Best Minivans of 2024

The best minivans of 2024 offer practicality, convenience, and dare we say it, a dash of luxury. Buying a minivan declares that you are a practical person who puts function first, so we’re not surprised your minivan research has landed you on our list of the best minivans for 2024.

How we made our picks

To create this list, the experts here at Car Talk tested each minivan currently on the market. We threw kids, luggage and dogs in them. We commuted in them. We threatened to turn them around if the kids didn’t stop messing with each other right now. We loaded them up with cargo. We took naps in the backseat while waiting for baseball practice to be over. While we were lucky enough to not test the crash worthiness of these minivans, we looked at data from the experts who did, and took the crash avoidance features that each minivan offers into account. We also looked at reliability data to figure out which minivan is least likely to leave you on the side of the road.

Everyone’s priorities and needs are different, but with this list, you’ll be able to find the best minivan for you. In addition to the Car Talk Staff Picks, we’ve included a bonus personal take from Car Talk’s co-founder Ray Magliozzi, who has probably the equivalent of 1,569,402 years of experience testing, fixing and pontificating about cars.

Car Talk staff picks for best minivans of 2024

• Best Minivan Overall: Honda Odyssey
• Best Budget Minivan: Kia Carnival
• Best Electrified Minivan: Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
• Best Minivan for Safety: Honda Odyssey or Kia Carnival
• Best Minivan for Reliability: Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna
• Best Minivan for Luxury: Kia Carnival
• Best Minivan for Snow: Toyota Sienna

Ray's personal take

With over four decades of doling out trusted automotive advice and extensive vehicle knowledge, both behind the wheel and under the hood, Car Talk's founder and original Tappet Brother Ray Magliozzi shares his first-hand experience and expert opinion about the Best Minivans for 2024.

Spoiler alert: sometimes Ray’s take is different from the rest of the Car Talk staff. And we think it’s helpful to show you all perspectives because there’s no single right or wrong opinion!

• Best Minivan Overall: I’d go with the Toyota Sienna here. I love the Odyssey, but the Sienna comes standard with a hybrid engine, and gets 36 miles per gallon. In a full sized minivan! It’s equally reliable and possibly a little softer riding than the Honda, if that appeals to you.

• Best Budget Minivan: The Kia Carnival is not bad. The penalty you pay for getting a cheap minivan is having to drive something called a Carnival.

• Best Electric Minivan: My choice is the Toyota Sienna, with the hybrid engine. Far better reliability, in my experience.

• Best Minivan for Reliability: Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna. Can’t argue with that.

• Best Minivan for Luxury: The high end Toyota Siennas are pretty damn plush. The Limited and Platinum versions should provide enough cush for even the most discriminating rear end. Plus, 36 mpg. That’d be my choice.

• Best Minivan for Snow: The Toyota Sienna with the AWD option.

What’s the best minivan? The Honda Odyssey

In our tests, the Honda Odyssey consistently came out as the best overall minivan, but there are other excellent vans out there. The Kia Carnival has the lowest starting price of any minivan, and the Toyota Sienna offers all-wheel drive or seating for up to eight. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is the only plug-in hybrid van on the market and can cover up to 32 miles on electric power alone.

Best budget minivan: Kia Carnival

The Kia Carnival has the lowest starting price of any van on the market, but that’s not the only reason we named it our best budget option. The Carnival has chunky, SUV-esque looks, so if you’re not thrilled about your new soccer mom milieu, you get a little bit of camouflage with the Carnival. Beyond that, the Carnival has tons of passenger and cargo space, as well as a 10-year/100,000-mile warranty so repairs won’t be busting your budget for a while.

Best electrified minivan: Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid

While you can’t get a pure electric minivan yet, the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid will get you closer than any other van on the market. While the Toyota Sienna also has a hybrid powertrain, the Pacifica Hybrid is a plug-in hybrid and can cover up to 32 miles on electric power alone. That can go a long way toward bringing down your carbon emissions for daily driving.

Best minivan for safety: Honda Odyssey or Kia Carnival

While all minivans have very good crash test scores, the Honda Odyssey and Kia Carnival just edge the others out with their performance in government tests. Both also offer a host of features that can help you avoid an accident, like automatic braking, 360 degree cameras, collision warning, lane departure warning and blind spot monitoring. Installing car seats in a breeze in both the Odyssey and Carnival.

Best minivan for luxury: Kia Carnival

Even though it has the lowest starting price in the class, the Kia Carnival can be optioned out like a luxury car. Rear seat entertainment, tri-zone climate control and second row seats that recline and have footrests make the Kia Carnival nicer than any minivan you grew up with.

Best minivan for snow: Toyota Sienna

The Toyota Sienna is the only minivan with available all-wheel drive, making it the best one in winter weather. But, before you go tearing down unplowed roads in your Sienna, make sure that you have proper snow tires.

Most reliable minivan: Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey

The Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey are two of the most highly rated minivans for reliability. That said, reliability can be a tricky thing to measure – even the best-engineered van will leave you stranded if you treat speed bumps like downhill mogul runs and change your oil as often as England changes monarchs. Still, there are some general trends in minivan reliability and the non-dopes at JD Power track them. They rate the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna highly for reliability, while the Chrysler Pacifica and Pacifica Hybrid don’t fare quite as well. The Kia Carnival hasn’t been rated for reliability yet.

What’s the safest minivan?

All minivans do well in crash tests. In fact, four of the five minivans on the market are rated as Top Safety Picks+ by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid was the only van that missed the award and that’s because it’s so similar to the regular Pacifica that IIHS didn’t include it in testing.

Active safety features available on most minivans include rear view cameras, automatic emergency braking and blind spot monitoring. Models may offer rear automatic emergency braking, lane keeping assistance and a 360-degree camera.

Should I buy a minivan?

If you’re looking for a comfortable and practical ride that’s easy to drive and can carry lots of people and cargo, you can’t beat a minivan.

At Car Talk, we live in Cheeto-stained sweatpants, so a minivan is plenty cool for us. That said, people who are cooler than we are might not find minivans to be stylish. Here’s our attempt at swaying the cool kids into seeing that a minivan could work for them.

• Minivans can typically hold more passengers and cargo than SUVs and crossovers.
• Minivans are easier to maneuver than many midsize and large SUVs and crossovers.
• Minivans tend to get better fuel economy than many SUVs and crossovers.
• Minivans have better outward visibility than many SUVs and crossovers.
• Minivans are easier for kids and people with limited mobility to get into and out of.
• You can comfortably stretch out and nap in the back of most minivans, sometimes sleeping so deeply that your kid’s little league coach has to bang on the windows to let you know practice has ended (not that we’d know this from personal experience).

How much do minivans cost?

New minivans cost between $33,000 and upwards of $55,000. The Kia Carnival has the lowest starting price, while the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, with its advanced powertrain, has the highest. You can save a significant chunk of change by looking at a used minivan without giving up many of the bells and whistles the newer vans have, as automakers don’t significantly change these models very often.

How many people can fit in a minivan?

Minivans typically seat up to seven people, though the Toyota Sienna can seat up to eight in certain configurations. The first two rows of any minivan tend to be the most comfortable, but the third rows are still decent – and downright luxurious when compared to the third rows in most SUVs and crossovers.

What should I look for in a minivan?

Minivans are all pretty much equal when it comes to performance, passenger and cargo space. What sets them apart is the comfort, convenience and safety features they offer. Look for a minivan with active safety features like automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, blindspot warning and a 360-degree camera. Your passengers will thank you if your van has tri-zone climate control and plenty of USB chargers and cupholders in the second and third rows. There are some kind of crazy minivan features, like a night vision camera that lets you spy on the backseat, built-in vacuums, and a system that projects the driver’s voice into the third row, but we’re old school and think you can skip these. Yelling works fine.

How much cargo space do minivans have?

All minivans have a ton of cargo space, so long as you aren’t hauling anything too heavy (please don’t transport gravel in the back of your minivan). Behind the third row of most vans there’s 30 to 40 cubic feet of cargo space, which easily swallows 7 carryon suitcases. Fold the third row in most vans and you jump to well over 80 cubic feet of space – enough for a couple of large dog kennels. Fold or remove the second row in most vans and you get upwards of a whopping 135 cubic feet of space. That’s enough space to help your friends move, so we recommend never sharing that fact with them. The Toyota Sienna has the least amount of cargo space, while the Kia Carnival has the most.

Are minivans good on gas?

For vehicles that can carry seven or eight people, yes, minivans are very good on gas. The real-world gas mileage of a van depends on the configuration, as well as the type of driving you do. The Toyota Sienna has a gas/electric powertrain that lets it get a combined fuel economy rating 36 mpg. While that beats the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid’s combined mpg rating of 30 mpg, the Pacifica hybrid is a plug-in and can go up to 32 miles on electricity alone. If you routinely drive less than 32 miles at a stretch, the Pacifica Hybrid will use less gas. If you want good gas mileage and never want to worry about charging to get it, go with the Sienna Hybrid.

Can I get an electric minivan?

You can’t get a fully electric minivan yet, but there are currently two strong electrified models on the market. The Toyota Sienna is a hybrid minivan – in fact, it’s only available as a hybrid, and its combination gas/electric powertrain uses less fuel than conventional minivans. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is a plug-in hybrid. That means you can charge it and get up to 32 miles of all-electric driving. When that range is used up, a gasoline engine kicks in. For daily commutes and errands, the Pacifica Hybrid will let you be all electric most of the time, and when it’s time for longer trips you won’t have to worry about finding charging stations. You can just fill up at the gas station.

Are minivans cool?

No, minivans are not cool. But let’s face it: you’re probably not cool either. And look – you’re probably looking at minivans because you have kids. You’re going to embarrass your kids no matter what you drive, so you might as well drive something practical and comfortable.