Faults:
After the winter of 2003/'04 there was rust appearing on the inside of the lower front door panels.
The rust was worse on the driver's door.
The rust showed up on the two door gaskets as well.
On my hands and knees I could see the rust on the door panels.
The paint is worn off the edge of one door sill completely.
Bare metal is showing on one door sill more than the other.
There are no sill covers, or protection for the door sills, except for a coat of paint on the door sills of the new vans.
This fact of bare metal showing is unacceptable for a Toyota under one year old.
I do not climb into the low built Sienna. I sit on the seat and then swing my feet over the door sill to enter the van completely.
A dealership did some work on the door panels; but, he did nothing with the door sills.
He applied a strip of vinyl tape across he problem areas, after repainting the inner door panels, I believe.
I am dissatisfied with the service on a newly - designed van that obviously has a problem with the front door panels.
I have had two previous Toyota Siennas with no problems.
The back of the van is too low to handle a trailer hitch well.
The trailer hitch 'clunks' into many driveway curbs - even with very slow driving.
Generally an excellent vehicle to drive.
Ann Bourne.
10th Jan 2005, 10:37
No word about how often you rotated the tires. We suggest every 5000 miles. We also ask people to keep an eye on their tire pressures, they change a pound a month so that can change the wear dramatically. What kind of usage did you do to the car? Was it lightly loaded or heavily loaded most of the time. About 65% of the stopping force is on those front tires so rotation is crucial.
Tires get a lot of heat period. Sometimes the composition of the rubber may not agree with the temperature of the pavement or the road surface itself. The Dunlops represent state-of-the-art technology. In the real world with all the variables available one user can level the best technology while others have no trouble. I have sold 8-9 of these AWD vans and my buddies have sold many more. We would be hearing about it if others were having your experience. Sorry for your experience anyway. Toyota put the tire under the side to make the room in the back that everybody wanted. Then they couldn't use the mini spare with the AWD setup and people really wanted the AWD. So compromises were the solution.