re: Why the Toyota Sienna should be the vehicle of choice

I’ve never owned one and was actually getting close to pulling the trigger on purchasing one, but in doing some last minute research just found out the AWD Sienna’s do not have a spare tire compartment. The FWD Siennas keep the spare tire under the middle of the car on the passenger side, but the AWD models can’t accommodate that so instead they just sell the AWD models with run flat tires.

If you want to keep a spare with your AWD Sienna, you have to either just toss it in the trunk, which takes away the ability of half of your third row seat to fold down, attach it to a roof basket, or attach it to the back of your van like so:



None of those options appeal to me and I’m not buying a car without a spare tire compartment.

The run flat tires apparently get eaten quick on the Sienna’s. Ton of stories online of people having to replace them every 15k miles or so, and they aren’t cheap.

If we didn’t want AWD I’d just get the FWD to avoid this run flat/no spare issue. But we really want AWD because we have snowy winters and travel throughout the year.

So now it looks like we will probably settle on the AWD Honda Pilot, which is a bummer. I can’t believe they could sell a mini-van, that is all about utility and safety, without a spare tire compartment.

The 2021 Siennas are getting a new look and there is some indication that even the AWD models will have spare tire compartment. If so, we may just keep the Pilot for a few years then trade it in for a 2021 AWD Sienna.