My 04 Toyota Sienna was equipped with automatic sliding doors. I thought this was really cool when I first got it but then they would keep cycling open and almost shut over and over. I had to force then shut by pushing on them. When the first door failed (right side) the Sienna was still under extended warranty and Toyota fixed it but when I asked about the left side they said it was still working so they would not fix it. It was clearly showing signs that it was going to fail soon. Was still working but dragging. Of course just as soon as it was past the extended warranty the left side failed. Cost to repair is more than $1000. So I just left it shut and used the van as a single slider since the right side works after the repair under warranty. Poor engineering by Toyota.

Bought the vehicle used in 2011. Got screwed by the dealership. Had pollen on the vehicle and we bought it before we saw the big dent in it. They would not renegotiate on the price. Well a year later screwed by Toyota because the cable to the sliding door on the driver side came out. How annoying!!! They should recall that because when you buy a minivan for your children to ride in with automatic sliding doors and you have a handful of items in your hand you should be able to open the door automatically. Toyota you should do the right thing by RECALLING THIS PROBLEM PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have read a lot of complaints on this very issues!

Recently, about June or July 2012 I got a RECALL letter from TOYOTA on this issue (of broken cable of the sliding door on SIENNA, maybe on many different years model I don’t remember, I don’t have the letter with me now). I brought the car in the TOYOTA dealer, talked to a service rep who connected me to a TOYOTA rep. who … finally told me because I did not take the offer back then to have it fixed and TOYOTA would pay for part of it so now it’s over. She said if I had it fixed and sent them the bill they would reimburse the amount I paid for. I told her I did not agree with the settlement they offer back at that time then how could I have it fixed back then? She said she’s sorry and could not do anything. To me that was a bullshit reason. This is what I think: all the TOYOTA reps like them would try to save the company’s $$$ as much so as to cover their butt, safe and not burning, at the expense of the customers. Of course, they would calculate the risk that not a lot of people would complain on the issue they are dealing with. She said TOYOTA would reimburse me if I had it fixed only because I told her I did not have it fixed. But if I told her otherwise she would find some other reasons to deny their responsibility. If you search on the GOOGLE on this 2004 TOYOTA SIENNA POWER DOOR CABLE MOTOR BUSTED you would a variety of the TOYOTA rep’s LYING and CUNNING WAY of AVOIDING their responsibility on the errors they made on the SIENNA. What’s about RECALL on other toyota automobiles?

Instead of using stainless steel cables for the power side doors, Toyota used regular metal cables that rust out and fail over time. This cost saving material choice rears it's ugly head over time, after the vehicle is out of warranty. The cost to repair is estimated at over $700 per door, just to REPLACE THE CABLE.

Warning. If you are planning to spend more $ to buy a Sienna over another vehicle for the sake of quality, save the 7 grand and buy something else.

Lastly, reporting the problem to Toyota was a complete waste of time. "It's beyond the 3year/36,000 mile coverage" ...no kidding! They did not seem very interested when I passed along my thoughts of using better quality cables that don't rust out after 7 years.