My family is planning to buy a new minivan Honda Odyssey 2010. But with we are hearing scary chat about transmission reliability; it seems that Hondas biggest problem is transmission, is Toyota sienna more reliable in transmission than Honda?
We need advice; we do not want to jump in troubles. If we buy it, we want to keep the van very long time, more than 250 000 miles.
In fact we have now a 2001 Toyota Sienna XLE with more than on it 260 000 miles (we bought it brand new), no problem of transmission; we add a quart of engine oil in the middle of a oil change, around 4000 miles each time, very reliable.
We travel a lot.
Thank you
The current year is 2009. How should anybody know what the reliability will be like on a 2010 model? It’s all speculation at this point, and historical data is not a reliable indicator or future performance.
Honda’s automatic transmissions don’t seem to hold up to abuse and neglect, but considering your current vehicle, I don’t think you fit the profile of someone who abuses and neglects your vehicle.
If you are that worried about it, buy a used vehicle with a proven reputation for reliability.
If you have a Sienna with 260K miles and you’re happy with it, why are you looking at a Honda Odyssey?
The Sienna and the Odyssey are functionally equivalent. Why not stay with what works?
If you decide to buy a Honda, change the transmission fluid at least as often as the maintenance schedule recommends. A lot of transmission problems come from owners who never change the fluid.
You pay your money and you take your chances. Reliability with the transmission, or any other part of a car is hard to predict. However, you are buying a new car, so you don’t have the worries of how it was driven by the previous owner(s). You can minimize your chances of problems by:
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Following the maintenance schedule in the manual
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Not abusing the vehicle by doing tire squealing starts or exceeding the
manufacturer’s load limits.
You had to do something right to go 260,000 miles on your 2001 Sienna. I’m certain that there are a lot of Honda Odyssey minivans that have traveled a lot of miles without transmission problems.
Honda has had some transmission issues. Toyota has had some engine sludging issues. Neither one is perfect.
We really thank everybody who have commented and given us these valuable advices, we agree that we should stick with sienna when the time will come to buy.
How many miles may one keep this van? 350 000? 500 000? We follow the manual for the maintenance schedule very closely, so far so good, just minor problems like idle valve replaced twice.
Thank you