TOYOTA VENZA
Beautiful cars of yesteryear weren't full of overwrought styling idiosyncrasies or oversized wheels and grille badges. Clearly then, the Toyota Venza is not a beautiful car. Nevertheless, the Venza is a bold approach from a conservative automaker. Tall wagons are all the rage, yet a Toyota foray into this segment assembles an aura of general acceptance because of its underpinnings and the brand's reputation.
The foundation of the Toyota Venza is as solid a platform as can be found in the North American marketplace. Venzas can be equipped for budget-minded family car buyers or elite performance crossover costumers looking for fun, luxury, and the obvious dose of practicality. MIndful of its competition, you may believe the Venza to be too small inside, too big outside, or more car-like (or truck-like) than necessary.To be precise, the Toyota Venza is the everyman's car. The capacity to haul whatever it is that consumes your busy life is present and accounted for. Your concerns may revolve around fuel economy or dynamics - the Venza ought to alleviate such paranoia. Venza buyers are the smart ones. They're the ones buying a traditional vehicle wrapped in a modern skin. Like the Matrix beneath and the 4Runner above, the Venza suits your supposed "active lifestyle" to a T. Granted, Toyota's Venza does so with a design that'll force forgetfulness of your grandparents' station wagon.
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Engines: 182/268; 182/246 lb-ft of torque from a 2.7L inline-four or a 3.5L V6
Base USD Price: $25,975
City Mileage: 19-21 mpg
The Camry: It's easy for Toyota to make a whole lot of money off the Camry. First, they sell a whole lot of Camrys; over 400,000 a year in the USA alone. Then they use the Camry's platform and/or engines in numerous other vehicles, including this Venza. Imagine a Camry that looks good, isn't identical to your neighbours car, with the utility of a tall wagon, for not much more money than the Camry itself? That'd be the Toyota Venza.
We saw one of these last night. It looks like my kind of car, but it seems a little wide. I'd have to try parking it in a parking garage before thinking about buying one.
ReplyDeleteThe front end is agregious. Other than that the Venza makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeletenot surprised on its sales outselling the sedan. What baffles me is the pricing of the Honda Crosstour which I would think was brought out to compete against the Venza, but its over $5,700 (Cdn) more than the base Venza and nearly $10,000 (Cdn) more than their base Accord sedan - where's the logic???
ReplyDeleteGood point.The Accord Crosstour makes the Venza look like an even better deal.
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