Model years › Toyota Sienna

2011 Toyota Sienna

Complaints about this year name takata recall far more often than the other years of this generation — 23% of them, about 35× the usual rate of 0.7%.

First year of a new generation. The Toyota Sienna was redesigned for 2011. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• takata — 30.3% of this year's complaints, against 11% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: takata, takata recall, confirms, tool.
• notice — 9.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: notice, recall notice, estimated.

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

Also unusual this year

• air bags — 21% of complaints, 10× usual
• campaign numbers — 8% of complaints, 20× usual
• bags however — 8% of complaints, 19× usual

What owners wrote

TAKATA RECALL. THE CONTACT OWNS A 2011 TOYOTA SIENNA. THE CONTACT RECEIVED NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBERS: 16V858000 AND 16V340000 (AIR BAGS, STRUCTURE). THE PART TO DO THE REPAIR WAS UNAVAILABLE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE [VIN] EXCEEDED A REASONABLE…

NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBERS: 16V340000 (AIR BAGS) AND 16V858000 (STRUCTURE: BODY). THE PARTS TO DO THE REPAIR WERE UNAVAILABLE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE [VIN] EXCEEDED A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME FOR THE RECALL REPAIR. THE [VIN] WAS NOTIFIED. THE…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 19V005000 AIR BAGS
• 19V741000 AIR BAGS
• 16V858000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
• 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
• 16V340000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
• 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
• 14V273000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
• 13V014000 AIR BAGS

Showing 8 of 14. The rest are on NHTSA's site.

Own a 2011 Toyota Sienna? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Toyota Sienna was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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