Toyota Sienna vs Honda Odyssey: Which Is Better? One Only Comes as a Hybrid, the Other Can't Be Had With One, and Neither Earned a Top Safety Pick This Year

Toyota made the Sienna hybrid-only years ago and never looked back; Honda has never offered the Odyssey as anything but a V6. That one decision explains almost every other difference between them.

The Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey are the two best-selling minivans most American families actually cross-shop, and they've taken opposite bets on what a minivan's engine should be. The Sienna dropped its V6 entirely years ago and now ships exclusively as a hybrid. The Odyssey has gone the other way and never offered a hybrid or electrified option at all — it's V6-only, full stop. Everything else in this comparison, from pricing to cargo space to how each one drives, traces back to that single decision.

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2026 Toyota Sienna Overview | ToyotaYouTube ↗

Price and what you get for it

The 2026 Sienna starts at $41,615 for the base LE trim, climbing through XLE ($46,315), XSE ($49,540), Limited ($52,300) and Woodland Edition ($52,395) up to the Platinum at $59,005. All-wheel drive adds $2,000 on the LE, XLE, XSE and Limited trims, and comes standard on the Woodland Edition and Platinum. The 2026 Odyssey starts at $42,795 for the EX-L, then Sport-L ($43,895), Touring ($47,495) and Elite ($51,695) — a simpler four-trim lineup against the Sienna's six, and about $1,200 more at the entry point, though the gap narrows or reverses depending on which specific trims you're cross-shopping.

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Omar Drives x OdysseyYouTube ↗

The engine decision that drives everything else

The Sienna's only powertrain is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder paired with an electric motor for 245 combined horsepower, routed through a continuously variable transmission. The Odyssey's only powertrain is a 3.5-liter V6 making 280 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque, paired with a 10-speed automatic and front-wheel drive only — Honda doesn't offer AWD on the Odyssey at all, while Toyota offers it on every Sienna trim. The power gap favors the Odyssey by 35 horsepower, and reviewers have historically described the V6 as more responsive at highway passing speeds than the Sienna's hybrid system. The tradeoff is fuel economy, and it isn't close: the Sienna is EPA-rated at 36 mpg combined with front-wheel drive (35 mpg with AWD), while the Odyssey is rated at 22 mpg combined. At typical minivan mileage, that gap adds up to real, repeated savings at the pump for Sienna owners — a point reviewers consistently raise as the Sienna's single strongest practical advantage.

Cargo space: the Odyssey's seats come out, the Sienna's don't

Behind the third row, the two are close: 33.5 cubic feet for the Sienna versus 32.8 for the Odyssey, essentially a wash. The gap opens up once you start folding seats. The Odyssey's second-row seats can be removed entirely, which lets it reach up to 140.7 cubic feet of maximum cargo volume. The Sienna's second-row seats don't fold flat or come out, capping its maximum cargo space at 101 cubic feet even with the third row folded. For routine grocery runs and weekend trips, that difference won't matter — both have a deep, usable trunk well. For anyone who occasionally needs to haul flat-pack furniture, bikes or other bulky cargo with the second row cleared out, the Odyssey has a real, repeatable advantage that the spec sheet undersells if you only look at the behind-the-third-row number.

Towing: a tie

Both minivans max out at 3,500 pounds of towing capacity when properly equipped with a dealer-installed hitch — Toyota specifically rates the Woodland Edition for the full 3,500 pounds, and Honda rates the Odyssey the same across its lineup. Neither is a tow vehicle in any serious sense; this is enough for a small utility trailer or a couple of jet skis, not a camper. For context on what a given trailer weight actually requires versus what's printed on a window sticker, our guide to towing capacity, payload and GVWR explains why the number on the spec sheet is rarely the real limit.

Safety: neither earned a Top Safety Pick, and the gap is specific

Here's the finding that should carry real weight in this decision: according to IIHS's own current ratings, neither the 2026 Sienna nor the 2026 Odyssey holds a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ award this year. Both still rate "Good" on the small overlap front and side crash tests, but both fall short on the moderate overlap front test — the Sienna rates "Marginal" there, while the Odyssey rates "Poor," IIHS's lowest grade on that specific test. The Sienna also edges ahead on headlights, rated "Good" against the Odyssey's "Acceptable." Neither result should be treated as a minor footnote: moderate overlap front crashes are a common, serious real-world crash type, and a "Poor" rating there is the kind of result that would normally be a dealbreaker on its own for a family-focused vehicle. Anyone choosing between these two on safety grounds should weigh the Sienna's Marginal result against the Odyssey's Poor result directly, not just look at the overall NHTSA star rating or trust an older Top Safety Pick+ badge that no longer applies to the current model year.

Second-row seats: they solve different problems

Both minivans offer second-row captain's chairs, and the two implementations target different family needs. Honda's "Magic Slide" second-row seats move side to side, which lets a parent slide a seat inward to reach a child's car seat without leaving the front row, or slide the two chairs apart to separate squabbling siblings; the seats also fold flat and can be removed entirely, which is how the Odyssey reaches its much larger maximum cargo figure. Toyota's approach is simpler: the Sienna's second-row captain's chairs are built for comfortable, limo-like fore-and-aft travel and easy walk-through access to the third row, but they don't move laterally the way the Odyssey's do, and on most trims they don't come out of the vehicle. For parents who regularly need to reach a car seat from the front or separate two kids mid-drive, the Odyssey's lateral slide solves a real, repeated daily annoyance that the Sienna's setup doesn't address.

Interior and tech

The Odyssey's cabin leans toward family-practical touches the Sienna doesn't match as directly: Honda's CabinWatch camera system lets front-seat occupants see rear passengers on the central display without turning around, and CabinTalk adds an intercom function so a driver can talk to kids in the back seat without shouting. The Sienna counters with more USB ports across the cabin and, on upper trims, a larger available rear-seat entertainment screen. Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 comes standard across the Sienna lineup, and Honda Sensing comes standard across the Odyssey lineup — both include forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control as standard equipment, so neither requires stepping up a trim level just to get basic driver-assist features.

Reliability: a narrow edge for the Sienna

Consumer Reports rates the 2026 Sienna as average reliability — "just shy of being considered above average," an improvement over the 2025 model year, which rated below average. The Odyssey also earns an average score from Consumer Reports, but ranks behind the Sienna, making the Toyota the second most reliable minivan in its class (behind only the Kia Carnival Hybrid). NHTSA complaint data tells a similar story, with the Sienna showing roughly an 11% lower complaint rate than the Odyssey. The specific trouble spots differ in character: Sienna owners most often cite Android Auto connectivity and a complicated infotainment system, along with body-hardware issues tied to recalls covering seat rails and seatback bolts. Odyssey owners more often flag the 10-speed automatic transmission shifting roughly at low speeds, along with power-sliding-door glitches and its own infotainment complaints. Neither pattern points to a drivetrain-ending problem, but the Sienna's issues skew toward annoyance (a touchscreen that won't pair) while a rough-shifting transmission is the kind of complaint that affects the car every single drive.

Buy the Sienna if, buy the Odyssey if

Buy the Sienna if fuel economy is a real line item in your budget, you want AWD as an option, or you're drawn to the hybrid powertrain on principle — 36 mpg in a three-row vehicle this large is a genuine engineering achievement, and it's the reason the Sienna wins most head-to-head reviews on running costs. Buy the Odyssey if you regularly need maximum cargo volume with the second row removed, want the extra power and towing confidence of a V6, or specifically value the CabinWatch and CabinTalk family-monitoring features. Whichever you choose, don't skip the IIHS moderate overlap result in your own research — it's the one place these two genuinely diverge on something more important than mpg or cubic feet, and it's worth checking against whatever the latest model-year data shows by the time you're actually buying, since crash-test results get updated as new model years are tested.

Spec

Toyota Sienna

VS

Honda Odyssey

Spec	Toyota Sienna	Honda Odyssey
Starting price	$41,615 (LE)	$42,795 (EX-L)
Engine	2.5L 4-cyl hybrid, 245 hp combined	3.5L V6, 280 hp, 262 lb-ft
Transmission	CVT	10-speed automatic
Drivetrain	FWD standard, AWD available (+$2,000)	FWD only
Fuel economy (combined)	36 mpg (FWD) / 35 mpg (AWD)	22 mpg
Cargo behind 3rd row	33.5 cu ft	32.8 cu ft
Max cargo (seats folded/out)	101 cu ft (2nd row fixed)	140.7 cu ft (2nd row removable)
Towing capacity	3,500 lbs (Woodland Edition)	3,500 lbs
IIHS moderate overlap front	Marginal	Poor
IIHS headlights	Good	Acceptable
IIHS Top Safety Pick (2026)	No	No