With the minivan segment continuing to diminish in the marketplace, Toyota has unveiled its all-new 2011 Sienna as more of a significantly refreshed version. It’s not a huge departure from the previous generation model, but it does get a long list of upgrades including a new interior and exterior as well as a new standard 4-cylinder engine.

***UPDATE*** 2011 Toyota Sienna Info and Pictures Available Here ***UPDATE***

The assembly line at Honda’s Alabama manufacturing plant in Lincoln, positioned along I-20 about 40 miles east of Birmingham, hums as thousands of workers conspire with robotic machines to stamp and cast, rivet and weld, paint and assemble sleek new 2010 issues of the Odyssey minivan.

Back in 2004 Oprah Winfrey gave away 276 Pontiac G6s to her audience members. And like all things Oprah touches, it turned to gold – gold for Pontiac and General Motors anyway. Popularity of the car shot up overnight and now Volkswagen is hoping for a repeat performance as Oprah will reportedly give away two Routan minivans on an upcoming show.

Nissan used to use the slogan “Enjoy the ride” as a cute catch phrase to describe its vehicles. It’s a shame they’ve gone away from it because, as crazy as life is sometimes, we need to be reminded to enjoy what we have. Surprisingly, the Nissan Quest minivan is a vehicle worth enjoying. In fact, my own daughter enjoys ours so much that she’s nick-named it “the Magic Bus” in honor of Nissan’s commercials which use that famous old hit song by The Who.

It’s confession time; I own a Mazda5. In one sense this means that I already like the vehicle and think it’s a great buy. In another sense, I am intimately familiar with its shortcomings.

There is little to distinguish Volkswagen’s Routan minivan from its Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country origins – very little.

According to a report by Edmunds InsideLine, Nissan will move production of the 2010 Quest and Titan, as well as the Infiniti QX56, outside the United States – a move that is sparking rumors that several Nissan models might be on the chopping block.

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Is it a car, wagon, sport ute or minivan? It’s none of the above. Actually, the Kia Rondo is all four. The Korean car maker describes it as a “family-oriented urban utility vehicle.” With a seating capacity of up to seven (on EX models), a plethora of cargo-carrying configurations and oodles of standard equipment the likes of steel unibody construction, four-wheel ABS disc brakes, electronic stability and traction control, fully automatic climate controls, six-way power adjustable driver’s seat, power doors, locks, windows and mirrors, plus six wraparound airbags, it fits this bill. With all this and much more packed neatly into the base model, “Rondoism” is poised to attract new members.

Everywhere you look, the automotive landscape is changing and GM’s balance sheet has not escaped the significant North American economic crisis. The General has however made the move to accommodate the consumer shift toward smaller, more fuel efficient cars and crossovers.

Does the HHR deserve to wear the SS badge? Let’s start with the aforementioned powerplant. Despite having just 2.0-liters of displacement, the SS mill has been turbocharged, intercooled and features direct injection. As a matter of fact, no production engine ever produced by General Motors has produced as much power-per-liter as this Ecotec four-banger. When mated to the standard five-speed manual transmission, the engine offers up a meaty 260-horsepower and 260 ft-lbs of torque, though it’s toned down a bit when coupled with GM’s 4T45 four speed automatic, producing 235 hp in that configuration. We’d stick with the stick, so to speak. For what it’s worth, the drivetrain is shared with the Cobalt SS in both two and four door bodystyles as well as the Pontiac Solstice GXP and Saturn Sky Redline. It’s a gem in all of its assorted applications, so if it’s the engine you’re after, you have a wide assortment of wrappers to get it in.

People, apparently, enjoy having children. That must be why there’s such a market for six and seven passenger crossover vehicles, not to mention renewed interest in minivans. Nothing is more embarrassing than not being able to give your children’s friends a lift after band practice. Heaven forbid! While you can’t downsize in the children department, (legally) more people are retreating from their immense slabs of SUV in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient crossover models like the Kia Rondo and Mazda 5. This new class of not-quite-a-car, not-quite-a-minivan have been popular in Europe and Japan for years.

The Chrysler minivan, a bread and butter vehicle for the company since 1984, has never been known as a paragon of advanced technology—other than cupholders and other consumer-pleasing tech like power side doors and Stow-and-Go seats.