Test drive: 2009 Toyota Venza
Tuesday November 4, 2008
So what is a test drive of the 2009 Toyota Venza -- which is clearly a crossover SUV and not a car -- doing on the Cars site? There's actually a little story behind that. All is explained in my 2009 Toyota Venza quick test drive. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go vote! -- Aaron Gold
Photo © Aaron Gold
This seems like a really nice crossover. With the base engine & AWD, it’s still gets a very acceptable 20/28 mpg, plus it has good dimensions,Toyota quality, great looks(my opinion) and best of all super resale value…
I’ll bet we’ll see a lot of big SUV’s getting traded for this vehicle, in spite of this dreadful car sales market.
Considering that Toyota already offers the similar sized Highlander and RAV4 crossovers it is kind of odd that they thought they needed another one. Still, it does look a lot more car-like than either of their other crossovers and more like a STATION WAGON. I think it has a strong resemblence to Toyota’s Camry. It’s kind of surprising that they didn’t name it the “Camry Venza” which would let them count it as a Camry and add to the sales figures for the Camry.
Aaron,
I can’t help but notice the extremely similar styling to the Mazda CX-9. I can’t possibly imagine the two companies working together on this, so was Toyota just in love with the CX-9 styling and decided to apply it to its own vehicle? I also agree that it’s a rather big vehicle for only seating 5. My Mazdaspeed 3 seats five too!
Can you say “Station Wagon” ?