Cars we can’t have: Toyota’s trekking-shoe minivan, the Sienta

It’s unfortunate that Japanese carmakers tend to keep some of their most interesting models for their home market. Case in point is the new Toyota Sienta minivan. The Sienta is a compact MPV designed to look like a trekking shoe. (Take that, Voltes V Lander!) The car is meant to disprove the image of a minivan as “useful but boring, good for school runs but not much else.”

The Sienta packs some of the weird styling elements found in new Toyotas, like the huge black mouth similar to the Vios’, the arrow shaped-headlamps like the ones in the Prius C, and side kinks like those in the upcoming Fortuner. It looks particularly striking in the new Air Yellow color.

Sienta features a wide and low-sill sliding door and flat-foor interior. The cabin can seat five, six, or seven, depending on the configuration. The seats follow a stadium-type height arrangement to give rear passengers a better view. The five-seat variant is suitable for a wheelchair user, and includes a ramp for wheelchairs or luggage. It even allows ingress via stretcher.

Sienta is powered by a 1.5-liter engine, and comes in a hybrid version, too. The non-hybrid 1.5-liter uses an Atkinson Cycle engine with automatic idle-stop function. The hybrid pairs a 1.5-liter with a 61 ps electric motor with nickel-metal hydride battery system, for a total of 100ps output. The hybrid is rated at 27.2 km/liter under Japan’s government test cycle.

Active safety features are on board: pre-collision system, lane departure alert, and auto high beam. It also prompts you if cars in front have started to drive off, say at a traffic light, and you’re still looking at your Waze screen to figure out how much longer you’ll be stuck in traffic.