Don't get me wrong--the Toyota Sienna is a terrific minivan. In fact, it's my second choice, and it might be my first choice if it weren't for the price. It is comfortable, has many amenities, and is SAFE, but so is the Honda Odyssey. My husband and I had it narrowed down to the Sienna versus the Odyssey, and because of price, the Odyssey won.

Aha! I heard some of you who are currently looking into buying a minivan muttering, "But you have to ORDER an Odyssey--there are none available on any of the lots out there." True; we've just placed our order and will not be able to buy it until late June. But since you are obviously in the research stage (or you wouldn't be reading Epinions on the subject) you may have a bit of flexibility with timing.

Let's get down to basics: The Honda Odyssey's sticker price for the LX model for 2000 is $23,840, with no negotiation. Yes, that really gets me, but the comparably equipped Sienna LE we priced out at $26,767. We sat down with the manager, and told him we weren't quite ready to make a deal, but wanted to know what they'd do for us. He told us they were willing to move the price down "a bit" but not to expect too much since these are extremely popular. OK--does "a bit" really mean around $3,000 to make it comparable to the Odyssey? I doubt it. Now, to be fair, the Sienna we looked at for the above price had an options package tacked on (not that we wanted any of the equipment it added) which included a roof rack, tinted glass, second-row captains chairs and one or two other small items. It was when we really started looking hard at the standard equipment and the upgrades available that the differences started being obvious.

So let's look at what you get for the sticker prices (we'll think about negotiating later). It turns out that the Sienna CE version, which is its base model, has a sticker price of $24,374--still $500 above the Odyssey LX, but presumably would be lower after negotiation. The problem with this comparison is that the Odyssey LX is more like the Sienna LE than the CE, so you're really not comparing the same things.

The Sienna CE is lacking two notable things we wanted: two sliding rear doors, and second row captains chairs. On the Sienna LE, two sliding doors are standard, but the captains chairs are optional--they must be ordered as an upgrade (the one we drove DID have the captains chairs). On the Odyssey, the LX has both as standard features.

All three vehicles (the Sienna CE, LE, and Odyssey LX) come with the following features in common:

*Variable Intermittent Windshield Wipers
*Dual Airbags
*Tilt steering wheel
*Fabric seat and door trim
*Multi-adjustable front seats
*Removable center and/or back row seating (Siennas have a bench seat in the second row, with captain's chairs optional)
*Overhead console with garage door/sunglass holder
*Cupholders
*Air conditioning
*Dual visor vanity mirrors
*Speedometer, fuel, and temperature gauges
*Air bag, ABS, seatbelt, low-fuel level, door-adjar, low tire pressure, low washer fluid, battery, oil pressure, and check engine warning lights.
*Front, center, and rear dome lights
* Remote hood and fuel-filler door releases
*AM/FM/Cassette (Siennas have a CD player as well)

The Sienna LE and the Odyssey LX have the following in common:

*Driver's side sliding door
*Rear privacy glass with power-operated quarter windows
*Rear window defroster with timer
*Power windows with automatic driver's side down
*Dual illuminated visor vanity mirror
*Cruise control
*Power door locks (anti-lockout feature on Sienna)
*Front and rear air conditioning

The Sienna LE offers the following features Odyssey does not:

*Full size spare tire
*Timer for the rear defogger
*Power foldaway outside mirrors
*CD player
*Daytime running lights with automatic on/off feature

The Odyssey LX offers the following features Sienna does not:

*Dual sliding doors
*Immobilizer theft-deterrent system
*Retractable center tray table with sliding extension
*Retractable 3rd row "magic seat" (folds into floor in the rear)
*2nd row captains chairs

Of course, these comparisons do not consider the Sienna XLE or the Odyssey EX; these two versions include even more amenities.

After careful consideration of the standard features versus the available upgrades, we are comfortable with our decision to wait for our Odyssey to be ordered. True, we could be driving a Sienna today, but for the money involved, we think we'll wait. With the Odyssey we didn't feel the need to add any other features; the Sienna would have forced us into upgrading to the tune of several thousand dollars.

Both Honda and Toyota make solid vehicles; you won't be sorry for choosing either one from a comfort, mechanical, or safety standpoint. So decide which options you want, which you might be willing to do without, which you'd "gladly" pay extra for and do the math yourself. And hopefully if you are able to negotiate, you'll get more encouragement that we did at our local Toyota dealer.