2009 Toyota Venza AWD V-6 Review
Toyota Venza, what the hell is this thing? Your first reaction is to call it a biggest
Crossover but now not quite. Toyota calls it an optimized vehicle. Let’s see what they
optimized and check the tech.
Though inside the Venza is nothing if not spacious, that’s the first impression you get. In
fact, it reminds me a bit of the Ford Flex which is a bigger vehicle but it’s that same idea
of plenty of room without being in a full SUV.
All Venzas, no matter how they are equipped have that little what? Three-inch multi
function display up there and that shows you all kinds of information about the vehicle’s
status. This one here though is optional. This is your navigation screen and that’s part of a
package, a pricy package at that, more or later. As you can see it’s kind of a slightly
coarsened version of what we’ve seen in many Lexus vehicles. It is a touch screen with
big, well responding buttons.
It offers live traffic information which is nice or you can control the navigation system by
a voice command.
Now, as you can see it does one of my favorite things. It gives me a list of what I can say
that it will understand, that’s smart. Now, we’ve got the high end audio system, GDL
synthesis, this is called. I was very impressed of how it handles compressed digital media
like MP3’s particularly of a Bluetooth streaming smart phone. It just sounded great and I
love the fact that it’s got Bluetooth streaming, still pretty edgy stuff on cars. No HD
radio, disappointingly, satellite radio is there, CD is interesting. If you have the upgraded
audio system, you get a six slot internal. If you go for the NAV, it drops down to four
slots for the discs, a little bit of a sacrifice there. Here’s our Bluetooth for our hands free
streaming and of course of AUX jack refers to this guy right down here, traditional.
Rear view camera is part of a package not every Venza is going to have this. Though
every Venza should because that’s a pretty big bunch of stuff you’ve got to see over back
there. The camera quality is quite crisp but there are no guidelines or trajectory marks to
let you know where you’re going. You just got to learn how far that is to whatever you
see. Some other tasty options on this car are a panoramic glass roof, also a rear seat
entertainment system. Unfortunately, that would be a single screen nine-inch display
dropping down right here in the way of your rear view mirror.
Now, we’re in the V6 Venza, there’s also a 2.7 liter four but I hate to step down from this
power plant because it moves the Venza very well without any fuss or having to spin up
the engine or row the gears. Just put the one choice only, six-speed auto and drive and
press the pedal on the right, 260 horsepower and 246 foot pounds of torque result. MPG
is a pretty good 1926. You can slap the shift throw over to the left to get into a manual
gear mode. It does add more responsiveness but it kind of seems like asking a guy in a
suit to run. It’s a quiet car with the imperfections of the road rather well dumped out
without feeling like a wallowing beast.
I keep staring at the outside too. It’s built on the Camry highlander platform but I can’t
quite put my finger on how they kept it looking like a car. I think if the side window arc
were arched it would look just like an Infiniti FX and then be squarely in that truckier
territory of Crossovers. And of course those 20-inch wheels help make the body look
rather alive. Put some 17’s on this thing and watch it get—.
Let’s price this big, whatever it is. The Venza V6 front wheel drive starts at about
$31,000.00, add about $1500.00 for all wheel drive. Now, Bluetooth is pretty cheap at
300 bucks ala carte but after that, you’ve got to get into some chunky packages to get all
the other tech toys I showed you. Those packages are either $7000.00 or $7600.00. Now,
we’re pushing 40 grand pretty hard. This maybe an optimized vehicle, I’m just not sure
it’s optimized for the current economy.
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