Swagger With Style: The 2015 Toyota Sienna Limited Premium

The 2015 Toyota Sienna Limited.

At the beginning of this year, we reviewed the Toyota Sienna SE and its updated "Swagger Wagon" video.  And as we have since the 2010 re-design of the Sienna, we liked it (the Sienna more than the Buster Rhymes video). But if your tastes run more toward luxury, there's only one trim level of the Sienna that matters.

2015 Toyota Sienna Limited.

The Toyota Sienna Limited Premium is everything Toyota can put into one minivan.  The base price of $45,020 brings with it 18-inch 10-spoke alloy wheels, dual sliding power doors and a power liftgate, a dual moonroof, blind spot monitor and rear cross-traffic alert. Those are just the practical features.

2015 Toyota Sienna Limited interior.

Inside, it's the lap of luxury.  If Lexus made a minivan, this would be it.  The standard equipment includes premium leather seats, heated up front, with the driver getting an 8-way power adjustable seat and the front passenger getting 4-way power.  The second row lounge seats have a long track to maximize legroom and can be removed for hauling things instead of people. The third row seats are power foldable for the same purpose. There's a three-zone (driver, passenger, rear) automatic climate system, a dual-view Blu-Ray rear seat entertainment system, and Driver Easy Speak (a microphone up front that allows Mom or Dad to override what the kids in the back are listening to).

More?  How about a heated, leather-trimmed steering wheel, smart key with pushbutton start, a 7-inch hi-res touchscreen audio/nav system with 10 JBL speakers including a subwoofer. All standard. In fact, our test vehicle came with only three options:

• Roof rack cross bars ($185)
• Wireless headphones for the rear-seat entertainment system ($55)
• The Limited Advanced Technology Package, with dynamic radar cruise control, pre-collision system, vehicle dynamics integrated management and hill start assist control ($1,800)

With delivery processing and handling fee of $885, the as-tested price was $47.945.

Under the hood, as with all Siennas, is Toyota's venerable 3.5-liter V6, teamed with a six-speed automatic transmission.  Mileage is good for the class at 18 city/25 highway.  

As we said in our review of the SE, the advantage to the SE is that it doesn't have the lounge chairs in the second row.  But that is an advantage only if you need to carry 8 people.  If you'll never go above 7, the Limited and its lounge chairs are wonderful.  And we noted then that Toyota has so far chosen not to compete with HondaVac, the built-in vacuum cleaner available in the Odyssey. But if your kids are older now and sucking up stale Cheerios from under the seats is no longer a factor, that may not matter.

The fact is, the Sienna Limited Premium makes the idea of owning a minivan not just palatable , but desirable. And what other minivan can say that?