2016 Toyota Sienna
This year drew an ordinary 75 complaints for a Toyota Sienna — the model's median is 172. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.3% of them mention change, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Toyota Sienna, which began in 2011 and ran to 2020. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 75 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 172 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- change — 9.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: change, stuff, seeing.
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.
What owners wrote
AIRBAG LIGHT CAME ON. TOYOTA SAYS A RECALL HAS NOT BEEN ISSUED AND NEEDS A DIAGNOSTIC THAT THEY WILL CHARGE FOR. I AM SEEING MANY COMPLAINTS ON LINE FOR EXACT ISSUE AND COSTS OF FIXING ISSUE COSTING 1500-3000 AND MORE!
BLIND SPOT MONITOR ONLY ACTIVATES WHEN PASSING CAR REACHES REAR FENDER WHICH IS INSUFFICIENT WARNING -- UNSAFE AT ALL SPEEDS. IF YOU WERE TO DEPEND ON IT WHEN CHANGING LANES IT COULD CAUSE A SERIOUS ACCIDENT. MY 2013 LEXUS ALSO HAS BSM WHICH OPERATES PERFECTLY…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V410000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 19V553000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 16V858000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 16V197000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 25V876000 EQUIPMENT ADAPTIVE/MOBILITY Fixed free of charge.
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.
Own a 2016 Toyota Sienna? What happened to yours?
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