Viva la Venza

2009 Toyota Venza

I started seeing the commercials for Toyota’s all- new Venza in January.

I remember thinking that for all the talk about the car industry doing so poorly, Toyota certainly was spending some cash on marketing and advertising for this new “little engine that could.”

I finally got one parked in the Telegram parking lot and it is a good-looking and good-riding vehicle.

My first question was, as was most people’s who approached me about this car, “what is it?”

The Venza falls under that vague category of “crossover,” that can mean something different to whoever is telling the story or review.

To me, the Venza is a big wagon. It’s brawnier than a typical family wagon-mobile, but underneath it all, it’s a station wagon.

Seating five people very comfortably, the Venza is kind of like a hybrid of Toyota’s flagship Camry and a Toyota Highlander.

The Venza has the same length as the Camry sedan, but shares the Highlander crossover’s width and ride height. Like a politician falling right along the middle, the Venza is 5.5 inches taller than the Camry and 4.7 inches shorter than the Highlander.

Also just like the Camry and the Highlander, the Venza offers four- and six-cylinder engine choices. Although the V6 option is basically identical among all three, the Venza shares the Highlander’s larger 2.7-liter inline-4, with 5 fewer horsepower. In the Venza you get 268 horses which is quite adequate for pushing this wagon. I recently drove the Chevy Traverse which did have a little more oomph than the Venza at 281 horsepower, but the Venza is much faster than Volvo’s V50 wagon.

I thought the interior space in the Venza was just right.

The Venza is wider for seating passengers than a V50, a Volkswagen Passat wagon or the Subaru 9-3 wagon.

My passengers were impressed that the back seat had a reclining option. This feature contributed to high marks for seat comfort.

It’s got a total cargo capacity of 70 cubic feet, which is substantially less than a Traverse and about even with its other competitors.

The Venza doesn’t have a third row seat option, which would make it really stand out in its category if it did. Only the Traverse offers this option now.

The interior design of the Venza and the high quality materials are superlative. All my adult passengers commented the Venza certainly did look nice, inside and out.

The climate control buttons and audio system buttons were very easy to use as was the rear seat DVD system. The navigation system was one of the best I’ve used in a while. Everything is encased in a sleek center dash console that is easy to see and reach.

There’s plenty of bins, seemingly separated into two categories: the larger bins for random stuff and smaller bins for small tech-gadgets like iPods and Blackberries. Jacks were located in the smaller bins.

The Venza has a small rear window that created a bigger blind spot than I like, but definitely contributed to the cool aerodynamic design the Venza boasts.

Driving the Venza was just like driving a Camry: kind of boring and mushy. You definitely get a sportier ride in the Subaru 9-3. But most people looking to buy a wagon/crossover, aren’t necessarily looking for performance or precise handling in sharp turns. The Venza offers an excellent ride for passengers and a very likable driving experience for drivers.

Before I had the Venza, I had imagined it would be priced in the low $20,000. I was wrong.

The base price for the front-wheel drive Venza with a V6 engine is $27,800. With all the bells and whistles added on, the price jumped to $37,567, which is what you’d pay for a comparable Traverse, V50 or Passat wagon.

I like to imagine that designers and engineers at Toyota sat down and took the best parts of both the Camry and the Highlander and synthesized them to make a new product. Is that creative and smart or lazy and unimaginative? Time will tell if families jump on board the Venza wagon.