I am a soccer mom

A two-week test drive in two minivans – the 2010 VW Routan and the 2011 Toyota Sienna – reconfirm that minivans have a lot to offer

By Jeff Rundles

Although my children don’t play soccer anymore – I admit it; I hate soccer and, while I didn’t mean to, I influenced them – I am a soccer mom. Seems strange really, in that I am a man and not a soccer fan, so I am neither a mom nor have anything to do with soccer, and yet I am, indeed, a soccer mom.

You see, I got thinking about all this “Soccer Mom” stuff recently and realized that it really had nothing to do with soccer per se, and that in fact the whole thing about being a soccer mom was really only manifest in one aspect: the minivan. The term Soccer Mom has taken on a stigma, mostly among women of a certain generation – now I would think they are late ‘30s to mid ‘50s – that they think pigeonholes them as suburban housewives with little more to do than pick up children at soccer practice and games. These women, however, or at least many of them (The Baby Boom end of the age spectrum), haven’t really been soccer moms for some time in that their children are now in college or beyond. But they won’t drive minvans.

The evil aspects of the minivan got so ingrained in the psyche of this generation of women that they will lumber around in a Chevy Suburban or some other large, kid-toting, 7-passenger vehicle – even to soccer practice and games – but never in a minivan.

I saw how this all happened. My older children are now all in their 20s, but back in their single-digit-age days, when they needed rides everywhere and went to a de rigueur birthday party seemingly twice each weekend, a minivan scene happened quite often. As an auto reviewer, I have driven many types of vehicles regularly over the years, including minivans, and I remember more than once driving one to some suburban child’s birthday party and, upon turning into the cul-de-sac, finding myself is a kind of Stepford’s Wives Chrysler Minivan advertisement. I remember this one time when, literally, there were 10 minivans dropping off children, and the only other dad there had come in an SUV and I thought they were going to deny his daughter access to the party.

The interesting thing is that many women I know are housewives and have every other potential manifestation of what could be construed as Soccer Mom-ishness, but the only pejorative involved is the minivan. I can’t figure that out.

Yet, over the last couple of weeks I have had the great pleasure of driving the 2010 VW Routan minivan and the Toyota Sienna minivan, and in spite of my singing their praises – often to women who ask my opinion on vehicles all the time – all I got from women was snickers. I pick up this one kid for school almost every day, a friend of my younger son’s, and his mom generally comes out and makes sure he gets in the car okay and all, and she sneered. I said the Toyota minivan was the finest vehicle I had driven all year, and it didn’t help. No minivans for her.

Another woman, a neighbor, and her husband and children came over to see the Sienna, and to drive it, as the man of the house really wants one and the Sienna is the only minivan left on the market with an All-Wheel-Drive option. He’s practical. She snickered. “Wouldn’t a SUV be better?,” she asked, obviously harboring soccer mom visions. I pointed out that a minivan is so much easier, that the doors open themselves and the kids can just hop in from school, and if there are friends they can all pile in and you’re good to go. The mom reacted as if this was sound advice, but I believe we’ll be seeing a new 7-passenger SUV in their garage soon.

Young men, of course, wouldn’t be caught dead driving a minivan until they are married and fathers and nerds by definition, but the stigma doesn’t extend to older men. My children’s grandfather, who can afford any vehicle he wants, has been driving a minivan for years. He and his wife travel all over and they like the flexibility of a minivan for its gear room and guest-rider spots, and this grandfather says he just likes the way they drive. Good visibility, much easier to get in and out of than a SUV, comfortable, all the bells and whistles, easy to park, loves the sliding doors and the automatic-opening/closing side doors and rear hatch.

That’s me, too. That’s why I am a soccer mom. I love driving minivans. I love driving them around town, to work and on errands, and I think they are the very best highway road vehicles on the market. 

 

VW Routan


The first one I got into was the 2010 Routan from VW. I am very impressed overall with VW, because after a few years of trying things very un-VW-like (the Phaeton, an $80,000 VW that was a bust), they have gone back to what makes them what they are – solid German vehicles with great performance, great looks and a real distinctiveness that is lacking in most lines that aren’t German (re: Japanese cars).

The Routan is an odd duck, however, in that the minivan isn’t exactly a German thing. Audi and Mercedes have something that is close, but they are really crossovers and more like a SUV (no sliding doors), and BMW makes no pretention and doesn’t tread here. So this is a vehicle made exclusively for the North American market. By saying it is an odd duck, though, I do not mean to cast aspersions: like most all VWs, this is well made and a solid competitor.

What sets the Routan apart from every other minivan I have driven is its heft: this vehicle feels very heavy and very solid, much more than anything else. I looked up the weight of this and the Toyota, which felt less heavy, only to discover it is an illusion: the Routan weights 4,621 lbs., while the Toyota Sienna comes in at 4,735 lbs. Nevertheless, the Routan felt more substantial.

I enjoyed driving the Routan right from the start. Equipped with a 4.0-liter V6 engine putting out some 251 hp, the Routan is no speed demon, but neither is it lacking in oomph. It was just that it felt so heavy, that if anything it lacked the kind of torque that would make it quick off the line. Until, like most German cars, you figure out how to drive it: the Routan needs to be revved up, and then it really can go.

In the way back of the Routan, behind the automatic liftgate (I love that feature; the side doors were automatic too), the floor is sunken, quite a bit, which makes storage for groceries and the like a breeze. Plus, the rear, third seat folds down into the cavern, so you can make the back of the van perfectly flat for storing things like ski and luggage for a trip. Then there are storage bins in the floor around the second row of seats, and cup holders all around. It’s certainly not the camper like the old VW Vanagen or Eurovan – this is all American minivan – but it is a great vehicle. Really liked it.

And the Routan I drove was quite equipped. Great stereo, a navigation system – all the bells and whistles, except that it didn’t have a sunroof (I am sure you can get one).

The Routan comes in 10 trims, ranging from the base model S with a 3.8-liter V6 with 197 hp (rated at 16/23), with a base price of $25,900, to the SEL Premium with the larger engine, carrying a base price of $42,500.

I drove the SEL w/RSE & Nav – the RSE standing for Rear Seat Entertainment system, and like most German cars it took a little while and an education, and the help of my 12-year-old, to figure out how to make the movie play in the rear seat. Then I couldn’t figure out how to play the movie back there and listen to the radio, which I am sure can happen, but that probably takes an advanced degree.

Anyway, with the navigation and the RSE included in the base price, the Routan SEL carried a MSRP of $33,500, and it was pretty loaded at the price. They only added on the destination charge, so the bottom line was $34,300 – a great price in this minivan marketplace, especially for what you get here.

Toyota Sienna


On the other hand, the negative about the Routan was that I immediately drove the 2011 Sienna from Toyota right after it. I know Toyota is having its problems, and everyone is beating them up, but man, this is a nice vehicle.

A few years ago I drove the Sienna and said I thought it was getting dated, that everything else in the Toyota lineup was a class leader but that the minivan from the venerable company had fallen off. Still a good vehicle, but the competition had gone by it.

They have changed that. This is now in a class by itself. Just so you know, my favorite vehicle on the road today is the Mercedes E350 sedan – I just love the look and feel of the car, and the classy way it drives. The Toyota Sienna is the Mercedes of Minivans. It is beautiful, inside and out but especially on the inside where the leather is perfect, the wood grain on the dash, steering wheel and doors is stunning, and where the driving is effortless, yet has great feel. So many minivans float on too-soft shocks and struts (they are, after all, trucks on a car chassis), but this one is tight as a drum and feels like the classiest vehicle I have ever driven.

I had the top-of-the-line Limited with the 3.5-liter V6 engine, but even though it was a smaller engine than the Routan, it was more powerful: 266 hp that felt like more (mileage rating: 16/22). This Sienna had get up and go-go-go, from a dead start, on the street and on the highway. My wife usually chides me for speeding in a muscle car or a Beemer or something, but all week in the Sienna she was on me for excessive speed. A minivan with guts, a minivan that is very, very fun to drive. Who knew?   I suspected later that she had ulterior motives: she wanted to drive it, and when she did she raced around too.

Our test-drive model had everything: all the bells and whistles, the automatic doors, navigation, one of the finest stereos and sound systems on the market, and all that. But it had extras that made it special. First, the rear-seat entertainment system featured a wide-screen television screen that my son proclaimed the very best on the market. It was easy to use, easy to set up – it took me no time at all to figure it out – and the front seat passengers could listen to the radio while the kid was in back on wireless, and quiet headphones.

It also has two sunroofs – one over the front seats, and one over the middle seats, both of which open up, a real nice touch. The Sienna also has the cavernous rear storage area, and fold-down-flat third row seating, plus the middle captain’s chairs can slide way back or far forward, swivel, and they are easy to remove so the entire rear area can be an open van. Very intelligent design.

But the one thing that separates the Sienna from the minivan pack is the availability of AWD, and my test-drive model had it. I didn’t run into any weather to check it out fully, but I am sure that it would be a big asset in the wintertime for safer driving.

The Sienna doesn’t come cheap, however. There are 12 trims available, beginning with a front-drive 4-passenger model with a 2.7-liter I4 engine with 187 hp (rated at 19/26), with a MSRP of $24,260 going all the way to this Limited model. Somewhere along the line you can configure the Sienna for 8-passenger seating, in both FWD and AWD models. While the base price, at $39,770 is less than the top-of-the-line Routan, Toyota likes to add on a bunch of stuff. My fully-loaded test drive model included a $4,025 Premium Package that had the entertainment system, navigation, upgraded stereo (wonderful), a backup camera, hands-free Bluetooth, an iPod connection, voice commands, and a few more things. They also added $890 for High Intensity Discharge headlamps, automatic high beams, and rain-sensing wipers, and $185 for a roof rack. Add in $800 in destination charges, and the bottom line is $45,670.

I realize that is a hunk of money, and you can get a model with fewer features for under $30,000, but I have to report that this loaded 2011 Sienna is really the must-have model.

I think it’s so wonderful that I truly believe that it would overcome most, if not all, soccer mom anxiety.    

I loved it so much I’d take your kids to soccer practice.