorite for those wanting the ultimate in comfort and last year it received an extensive update. But Toyota isn't stopping there as in 2026 we have a lot more changes to explore. So is it better than ever? Well let's go ahead and find out. All right let's get started with a quick spec dump. So under the hood you'll always find a hybrid system. It's Toyota's 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine with the electric components to make 245 horsepower. It's paired to an e-cvt. You have available all-wheel drive and when you choose that option you get 35 miles per gallon combined. Now the base price of the Sienna is a little over $40,000 and if you're looking to buy one or any vehicle we would encourage you to go to carconfections.com slash newcarquotes to get the best price. Now of course we lived with this model so we have quite a lot to talk about such as our experience as well as things like fuel economy but first we need to shut up the hood and take a look at the outside and the very family practical interior. Now this has been nicknamed the swagger wagon and when you choose the XSE trim level that's where you get the most swagger in the lineup. That's what we have today. So this is kind of the more sporty version. There's obviously a lot of trims that this is available in but when you choose this model this is going to get you a different grill which is going to be larger finished in gloss black and of course you've got a pretty aggressive lower body kit here as well giving it a little bit of spice even though of course you're not compromising on the other stuff. Now as far as the headlights are concerned you get reflector LEDs as standard equipment across all models. You get projector LEDs on just the top end platinum. You get your LED turn signal and your daytime running lights through there plus the XLE and above will add in these LED fog lamps. Now as we walk around to the back the XSE will continue to be the most stylish trim you can get in the lineup. Yeah and let's break down some of the individual design touches that they've included. We have the spoiler up here at the top. We have the rear window wiper. All of our branding back here is going to be blacked out and that brings me to a 2026 change. The woodland trim level will now have a black badge here in the rear. Now as far as the taillights they're pretty premium looking overall. You have the LED brake light however you still have an incandescent reverse light and turn signal. I really wish they would just go ahead and make that fully LED. As we drop down the XSE has a pretty aggressive diffuser. No exposed exhaust and the tow capacity is coming in at 3,500 pounds for all models. Next up we've got the wheels. You have several options between 17 and going up to 20 inch alloys. That's actually one thing I want to mention because we've got the XSE. 20 inch alloys are technically standard equipment on this model but if you choose all-wheel drive it gets downsized to these 18 inch alloys. These are also a hubcap over top of it finished in a dark gray design and since all-wheel drive becomes standard on the platinum this year, spoiler alert, that also means that you cannot get the 20s on the platinum anymore. Now moving up here to our mirrors we have a gloss black finish for the XSE. Blind spot monitoring and heating are both standard features. Power folding and auto dimming come on limited trim and above. Now at the side obviously you can see this is a really big vehicle. It's around 203 inches in overall length which does mean it's actually still bigger than things like the Toyota Grand Highlander. As far as design choices we have the blacked out window surrounds and door handles. That's because we have one of the sport grades and then up here at the roof I want to talk about this because roof rails are now standard on everything besides the base LE this year. You may also notice this paint color. This is actually a new color for 2026 called heavy metal. That's going to replace things like magnetic gray. Now of course this is a minivan after all so you need to have good safety systems. Toyota is including every single active safety feature as standard equipment this year. In addition to that you also have an advanced rear seat detection with a millimeter radar that can actually even call you if motion is detected in the rear seat. So that's a really nice feature for a minivan but there's also a lot of nice features on the inside so let's dive into that. But first if you're new here we're brothers and we've been reviewing cars since we were 12 and 16. We started young and since then we have reviewed over 2,000 vehicles at every price point. No matter what you're looking for from humble to high end we'd love for you to subscribe to be a part of our car confections family. Let's learn a lot and have some fun with all the latest cars. Okay let's move to the inside. Here's our key fob first of all. Typical Toyota key fob except of course you have extra buttons for minivan duty. Smart entry is standard equipment. Reach behind the handle that will unlock the door. Then let's check out the interior. Like we mentioned at the beginning this did receive some updates last year and there are some more updates for 2026 but we'll start by talking about the seats. Cloth seats will be standard on your LE. When you move to the middle X trims that will upgrade you to soft text that is a faux leather and that's what you see here. We've got the two-tone design so we have the dark and the light in the center here with a interesting texture. Overall it feels pretty premium but also very durable at the same time. Real leather is on the top two trims. Regardless of which trim you select you will always get a power adjusting seat. You add in four-way lumbar for your higher end examples and memory seats as well but let's go ahead and climb inside. Closing up the door we can look at the rest of the cabin materials. Starting on the door trim we have a nicely padded leatherette with a stitching detail. All this will be a soft touch plastic as well. Moving to the upper part we have a kind of leatherette material and hard touch up here on the top. The center section also has more leatherette running through here. You have this faux wood trim on some of the models. On this trim it's actually painted as a full gloss black and overall build quality is nice and solid. Again this isn't a fully loaded example but really the materials feel pretty the same as the platinum we tested out last year. Now we'll fire it up with the push button start. Getting into some individual features we'll start with the gauge cluster. Like always this is the 12.3 inch digital gauge cluster. You've seen this on probably many other Toyota products. XSE is the first trim level in the lineup to unlock this setup. If you want a head up display you can get that but it's going to require the fully loaded platinum as will a heated steering with power adjustment. Now as far as the wheel itself manual adjusting on the other trim levels it does have the nice leather wrapping with the cross stitch detail. Now it's a minivan after all we need lots of storage and indeed we do have lots of storage. So underneath of this piece here you'll see some donuts inside. With our signature donut test this excels as expected. It fits 19 donuts which is approaching the maximum number of donuts we even bring along with us two dozen. Now even though it lacks a few in that you have a lot more storage as well. So you've got four cup holders right through here. One note about this in real world life Mason's in-laws have one of these and they do say that the cup holders are a little bit small for the large cups that they like to bring along. Nevertheless we've got this super large storage shelf here a wireless phone charging pad standard on all models and then finally rounding us out here is just an extremely large center pass through this thing is absolutely massive. Mason's actually thrown his entire gym bag in here and it fits just fine and that's despite the fact that you can see it actually has a traditional shifter as well. Pull back for drive bump over here to the left if you want to go through some simulated gear changes and then when we go up to R that will bring up our backup camera. Now as far as this backup camera as you can probably tell it is pretty old school definitely a very grainy picture you also do not have active trajectory at all and if you want a 360 camera you have to spring for the maximum priced platinum model. So certainly would like to see some improvements in this regard especially maybe bringing that 360 camera down the trim structure like some of the rivals do. Back behind the shifter we've got our electronic parking brake and brake hold function you have some drive modes as well and then in the center section you have a climate control system which is nice and easy to use. You can see everything it just has nice physical controls it's a four zone automatic setup on the majority of the trim levels meaning that you can press this button right here and fully adjust the back as well as in the front. Also in the same region you'll find the button for the heated seats that's standard on all but the base trim level ventilation is on limited and platinum trims. Now let's move up here to another physical control our volume knob. This is some area of improvement for 2026 because the LE base model now gets an eight speaker sound system which is an improvement and then this XLE trim level now adds the JBL sound system. So this is a 12 speaker JBL let's go ahead and give it a sample. Overall sound quality is pretty good definitely fills up the cabin a lot better than the previous sound system it seems more appropriate to have this type of sound system at this price point. All right let's zero in with the technology now again there's going to be a little bit of a difference between the base trim and all the rest of them just the base model will have an eight inch display all the rest will have this 12.3 inch display. Last year Toyota improved the software to one of the newer versions of their system and that does mean it has things like wireless apple carplay and android auto abilities and you have a built-in navigation system as well. Up top here is another 2026 change a auto dimming mirror with three home link remotes is now standard on all models and a sunroof is now standard on all models just be aware it's the regular size panel you don't get a panoramic option. But the real star of the show for a minivan is always the rear seat area so let's dive into this. Now before we get back here I do want to point out the power doors are standard equipment on all models xle and above will also have the hands-free ability to open them. Now let's talk about overall legroom and headroom so what Toyota's saying is about 39 inches of legroom 39 inches of headroom however I'm really not sure where they got that figure because these seats are super super adjustable. Now this is just kind of like a normal seating configuration I brought along the official car confections ruler this seat is adjusted to drew who's five foot eight I'm five foot nine and look at that I'm sitting at over a foot of second row like knee room that is absolutely fantastic my feet can also slide up underneath of the seats but like I said these seats are super customizable when it comes to you know sliding it back and forth it's called the super long slide seat it can go forward and back 25 inches so over two feet of adjustability so you can literally have unlimited second row legroom that is certainly a very premium feature here in the Sienna and makes for some pretty epic road trips. Now you'll notice that we have the captain's chairs on this model standard is bench seating which is eight passenger captain's chairs will give you seven passenger seating and it's standard here on xsc and above now let's talk about space or excuse me features so we have two usbs right here down below we have a household outlet as well as an hdmi two cup holders and then up here in the top you'll notice why we have the hdmi that's because we have the optional rear seat entertainment screen this is around 11 inches and of course you can apply different type of entertainment options which would be good for a family behind that we have our four zone climate control so you can easily adjust the temperature right there vents are located in the ceiling area which is pretty nice and then looking at the door trim there's a 2026 change that's the fact that rear window sunshades are now standard on every single model both in the second row and the third row you even have an armrest over here as well as quite a bit of door storage now before I check out the third row I do want to point out platinum can get heated back seats you can also get a vacuum cleaner and even a refrigerator in the center console so if you want all the bougie touches get that platinum now let's go ahead and head back to the third row in order to get back here all you have to do is grab this little lever that's going to kind of tilt the seat bottom up and then you can slide the seat forward and completely out of the way now of course with a car seat installed that might be a little bit tricky but overall plenty of room to and speaking of the third row my oh my is this a nice one so we're sitting at about 38 inches of leg room 36 inches of head room that really makes it one of the largest third rows that you can get in any modern vehicle as you can see this seat is still adjusted really you know far back and I have seven and a half inches of knee space like I said I'm five foot nine so this is really much better than something like a Toyota Grand Highlander for reference now there are three seats across back here you have the two-tone finish and as far as features we have two cup holders on each side you have those third row window sunshades that I mentioned that are now standard equipment as well as vents coming out of the ceiling so overall this third row is absolutely fit for a king I wish you had a couple more features back here but overall the space is fantastic walking up to the tailgate another new standard feature is a power tailgate across the board and let's talk about overall cargo capacity now it's a minivan after all so it has a ton of practicality you're sitting at around 33 cubic feet of space behind the third row of seats and if you fold the third row down 75 cubic feet and as a maximum 101 cubic feet for the Sienna now compared to other minivans that is actually going to be the smallest option and it's not because this vehicle is so much smaller than other minivans it's just the fact that you cannot actually remove the second row seats without getting out tools and things like that so that is going to be a practicality choice that Toyota has made on this model now if you're looking to compare two other minivans we'd encourage you to go to carconfections.com slash vehicle rankings we've looked at all the choices and ranked them in all the categories that matter to this type of buyer things like third row cargo space interior luxury technology powertrain choices and value so you and your family can sort through the categories that matter most to you and make an informed buying decision about the best minivan choice so check that out at carconfections.com now in order to fold the third row of seats all you have to do it's a two-step process so step one is to kind of pull back and that's really it honestly it's really a one-step process to fold the seats down and that's going to fill that pit there and then as you can see the second row is going to kind of stay in place there and I'm going to go ahead and scoot that up so I can get and now that we've got those seats slid as much up as they will go let's see our cargo length that's going to be sitting at 77 inches behind his seating position from behind the second row with those in place that would be sitting right around 41 inches and then for the third row area behind that you can expect around 25 inches as far as the overall opening that's really wide at 50 inches and then I'll get the height uh with both of the configurations here 36 inches tall with the seats folded down and guys check this out with them folded up you have a whopping 50 inches of height that means that full-size suitcases can definitely be like standing completely upright as far as the load-in height that's also super low at only 24 inches so much better than your average suv of course you have this entire space back here and I do want to point out that you have a spare tire optional on all models well guys here we are behind the wheel of the Toyota Sienna and this test drive we'll be discussing quite a lot as you can see on the screen right now but of course we need to start with a hard acceleration so you can see what the powertrain is all about all right we have achieved 60 miles per hour with the 2026 Sienna now of course when it comes to this model we mentioned it at the beginning at the spec dump it is hybrid only it's been hybrid only for quite a number of years at this point is one of Toyota's first models to make that transition and a lot of them have done it since then and you know that is one of the things that's always stood out about it as well now in terms of the power figures you have 245 horsepower from a 2.5 liter four-cylinder engine with your electric motors all working in conjunction it's not super fast obviously this is pretty big Mason was saying it's longer than the Grand Highlander but the overall acceleration I think is fine because you know is that really the point of a minivan generally speaking no I mean honestly compared to something like a Grand Highlander I find myself missing the powerless in this just because like you said it's a minivan I highly doubt that the average minivan owner is going around doing 0 to 60 accelerations and it's perfectly fine honestly compared to most of its competition the 0 to 60 I feel like is not that different uh compared to some of the v6 rivals although they will be probably a little bit faster that electric torque off the line really pushes you back in your seat to kind of make it feel a little bit faster than it is yeah I mean honestly in the day-to-day I really don't feel like this is inadequate in terms of power I will say of course you know it sounds a little strange overall so you might think that that's a little unpleasant compared to particularly v6 competition but you know that's that's kind of up to your personal preference and obviously this has a lot of benefits fuel economy for instance which we'll talk about in a little bit now part of the hybrid system is of course the ECVT that's you know what you hear when I put my foot down and overall it's very responsive with the hybrid system as it is in all the other Toyota products yeah and as far as how power is routed to the ground one of the great things about the Sienna is that it does offer all-wheel drive some of the main competitors like the Honda Odyssey as well as the Kia Carnival are no are not offering all-wheel drive so that's a huge advantage for this car I believe and new for 2026 it's now standard on the platinum trim in addition to the woodland so you have those two trims as the standard all-wheel drive but it's a minivan let's talk about ride quality this is pretty self-explanatory you thought it would write well and it does indeed this thing absolutely is one of the best riding vehicles that I've ever had the privilege of living with without a doubt especially because we have those smaller 18-inch wheels on the outside I mean when you hit a bump in the road you just barely can feel anything also these seats are really really comfortable so even compared to other very comfortable Toyotas like the Grand Highlander I really feel like the Sienna is a step above and you're going to just arrive completely comfortable regardless of how long your road trip is but another element of that would be your sound level reading going 55 so let's go ahead and get that I'll toggle us to fan speed one in the rear climate is off excellent 51 decibels is what we are sitting at is our sound level reading here in the 26 Toyota Sienna XSE we don't sit here and guess how it compares to the rivals we can find that on our website carconfections.com compared to the rivals that actually does mean that this is the quietest minivan that we have tested out and I don't believe that's a coincidence probably because the engine was powered off during part of that sound level reading so when the engine powers off it really does get very quiet inside of this cabin but what about the oh so important fuel economy well the front wheel drive model is coming in at 36 miles per gallon combined the all-wheel drive comes in at 35 miles per gallon combined so those are excellent fuel economy figures and even compared to really its newest rival the Carnival Hybrid that's still going to be significantly better fuel economy wise and what did we get after living with it this week well our real world experience fuel economy after driving 175 miles is drumroll 37 and a half miles per gallon I mean wow I mean you really can't argue with that that's actually a well above the EPA estimate since we do actually have all-wheel drive on this example that was both mixed city and highway driving and I have to say very very impressive we typically see that with Toyota hybrids they actually kind of outperform what the EPA is saying and to already be above the competitors in the EPA estimate that really just goes to show you this is super efficient now we're on our normal back road and I'll do the obligatory go around the corner hold on um yeah so of course it does have plenty of body roll uh this is the XSE trim level so it has a sport tune suspension that being said none of them are sporty I'd have to drive them back to back to see if maybe there is anything that was much better I can't really tell um overall like I said comfort is the name of the game this vehicle in this version just kind of gives you that sport look but keeps you in absolute comfort still yeah what's the airball and slam dunk our favorite and at least favorite element drew why don't you go ahead and kick us off with the slam dunk that's going to be the new things that they added for 2026 you know this did just come off of a refresh last year but Toyota went ahead and made some improvements particularly to give you additional standard features on a lot of the trims and even the base le yeah now on the airball side what we're going to say is even despite the refresh there are some elements that are still a little bit old in this product it came out back in 2021 and things like the backup camera I'm pretty sure definitely have not been upgraded uh it's pretty pretty low resolution you have the old rear seat entertainment system as well so there's some things that are starting to show their age that we wish they would go ahead and update as well to get to the latest and greatest so after our week of testing do we like it better the same or worse well I think Drew and Josh are about the same but for me I think I like it better I'm actually a new father so I appreciate a lot of the family friendly elements here in the Sienna also the fact that it gets 37 miles a gallon when gas is four or five dollars a gallon here in Kentucky is definitely a benefit that means more money in your pocket for family adventures now we started around $40,000 when it comes to price on this model you can see the full lineup of prices on the screen right now we have kind of a mid little mid-level model this is the XSE all-wheel drive 48 935 is our starting price we have a few options including the rear seat entertainment system 1495 destination we're sitting at 53,195 if you're curious as to where it's manufactured it is here in the U.S. in Indiana and if you're looking to buy one or any vehicle we'd encourage you to go on carconfections.com slash new car quotes the reason you should do that is because we have a tool on our website that will connect you with local car dealers in your area to get you the best price it's also going to give you access to invoice pricing information which is a great tool to use if you plan on dealership negotiation if you'd like to take advantage of all that as well as things like our monthly payment calculator you can find that on our website carconfections.com but what about toyota's resale reliability and warranty first up let's talk about resale value toyota as a brand is rated at 64.5 percent of estimated retained value after five years and 60,000 miles and after 10 years and 120,000 miles 41.4 percent now it's worth noting those are very good resale value percentages it's really only topped by one brand so very much above average and the same can also be said about reliability we of course have the combined reliability index and taking into account the latest 2026 information toyota is rated well above the overall industry average now if you'd like to learn more about all that you can find that on our website carconfections.com now when it comes to your warranty you do have a three-year 36,000 mile basic warranty a five-year 60,000 mile powertrain additionally you get two years and 25,000 miles of complimentary service and guys that wraps up our in-depth review of the 2026 toyota sienna if you enjoyed this video where we detail our seven-day impressions as well as all the 2026 changes we'd appreciate you subscribing down below and becoming a part of our car confections family i promise you won't regret it and if you're already a part of our family thank you so much for your continued support you make this all possible we'll catch you next time as we sample more of the latest automotive delicacies