"America's minivan segment generated only 3.4% of the U.S. auto industry's new vehicle volume in 2014, down from 5.2% in 2007."
So said I earlier this week in my review of the updated 2015 Toyota Sienna, the only remaining all-wheel-drive minivan.
The Sienna was America's top-selling minivan in each of the last three months. And although the accompanying chart displays its official EPA mileage ratings at 16/23 mpg on the city and highway, front-wheel-drive Siennas are rated at 18/25. Forget the 14.4 mpg we saw during our test. Temperatures were brutal, the vehicle spent much of its time idling as we attempted to clear it (along with every other car on the street) of multiple inches of ice, the city streets on which the Sienna spent most of its stay were mostly snow-covered, and the van was fresh off the assembly line.
But could we have reasonably expected more than 16 mpg in city driving? Not according to the EPA.
A 2005 all-wheel-drive Sienna was also rated at 16 miles per gallon in the city, and it was marked down on the highway by just one mpg compared with our 2015 version. But at that time, the most efficient 4WD Ford F-150 was rated at 13 mpg in the city.
Pickup trucks have made massive progress. Ford's 2.7L EcoBoost V6 is rated at 18 mpg in 4WD trim today.
Minivans are impressive vehicles. But are we surprised that in a relatively em-pee-gee-conscious society, a dearth of progress will be rewarded when other vehicle categories are leaping forward?
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
The post Chart Of The Day: Is Minivan Fuel Mileage A Big Part Of The Problem? appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
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