2013 TOYOTA Venza

Venza The Un Toyota or the working mans Q5

Comfort Rating: 5 Performance Rating: 5 Interior Rating: 4 Reliability Rating: 5 Safety Rating: 5 Technology Rating: 4 Value Rating: 5

Whatisthat? A Venza. (Blank expression from inquiring person). It’s a Toyota, think of it as a Lexus RX350 lite, as they are based on the same K platform. Only this weighs nearly 600 pounds less, has a 4 inch lower roofline which contributes to much better driving dynamics. Oh they say. That pretty much sums up the Venza. Even Toyota didn’t know what this was. Is it a SUV, is it a Wagon, a car, or is it a Crossover? Motor trend hinted that they may have given this the SUV/Truck of the year award in 09 except Toyota insisted that this was a car, and MT wasn’t buying that. The answer is, it’s all of the above. A stylish Crossover really. It even handles pretty well with firmer suspension and decent handling thanks to the 19 inch tires. It really is the Un-Toyota. Think of it as the working man’s Audi Q5, which is probably why the Toyota faithful shunned it. Too bad. This is a great road and commuter car, with limousine like leg room. After cross shopping every SUV/Crossover out there of 2013/2014 vintage, nothing came close to this in terms of features, driving dynamics and price. Came this close to buying an Audi Q5 (we also own a late model Audi), but this was 10K cheaper and really is almost as good as the Audi driving wise. These are now orphans since they were discontinued so major deals are out there. The good: The 2.7 motor is plenty for this vehicle, even with AWD. The shifter location was not the deal breaker I thought it would be and the tiptronic feature does help to motivate things. All the car magazines say get the six because it gets the same MPG. But in the real world the six struggles to get over 20MPG while I’m getting 25 MPG with the four, a 25% improvement. And never once have I said this thing needs more zoom and I currently own some very fast cars (Camaro SS, Lotus). Plus the six is a service nightmare, check out water pump replacement, for example. The seats are very good; much better than any Toyota seat I’ve ever sat in. The backup camera is a nice addition although it and the display can be very to see in bright sunlight. Five hour drives and no issues. The JBL system is also very good, better than any JBL system from the past. Most people complain about the spongy brakes or weak A/C or vague electric steering or the sunroof leaking or making noises, yet this car has none of these issues even at 45K miles. My guess is that as Toyota quality slipped badly over the last decade that may be the factor in these cars. My suggestion is to do a 2 hour drive on all kinds of roads and see if any of these things pop up. The Bad: Toyota paint. This has to be some of the worst automotive paint ever. The attitude black color is beautiful but it’s so soft you can scratch it with your fingernail and chips VERY easy. The amount of orange peel in it on a car that cost’s over 35K is just unacceptable. I hate to see what this is going to look like ten years from now. Next a foot emergency brake, really? Toyota spent so much time designing this huge console that they left no room for a conventional e brake. The leather on the steering wheel and shifter is something I’ve never felt before I’m thinking road kill. The satin mahogany wood looks like I don’t know what. Also I’m not a fan of push button start, I have my reasons. 19 inch wheels look nice and add to the handling, but just wait until it’s time for tire replacement which can cost $1000 or more. The pano roof is nice but only opens about 12 inches max, what’s up with that, as the roof is over 90 inches long. No luggage rack with the sunroof, most other manufacturers offer one. Yet Toyota sees fit to offer no less that 10 cup holders in a vehicle that holds 5 people. The Distance to Empty readout is a joke; it’s off at least 100 miles. Fog Lights, they can’t be turned on unless the low beam headlights are on. These are FOG lights, Toyota you’re supposed to use them when you CAN’T use your headlights because it would reflect back. How come the window sweeps do not remove the morning dew when you roll the windows down? Speaking of windows, why can’t you open the rear window on the hatch without opening the rear hatch? Then there are tire pressure sensors. Toyota uses Tire pressure sensors unlike lot of manufacturers which have moved to using the abs tone ring instead. Each sensor must be manually logged in the Computer with a special device from the dealer. The problem is the computer only stores 4 sensors. People buy AWD because of bad weather and often run snow tires in the winter. This either requires mounting and dismounting on the same rim, a considerable expense or getting spare wheels with spare pressure sensors and having to take to the dealer and reprogram the computer each time to recognize which sensors are installed, also a considerable expense(fortunately you can clone aftermarket sensors now a days if you “know” the original numbers). Also these sensors tend to leak air due to corrosion and have a finite battery life, all of wh