For Spring Break this year, we opted for the mid-size, smaller SUV rental. The kids don’t have as much junk, we don’t need to haul beds, and best of all they all face front with their child seats. We started the trip out with a Ford Edge; very well equipped with leather and various options. Keep in mind, I got this car from a local rental car agency and then pack it to make the long drive south. Before I got home, I couldn’t even handle the smell - smoke.

The Edge basically felt ruined and I’m not even sure you can remove the smell of smoke fully. This resulted in a big problem; the agency was closed and I had no options late at night, since I picked up right at close. I was sent to the airport, which was the next closest spot to exchange the car. The counter worker wasn’t exactly helpful, but she begrudgingly gave us what she had that was comparable - a 2023 Toyota Sienna. From this point on, I wasn’t unhappy and felt this was a nice compromise by them.

The Sienna, like all minivans, is exactly what most parents need. In my case, it’s never what I want though. The low-slung entry, power doors, legroom for everyone, and enough storage to haul bikes on vacation in the vehicle, which we did!

The driving experience was what you would expect. The Sienna has a slight advantage with driving modes and even an EV Mode. From my understanding, it works more like a hybrid system and could drive on electric at low speeds for a limited amount of distance. The system would recharge as we braked, similar to a Prius. We were averaging around 29-31mpg throughout the trip on the highway which was very good when you consider minivans are not fuel sippers. I did experience while driving my first ‘fishtail’ in a minivan around an off-ramp. Too much speed, a little bit of wet pavement, and a sharp off-ramp resulted in me almost crunching the thing on day one. It caught me by surprise and I used my 17 year old driving skills to remedy the situation.

As far as the interior on this hauler, it didn’t do anything that blew my mind I’ll say. The front seats allowed you to remove a middle section to create a fake captain chair setup, but it left a disgustingly dirty piece of plastic down on the floor. We decided to leave the center section installed. The back seat folded down flat and allowed us to pile in whatever we wanted for the week. One interested feature, was this shelf like setup on the front dashboard. While very handy for junk on a road trip, things did tend to slide here and there. Overall though, for our needs and the needs of this trip, the interior was doing what it meant to do…

We put almost 3,000 miles on the vehicle over the course of the week and as I have always thought, a minivan is so practical for family stuff. Nobody usually wants to admit they want one, me included, but once you finally use one for what it is meant for, you will find the convenience and function exactly what you need. The Sienna didn’t do anything that was overly spectacular and it doesn’t have the buzz like the newish Carnival, but overall it would be a fine choice if you are in the market for a van.