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Why is that ignorance? American minivans and almost all minivans have been inferior to Honda and Toyota for over a decade. Edit: Not worth starting more drama.
Op, I would prefer the auto doors. As a person with two kids (18 months and another almost 4), whose main family mover is a crossover (Venza) I love my power hatch and really wish we went with a minivan with sliding doors. The power hatch has had no issues, we have had the Venza over 3 years.
Also, I see the LE comes with Toyota's fantastic e-tune. That should also be a consideration as it makes a lot of hands free options easier to use and a much larger back up camera.
Why is that ignorance? American minivans and almost all minivans have been inferior to Honda and Toyota for over a decade. Edit: Not worth starting more drama.
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All I will say is that that is not true. There are other threads that have all the arguments already.
I had a Plymouth Grand Voyager for many years, back when they only had doors on the passenger's side. Manual only, natch. I actually like the one-sided sliding door, and I would never pay an extra $3,000 for power doors. The effort to open and close the doors was minimal, not worth even thinking about.
Had a Honda mini van and love the power sliding doors. never a problem. Being large van door are heavy and can be hard to close for kids and older adults, One reason they tend to slam them; which can cause problems.
Not infrequently, I'd arrive on a late flight and the only vehicles left on the Emerald Aisle are minivans. While I'm not a minivan person, I do love the powered sliding doors and hatch. A minivan without a powered door is like a Mustang with the ol' V6 - Why bother.
The L has unpainted door handles and manual sliding doors.
The LE is 3k more and has power doors and painted handles.
I've goy a kid (planning on at least one more) and a dog and can see the merit behind a door that can be opened with a push button, but I can also see the doors being opened accidently and the motors failing.
So for those of you that had both, are the powered ones a necessity with children?
Quick answer? No, don't get them. If they break it will be at a time you can least afford it. If they don't seal, you will be waiting 10 seconds befor you can shove them anyway. Skip the exercise.
Besides, if you own it for more than five years, they WILL break eventually.
Got lots of family with both Siennas and Odysseys, all with power doors. None of them have had problems, all have had the vans for over 7 years now. They all have small kids and have stood up to typical kids' abuse (which includes kids frequently closing and opening the doors just because they are automatic!)
Keep in mind though, cars these days in general have so many electronics and gadgets that things can break down.
What I am not so sure of is why in 2015 it should be a $3000 option. .
Its probably moving up a whole trim line which cost $3000 which includes the power sliding doors. I know with the Honda, moving that one trim line includes a whole bunch of things
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