Q. Why are the prices for the Toyota Sienna van so much higher than their competition?

A. One big reason is that Toyota typically has a higher resale value than most. Consider this:
car A costs $12,000 new
car B costs $10,000 new

Car A costs a lot more right? Well, what if in three years:
car A is worth $7,800 (65% resale value)
car B is worth $4,000 (40% resale value)

If you want to buy new again at this point, it would cost:
$4,200 for car A
$6,000 for car B
(Assuming the same price for both new...right!)

So the $2,000 you saved initially is pretty much gone. Plus next time around it will actually COST you more for car B; and so on.

Toyota also happens to make an excellent product