When it comes to looking at a vehicle for my family, safety is my top priority. I am carrying precious cargo each and every time I step into a car with my kids, so it is important to me that I know they are safe. The 2015 Toyota Sienna offers a long list of safety features to ensure that we are comfortable as we ride down the road.
Keeping Us Safe
As parents when we look at safety, there are outward features we may notice that are obvious… but may not even notice those things keeping us safe on the inside. Let me explain what I mean.
When you look at a car, what are the features you notice at first glance? Seatbelts, airbags, child safety locks… you know… the things we know to look for and use each time we are in the car. And the Sienna has plenty of these types of visible safety features:
- 3-point Emergency Locking Retractor (ELR) seatbelt for the driver’s seat and Automatic/Emergency Locking Retractors (ALR/ELR) for all passenger belts
- Front sealbelts with pretensioners and force limiters
- Driver and front passenger seatbelt warning system
- Driver and front passenger seat-mounted side airbags
- Driver knee airbag
- Three-row side curtain airbag
- CRS LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren)
- Child protector sliding door locks
- Daytime running lights w manual on/off feature
Okay, now what about those safety features inside the vehicle that are engineered to keep us safe? Often, we may not realize how they play into keeping us safe on the road, but that is really their underlying motive.
Even options such as the hands-free phone capability, phone book access, advanced voice recognition and music streaming via Bluetooth® wireless technology. All of these things play a part in the whole scheme of keeping us safe. Take a look at more features:
- STAR Safety System which includes Anti-Lock Brakes (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist (BA), Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), and Traction Control (TRAC)
- Front ventilated disc / rear solid disc brakes
- Blind Spot Monitor with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert
- Tire pressure monitor system
- Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC)
- Driver and front passenger Active Headrests
- 180-degree wide-angle view backup camera
- Energy absorbing collapsible steering column
- Reinforced steel unitized body with high-tensile strength steel (front and rear crumple zones)
- Side impact beams in front and sliding side doors
- Windshield wiper de-icer grid
- Battery-saver feature
Now, perhaps you already knew that the headrests played into the overall safety of the minivan. I did not really think about it until I began to both write and research cars. Plus, it is not that I did not think the brake system was not a part of the safety features I should look for, they are simply something I did not look at in depth. An option I would leave to Staci to know about. But, as I learn more, I realize how important it is to know for myself.
