2021 Toyota Redundant Sienna

I have a Toyota van which has been converted to a handicapped vehicle by VMI. On June 14,2022, I took it to a local Toyota dealer to have the recall notice taken care of. (recall no. 22TA03). After an hour and a half I was told the dealer could not do the reprogramming because their computer would not communicate with my computer. They said they called three different dealers who could not tell them how to solve the problem. My selling dealer said to take it to another dealer but I haven't been able to do that yet. I believe any dealer should be able to perform recall reprogramming efforts.

While driving approximately 70 MPH the vehicle tends to "float" or wanted to change lanes on me. The vehicle would jerk to the left or to the right requiring corrective action on my part. At first I attributed the problem to the windy conditions, but later decided the wind was not the cause. It appears that when driving less than 40 MPH, there is no problem. This problem continued for my entire trip (about 1400 miles). This is a vehicle that was modified by VMI into a handicapped accessible van. I don't know if regular Toyotas do this or not.

I went on a trip to Missouri to visit my son and family. When going through St. Louis on 5/18/2022 I ran through a thunderstorm with a lot of rain. After I stopped, I noticed a puddle of water between the front seats. I could not find out where it came from. Later that same day I went through another storm. Again I found a puddle of water between the seats. This is a vehicle that was modified by VMI into a handicapped accessible van. Water coming in is concerning due to all the electrical components that could be shorted out. I don't want to find out later that there is rust damage nor damage to the electrical systems because of water entering the vehicle.

After the vehicle has been parked for a while, after starting the car the brakes give the following intermittent behavior. When releasing the brake pressure gradually, the vehicle will not move until the brake pedal is fully released. The vehicle then lurches and rolls backward quickly. Additional pressure then must be applied to stop the car. The car should start to move when the brakes are gradually released and not wait until the brakes are fully released. This happens almost every time I start the car. It is a recurring problem.

While traveling in the far left lane of a four lane highway with a speed limit of 70 mph my car started to fish tale but I was able to control it. The cars behind me saw the blowout of my rear passenger tire and slowed down so that I could move to the far right breakdown lane. No warning light came on at any time to alert me of any problems with any of the tires. I always maintain the correct tire pressure. I had a tire company replace all four tires because I was afraid of the other three tires doing the same thing. When I picked up my car the next day the service dept said the brakes didn't work. I had to have the Sienna towed to a Toyota dealer to repair a crushed brake line caused by the blowout. We kept the tire and have taken many pictures.

My husband and I were pulling out of a parking lot, and needed to cross two lanes of south bound to end up in one of the two lanes of north bound traffic. Upon pulling out, the van stopped accelerating. We were stopped, sideways in the two lanes of southbound traffic. My husband checked to make sure the van was in drive, and it was. He tried accelerating a few times, and nothing happened. Finally, after about 10 seconds, the van began to accelerate once the accelerator was pressed again. He didn’t have to turn the van off or restart it or anything. This was absolutely terrifying. Before he pulled out, he checked to make sure there was no traffic coming from either side. Thankfully, the vehicles approaching noticed us sideways in the road and were able to slow down in time, as to not hit us. I know this vehicle has many safety features and when those go off, we’re given a warning whether it be a BRAKE warning across the dash, or other alerts. Not a single thing alerted us during this incident, and I have no idea why the van just stopped accelerating. The next day, Toyota inspected it (coincidentally we were told a Regional Toyota Manager was there that day and looked at it as well) and said the low voltage needed updated and that could possibly be the issue, but they weren’t sure. In looking at the paperwork from that day, they noted we said the battery wouldn’t hold a charge. We never said that. What we said was our van stopped accelerating as we were pulling out of a parking lot. This could have ended up very badly. We could have been hit. We have 3 children and I’m terrified this might happen again.

Our Sienna has had incidents of unintendedly accelerated a minimum of 25 times. I have been unable to stop the vehicle several time to the point where I have had to go through a lighted stop intersection. There have been numerous "close calls” where I have nearly hit the vehicle in front of me. My wife, while driving to pick up my 4 children, actually bumped into a vehicle in front of her. It is a serious risk to expect that I drive the vehicle with my wife and 4 kids inside, yet Toyota expects I will drive the Sienna for over a month while they wait to get the report back about the vehicle. I am not willing to put my life at risk along with my wife and four children while we wait for Toyota to address the issue. We brought the Sienna in after the initial few close calls (March 14, 2022), and they were unable to find anything wrong. After receiving the vehicle back, the issue continued. Once my wife was in an accident with the Sienna, we have decided we will not be driving it until we are assured it has been resolved. It was brought back to Toyota on April 19, 2022). At this point and I not confident Toyota will be able to fix the issue. Toyota has deemed the car safe to use; even though they have not received back the report. It's reckless and immoral to knowingly place someone in a vehicle that has already caused 1 accident (although thankfully very minor) and something I am unwilling to do. Meanwhile Toyota has offered nothing to keep me safe or offered a vehicle in the meantime. The forward collision does not work. The entire vehicle is available for inspection. I am not certain what Toyota has inspected, but an inspection was performed on May 10th and the results will not be available until June 13th. Problem is not able to be reproduced as the car has not been driven. The warning sign prior to the accident was numerous other near misses.

Braking is slow or non-existent on random occurrences. Although the car is automatic, it feels like you are pushing in the clutch when brakes are needed. At times when braking too, it feels as if the car lunges. On two occasions, I narrowly missed hitting an object. Its as if the braking hesitates. The dealer said that this is the design based on the vehicles software. They asked us to call Toyota’s customer service to complain.

3rd row seat components in 2021 Toyota Sienna 60/40 configuration. Both portions of the seats do not stay in the stowed position. Initially I assumed it was user error such as not pushing them down all the way or something not latching. After evaluation, the 2021 Sienna 3rd row seats do not have a way to latch down. When stowed and in motion the back portion of the seats begin to lift and when breaks are engaged, the car turns or slows down each section of the seats will thrust forward and lock into the seated position. The back being loose and starting to rise seems to give the bottom portion momentum to pop up quickly. This has caused multiple objects flying if they are not heavy enough and are resting on the seat stowed. Additionally, the reason to bring real awareness is that my son was sitting in the single seat and the other side had been placed in the stowed position, while driving the seat lunged and caught my son’s elbow. The dealership evaluated and stated they do not see a definitive cause, they are replacing all parts related under warranty to trouble shoot and hopefully find an issue. The fact that there is no latching mechanism to hold them down is a hazard altogether. This needs to be addressed for the safety of passengers. All that went through my head when my son was hit was “what if his arm was down, it would have gotten his fingers or caused serious damage