Yahoo Autos 2023 Toyota Sienna Long-Term Update: You make interesting discoveries cleaning this minivan
I was about to hand over our long-term Toyota Sienna to Road Test Editor Zac Palmer, so I went through the vehicle for a clean-up. It was a reminder about how long it takes to clean the interior of something this large, but I also noticed that some parts of the Sienna were difficult, even impossible, to clean. Here are a few of the things that gave me pause.
First, the rails for the sliding captain's chairs were an obstacle. The rubber flaps that attempt to cover it do not meet cleanly in the middle, so I'm sure over time a lot of detritus will end up in them. They're wide enough to let in bigger debris, but thin and deep enough to make them difficult to access with a finger or the skinny attachment of a vacuum cleaner. If you have a Sienna, it might be worth your while to buy an extra set of cheap floor mats to cover the rails. It would be a little inconvenient, sure, but less inconvenient than trying to clean them.
The second thing I noticed was that a lot of the plastic moldings and trim pieces, like those at the ends of the above rails, are a loose fit. It makes it pretty easy for smaller things like sand to get in there, but difficult to get that stuff out. The extra wiggle room meant, however, that I could get to some of the debris under them with relative ease without having to take anything apart.
There are also some spots where pieces of the carpeting overlap, or the ends of the carpeting aren't totally adhered to the floor beneath. That means some stuff can get under there, but it's also easy enough to pull those flaps of carpeting back to clean underneath. It's a little disconcerting to do so, though. It just feels like something you shouldn't do, or a part of the car that could cause problems in the future. Not saying it definitely will, but I'd be constantly worrying about those spots over the course of ownership.
