Honda Odyssey vs Toyota Sienna?

Anyone have any strong feelings about this? Looking at the 2007 - 2010 years, most likely.

Seems like the used Odysseys are a little bit cheaper - I've heard they are bad in the snow though, even compared to the front wheel drive siennas.

My odyssey is front wheel drive.  It has sucked in snow in New Hampshire and the Adirondacks.  I believe the sienna has an all wheel drive veesion which would be better.  
the odyssey is cheaper, I went with it because I had a truck to use.

Yeah, I've heard that. For reference, I think my 2005 corolla does pretty well in the snow with snowtires on it.

My family bought an Odyssey new in 2006 and retired it in 2021 after 275,000 miles.  The engine probably would have hit 300,000+ but other repairs finally started to cost enough that it wasn't worth it (Mostly abuse from when I lived in it, not necessarily the age).  We lived in Pittsburgh so plenty of snowy conditions and never had any problems with it.  Get good tires haha.  Not sure if this is your plan but I lived in it for a season and it was awesome.  Maybe not a full time rig but for what I needed it was great.  My girlfriend currently owns a Sienna and she's only had it for a year but it's a great car too.  The AWD makes it a pretty sweet rig.  She lived in it as well with no complaints, and as a weekending van I envision it being pretty cushy. As loyal as I am to the Odyssey I would say the AWD gives the sienna the edge, but I don't think you can go wrong with either car honestly.

Yeah, the Honda seems like it would be great reliability-wise. It does look like it only has 4.7" ground clearance to the Sienna's 6.9". That might decide it for me. I've definitely banged up the undercarriage of my corolla enough to want some clearance.

Sienna XLE with AWD, find a nice clean one thats well maintained and don’t balk at the price. The Gen 3, 2011-2020, would also be a good choice, though IMO its not really better than Gen 2. 

Are you looking to build it out?

Not really. I'll probably pull out the middle row seats, maybe a low platform for like 10" of under mattress storage, but probably just 4-5" of memory foam on the floor, so it can be rolled up to put up the third row seats if anyone needs a ride.

I"m pretty tall, so it'll be too cramped to use as a full on RV for me.

I think Sienna 2007 to 2010 is the sweet spot. In Around 2007 they changed out the 3.3L for the 3.5L. Better milage and power and a great motor.

After 2010 they changed the body to that lame lowrider chassis. 

I'll post pics of my build out. It has a flat 8' long platform that stores 4 surfboards underneath or lots of climbing and camping gear. I can pull up two panels and the rear bench seat pops up. When stowed it's totally flush underneath. 

It's super smooth at 80mph with decent milage and range. 

Thanks for weighing in on the model year. Pics would be great!

We've got an 09 Sienna with AWD that we built a simple platform in. Easily and comfortably sleeps 2 with all of our gear for multiple weeks/months on the road. It's a great vehicle as a daily driver and adventure van - it'll get you places with decent enough clearance. Fairly stealth, parks easily. The main issues are it eats gas at around 18 mpg and the suspension gets pretty beat up from rough roads - we've had to replace struts and the like.

Yeah, I'm thinking pretty hard about going with 2wd and good snow tires. Could always throw a winch on the trailer hitch in case I get stuck somewhere.

We had a 2WD Odyssey and currently have an AWD Sienna.

The Honda was ok in the snow with snow tires. Otherwise not good.

The clearance was terrible, but we got it to some interesting spots nevertheless. 

Had to zip tie the front bumper on  :-)

The Sienna (with a Journeys Iift) is markedly more capable on rough roads, but definitely not a jeep.

Had no trouble getting to Enchanted Tower for example. Wouldn't have taken the Honda there. 

Interior not as well designed as the Honda.

Mileage about 19 with roof rack, lift and medium rugged tires.

Might consider checking out this site Sienna AWD Facebook page.

Pretty basic 2008 Sienna climb and surf conversion.

 4 surfboards underneath up to 7'- 4". 

 Multiple of seating configurations.

I dated a lady that had a Toyota Sienna. We took the seats out and put a futon mattress in it for a climbing road trip up and down the Front Range one summer. Such good times in that van. I brought a tent so we could throw all of our gear in it and keep the back of the van clear for us. It was great on rainy days and quiet for sleeping at night. When it got rear-ended and totaled, I even kept the ignition key for a long time as a souvenir. As a former Honda and now Toyota owner, I prefer Toyota. 

Tim Stich wrote:

I dated a lady that had a Toyota Sienna. We took the seats out and put a futon mattress in it for a climbing road trip up and down the Front Range one summer. Such good times in that van. I brought a tent so we could throw all of our gear in it and keep the back of the van clear for us. It was great on rainy days and quiet for sleeping at night. When it got rear-ended and totaled, I even kept the ignition key for a long time as a souvenir. As a former Honda and now Toyota owner, I prefer Toyota. 

Long live the Previa!

That looks like a slick little build! Not enough room in there to get complicated.

Nice job keeping the seats accessible! Just a heads up, we ended up throwing away the bit of wood flooring we put into ours after moving to a humid place (Seattle) as it didn't allow air movement and molded the wood underneath.

I have a 2010 Sienna and really like it. 2wd with snow tires (studless) in the winter. I drive conservatively on snow/ice but have never needed chains. No buildout, just fold up mattresses on the floor and a roof box for storage. Works great. Averages about 22-23 MPG.

Mnt File wrote:

Long live the Previa!

We had a Previa when I was a kid. (And a Toyota "Van" before that. That was the name.) Great memories. Great car. The Supercharger really helped out and was an improvement over how under-powered the Toyota Van was.

My extended family has a lot of Odyssey's. No problems ever. A few with 100,000+ miles. I don't think you can go wrong, OP.

Toyota all the way. Honda's transmissions in 6 cylinder cars wasn't as good a Toyota's.  They both have great engines. 

I beat the crap out of my 04 Sienna that I owned when I had a small kid. Towing. Dirt Roads, etc. and it held up great.

AWD is harder to find and will drive the price up, but will only cost you about 1 mpg.

Buy the best / lowest miles one you can. It's better to spend another $1K or more on a nice one, vs. being cheap then it's needs $1K + in repairs every year. 

This site just shows the frequency of engine/tranny issues by year. But it's hundreds or thousands of cars inspected so it's not just anecdotal info:

https://www.dashboard-light.com/reports/Minivan.html