Help us grow so we can bring you more videos! Like us on Facebook @ Station wagons are such an un-loved vehicle here in America. Which is why Toyota created the Venza, meet the spiritual successor to the old Camry Wagon. With its higher seating position, roomy cabin, and slightly odd looks; this vehicle is designed to appeal to empty nesters in search of more room but without driving the typical SUV. We think other than bland driving dynamics and an interior that could benefit from finishing school, it’s a fairy useful utility vehicle. Toyota still has too many crossovers in their line-up though 🙂
Over the years vehicle designs have gotten increasingly different in fact they’re so unique nowadays you really cannot just classify any car into just one category today let’s take a look at a vehicle that really defines that this is the toyota venza now the venza has actually been in toyotas lineup since 2009 the company just updated the car for 2013 with new
Styling front and rear now in terms of the design the venza is basically just a camry underneath think of it as a camry station wagon but of course station wagon is a dirty word here in the united states so toyota doesn’t call it that in terms of where the vins has slots in the lineup it’s in between a rav4 and a highlander the highlander has gotten too big and some
People will say the rav4 is too small now in terms of the overall length this is the same size as a camry in terms of front to rear in terms of width it is wider in terms of height it is taller as well although if you compare this car to its main competitors the venza is about four inches shorter in height and you can really tell that when you’re looking at this car
Especially if you park it next to the ford edge for example it’s one of its main competitors it’s much shorter in terms of the design the venza is typical toyota you have a camry inspired front end with this rather odd three stack grill which toyota did just update for 2013 with led running lights this particular one that i have is the four-cylinder base the venza
Essentially comes in two models base four-cylinder or base v6 surprisingly those 19-inch wheels come standard on this four-cylinder if you go for the v6 you’ll get 20-inch wheels rather large set of wheels for this type of vehicle it’s a crossover i don’t want to say suv it’s just a crossover and in terms of the rear the design at the back you can distinguish a
V6 from a four-cylinder by the dual exhaust for the six and then a single outlet for the four center you can see here there’s even a cutout in the bumper which shows where the other exhaust tip would be poking out now this vehicle has actually been surprisingly a decent success for toyota in terms of sales i personally think the company has way too many suvs same
With ford they have way too many suvs in their lineup but a lot of people a lot of empty nesters were looking for an suv type utility vehicle that wasn’t your average cookie-cutter suv and it’s the reason why honda has their crosstour which personally between the two i honestly think both vehicles are rather ugly but the design is an efficient design and it’s and
The shape of it leads to a lot of space in the interior as well as in the cargo capacity now when you look at the interior of the venza now toyota’s have gotten a lot of nok for having a lot having cheaper interiors for some of their newer designs now if you look past the interior for a second when you step inside the vehicle it’s actually got a very easy step
In height and it’s one of the reasons why this car is very popular with baby boomers or empty nesters i mean the this is a much easier step in height than a car and it’s not as high as a typical suv this particular one doesn’t have suede as smart access system it is available as an options is more of a basic one so basically speaking the ignition i’m glad to say
You have the traditional toyota dinger and then a very attractive set of led accented or illuminated instrumentation and then of course what you’re hearing is the 2.7 liter 4-cylinder from the corporate toyotas stable now when you shut the door surprisingly all the windows are automatic up and down i was not expecting that definitely nice a nice addition that
It’s nice to find is a nice surprise in terms of the interior design there’s a lot of good storage solutions here i mean you have this sliding armrest here this whole center console actually moves as well so you can see here when you open that really is very generous storage your usb and aux port is standard that was standard on every venza for 2010 and one thing
About this sliding storage capacity though it makes for a rather creaky interior in fact the interior of this vehicle is rather lackluster for me and it’s a shame to see it in a vehicle like the benz oh now don’t get me wrong the materials are soft touch on the dashboard and soft touch right here but the graining feels extremely cheap i hate this type of grading
Here and even though it is soft touch it just feels extremely extremely cheap and then this material right here is soft touch but you can see here the green feels like rubber made plastic it just feels horrible the fit and finish in this vehicle is quite crude as well it’s really unimpressive of toyota be putting something like this you can see here lot of the
Fitment between the panels don’t fit really well right here if you look right there you can see there’s a rather large unsightly gap that just doesn’t line up properly and the whole interior just creaks everything just creaks when you’re you know putting your or when you’re touching parts of the interior this armrest right here is padded but it’s kind of padded
With a leatherette vinyl material it’s not leather and see a pretty decent storage solution when you’re looking at this upper portion of the – this soft touch here but again the fit and finish is rather horrible you can see there are big gaps right there between the speaker covers and then even right here if you just touch this it’s very loose feeling and just
Doesn’t feel very tightly screwed together now the door panel is soft touch right here the same awful feeling graining that’s just not my taste our plastic right here then itself kind of softly padded leather right there and then you have this rather weird-looking fake carbon fiber plastic i guess it’s better than the ugly fake wood or the silver painted plastic it’s
Just odd to me this center console here you can see here shows a lot of wear and you can see the materials this is the hard plastic stuff here but when you look at the glove compartment it is damped it’s not lined with the fuzzy stuff but it’s a pretty good size overall i’m just not quite impressed with the interior other than those attractive set of instrumentation
Lighting the steering wheel is very toy to lighten um it’s electric power steering it doesn’t have a bull straight extension it’s not leather wrap this is the base maul i won’t feel it too much grief you can see here none of the some of the flash molding finishes they’re rather crude and there’s a quite a bit of sharp edges in here as well now the one thing that
Venza has going for it is the large back seat this is probably one of the largest back seats in the class and you can see here i have plenty of leg room to stretch out it’s probably one the reasons why this vehicle sells decently well there is an armrest right here with some cup holder cup holders the seat fabric material fills alright you have dual map pockets
When you shut the door surprisingly the door panel material is hard plastic it’s not the soft touch from the front you get a chrome door handle and then the leatherette vinyl stitching that’s padded right here off where your elbows are going to rest now a power tailgate is available in the venza but this one doesn’t have it and the cargo capacity is quite generous
With the seats up you have about 35 cubic feet of space fold them down with these little handles right here it’s a spring-loaded mechanism so it does work relatively well we fold that down and you’ll get about 70 cubic feet of space that’s roughly in line with the ford edge the nissan murano the crosstour is behind the cross rig is about 50 cubic feet of space and
Overall this is the reason why toyota built this kind of a car is for that generous cargo capacity and then of course when you get under the hood of the venza this is the company’s larger 2.7 liter 4 it’s not the same two and a half liter leaf either the camry it still has dual variable valve timing aluminum block it is port injected the numbers are 182 horsepower
And 182 foot-pounds of torque it runs on regular gas your choice is either front or all-wheel drive through a one choice only six-speed automatic transmission mpg with the front wheel drive model is 2129 not bad if you go for the v6 it drops to about 1925 with chrome wheel drive shave one mpg for all wheel drive let’s take a look at how it all works together now
As with any other toyota product that’s based off of a camry platform don’t expect the most fun vehicle in terms of driving dynamics this is kind of just your simple crossover suv that gives you a nice driving position that’s easy to drive it’s comfortable it’s quiet etc it’s a rather boring drive honestly but most buyers in this class are looking for exactly that
The 2.7 liter 4-cylinder is a rather interesting engine to me first of all it makes a weird sound it doesn’t sound like other toyota four-cylinder engines probably just because it’s a bigger engine i mean let’s face it 2.7 liters is approaching v6 displacement levels its 182 horsepower is nothing really special the extra torque from the larger displacement helps
This vehicle get off the line and the six-speed automatic is okay it’s nothing really special it has smooth shifts it does have a manual mode here there’s no paddle shifters the four and a half switching gears mechanism thing is not the right orientation for sporty driving but again this is not really a sporty driving vehicle so positive though the bends it does
Drive better than a camry the steering while is very numb and light the buddhafield it’s relatively precise the vehicle changes directions decently when you turn the wheel it’s not like this loosey-goosey steering that’s other camrys feel and then when you go around corners the vehicle does have some body lean but it’s not bad it’s safe its secure its comfortable
They will take you from point a to e with a decent ride quality and then a nice hushed cabin aside from the rather raspy engine with the dos introduced to the cabin get on the gas the brakes have a squishy feel i imagine the v6 models will feel better and then of course acceleration for the four-cylinder is adequate the cord crosstour offers a horse cylinder as
Well expect maybe zero to 60 times a little over nine seconds it’s on the slower side but people buy the four-cylinder because it’s got a better gas mileage if you guys are looking at an edge ecoboost the edge does have a little bit more power and it actually gets a little bit better gas mileage from the epa in terms of real-world i’m not sure which one will do
Better supposedly maybe this might do better or the accord crosstour because it’s a naturally aspirated engine the visibility out of here is good you have a pretty nice commanding view of the road i like the nice high seating position that people were looking for your blind spots aren’t that bad you have relatively big side mirrors a decent view out of the back
But mostly i’m just really impressed with the ride quality this thing despite the fact that it has 19-inch wheels i expected it to crash or bumps but it’s not bad it reule it rides relatively comfortably and toyota has managed to tune the suspension decently well for this kind of driving compared to the accord crosstour the crosstour probably drives a little bit
Sportier i like the exhaust note from the accord more i haven’t driven the four-cylinder crossed or just the six i gotta tell you both of these cars they feel relatively timid when you get on when you get in the curves just because of a higher ground clearance that these vehicles give you overall the vins is not a bad vehicle my only gripe sturly just have to do
With the rather dull driving dynamics typical toyota and then the cheap interior which i’m hoping toyota really rectifies with the next-generation venza i have been in a 2013 mildly updated mall and i got to say i’m still not impressed the interior still has the finish issues so i’m not sure why toyota hasn’t addressed it but overall i think they expected better
From them from this company so that brings me down to my final recommendations you guys are in the market for something like this should you still buy a benzo i think that it still deserves to be on your list just be sure that you’re ok with the rather who finishes in terms of the fit and finish but overall the venza offers a nice blend of ride comforts of power
Of efficiency of space i mean this is where the room is filling cabins in the class it definitely feels we’re nearer and wider than accord crosstour in terms of price it lines up well these things get rather expensive the space small i’m driving is about in the logical and the magic ty 20s to start and then you can load it up with everything it’s coaching 40,000
The edge still surprising the end of murano are is still one of the more expensive ones while the vendors and the fox tour has gotten a little bit cheaper but anyways with all that said hope you guys have enjoyed my overview of this 2010 toyota venza from the market for this type of vehicle make sure you add one to your list thanks so much watching i’ll catch you later
Transcribed from video
2010 Toyota Venza Review, Walkaround, Exhaust & Test Drive By Redline Reviews