Why you should buy the 2009 Toyota Venza:
You've been buying Toyota's since that rickety Chevy Citation you had in 1980 caught on fire while losing a wheel. The notion of cross-shopping a crossover is daunting and going with a Toyota is easy. You prefer a motoring experience of detached serenity rather than involved enjoyment. Sitting four inches higher than the Camrys around you is a must-have feature. A firm ride and surprising acceleration are something you look for, but apexing corners is not part of your daily life. You prefer an evening of 401k planning to one at the race track.

Why you shouldn't buy this car:
You haven't yet been seduced by the siren song of crossovers; wagons still make more sense to you. The idea of a compromised wagon getting SUV fuel economy is infuriating to you. You don't like quirky interiors with dubious assembly and materials quality. You still remember the time when a Toyota was a bargain, saving you money at the dealer and the pump and you could get a rise out of domestic-buying neighbors because of that. You like performance and don't care how comfy your kids are in the back.

Suitability Parameters:
Speed Merchants: No
Fashion Victims: No
Treehuggers: No
Mack Daddies: No
Tuner Crowd: No
Hairdressers: No
Penny Pinchers: No
Euro Trash: No
Working Stiffs: No
Technogeeks: Yes
Poseurs: No
Soccer Moms: Yes
Nascar Dads: No
Golfing Grandparents: No
Sheiklets: No
Very Serious Businessmen: No

Also Consider:
• 2009 Subaru Forester
• 2010 Lexus RX 350
• 2009 Mazda CX-7
• 2009 Ford Flex
• 2010 Cadillac SRX
• Wondering aloud what Toyota's thinking

Vitals:
• Manufacturer: Toyota
• Model: Venza
• Model year: 2009
• Base Price: $25,975
• Price as Tested: $38,444
• Engine type: 3.5L DOHC, V6, dual independent variable valve timing
• Horsepower: 268 HP @ 6200 RPM
• Torque: 246 lb-ft @ 4700 RPM
• Transmission: 6-speed automatic w/sequential shift mode
• Curb Weight: 4045 lbs (AWD V6 as tested)/ 3760 lbs (FWD I4)
• LxWxH: 189" x 75" x 63.4"
• Wheelbase: 109.3"
• Tires: P245/50R20
• 0 - 60 mph: V6: 6.7 seconds. I4: 8.8 seconds (Manufaturer quoted)
• Top Speed: NA
• EPA Fuel economy city/highway (Estimated): 18/25 MPG (AWD V6 as tested), 21/29 MPG (FWD I4)
• Jalopnik Fuel Economy: 18.5 MPG (city/highway mix 60/40%)
• NHTSA crash test ratings: Front: five stars; Side: Five Stars; Rollover: Four Stars

Also see:
• 2009 Toyota Venza, Part One
• 2009 Toyota Venza, Part Two

Exterior Design: ***
The Venza tests the limits of the company's traditionally conservative styling direction. It's weird, yes, but we've always felt certain kinds of weird are good. This is one of them. Our tester looked handsome in chocolate brown and the 20" wheels minimize the perceived size of the vehicle. Its a shocking form at first, but as you live with it, the styling grows on you. For a hefty crossover, that's not too shabby.

Interior Design: **
Inside the car is hard to measure. The seats are wonderful; soft in all the right places and supportive where they need to be. Visibility is mediocre and the position of the wheels is hard to judge from the driver's seat. The gauges and information screen at the base of the window are easy to read and navigate. Rear seat accommodation is just as nice as the front, with the second sunroof introducing plenty of light and a nice airy feeling to the cabin. There are major flaws with the IP and center console; The asymetrical design is strange and only made stranger by the weird texturing. Storage is massive, but the various doors and trays make using it a test of patience and will, the purse pocket on the side with a an electrical outlet above it is a welcome touch for the target buyer.

Acceleration: ***
With a 3.5-liter V6 making 268 HP, there's a pretty decent amount of scoot for a rig weighing in around two tons. It'll get you onto a freeway without any drama, but it's not exactly a rocket ship. We shudder to imagine what the four-pot mill wailing away underhood with 182 HP is like.

Braking: **
They exist, they stop the car, but, like the rest of the car, the brakes aren't designed to take you're breath away. Repeated braking doesn't produce noticeable fade until you really beat on em, but if one of these ever sees the business side of a track we'll eat our hats.

Ride: **
The ride was one of the more surprising elements of the car. We expected to find a soft-riding, corner-hating, floaty beast, but such was not the case. The car was fairly well sorted and rode much firmer than most others in the class. It soaks up the gentle bumps but is surprisingly jarring over expansion joints and pavement heaves. Maybe the large wheels are to blame?

Handling: **
Aggressive driving is rewarded with howls of protest from the tires and moderate body roll, but again, this isn't intended to be a sportscar. Steering is unfortunately light and sawing back and forth through twisties doesn't give you much off-center feel. The tighter than average ride gives the illusion of aggressive handling, but actually putting the car through the corners tells you otherwise. It's sporty feeling, not actually sporty.

Gearbox: ***
What's there to say? it's a Camry transmission, it does the job without getting in the way. As is the case with most manumatic transmissions, the option to shift it yourself is there, but only reminds you how much fun an actual manual transmission would be in its place.

Audio: ***
The six disc in-dash CD changer mated to the JBL Synthesis audio system is pretty strong, with a good balance of power and clarity. If nothing else, the Venza is a rolling iPod dock, with three different places to put the thing and a dedicated dock next to the shifter. Great if you're a pod-head but not particularly useful if you aren't.

Toys: ***
The Venza has a fairly standard toybox for the segment: backup camera, Sat/Nav system, power liftgate, Bluetooth connectivity, that nice audio system and optional DVD players. It's not a car which smothers you with technology, but it doesn't really need to be, it's a family hauler and a tool of transport more than anything else.

Value: **
We'd be hard pressed to call the Venza as a steal, in fact it gets pretty expensive very quickly. Optioned with the basics at around $25k, it's a reasonable balance of space and cost, but not terribly exciting to hang out in. With our tester ringing the bell over $38k and a lot of really strong competition in the segment, it's feeling overly dear, especially considering the paltry fuel economy.

Overall: **
The Venza feels like an offering that would have been a home run in the early part of the decade, back when SUV's where the hottest thing on the market and fuel economy was something only patchouli-scented hippies cared about. The Venza does everything, but none of it particularly well. The interior is odd and isn't assembled with the greatest of care, it's comfortable, but not remarkably so. In short, the Venza feels like a crossover-shaped punt from Toyota and an expensive, thirsty, one at that.

Also see:
• 2009 Toyota Venza: Part One
• 2009 Toyota Venza: Part Three

The resounding answer here is "kinda." Toyota has built itself into the worlds largest automaker not by building passion, but by building a reputation for reliable, well built cars which are frugal at the pump. We often make Toyota the butt of jokes, but mainly because their cars are nothing if not exactly that: well-built, frugal cars that score a nice round zero in the excitement category, that's our problem, not Toyota's. They're the ones who've ridden that strategy to a $52 billion bank account.

But, the Venza makes us wonder if they've strayed from that strategy. Despite the marketing spin, the Venza exists in the space which should hold the Toyota Camry wagon, but since nobody selling high volumes in the US save Cadillac has the stones to use the word "wagon" the Venza is a crossover. It's based on the Camry, borrows the Camry's 3.5 liter V6 engine, the Camry's six-speed transmission and most of that car's underpinnings. There the similarities end, as Toyota decided to proceed with a decidedly taller profile. It sits in the same "tall wagon/short crossover" segment the Chrysler Pacifica invented and with the FWD standard, AWD optional, five-passenger layout, it might as well be the Pacifica's progeny. We're surprised nobody's yet coined the term, but during our time with the car we just started calling it a "fat wagon."

This is not to say the car is unpleasant on the eyes, Toyota did a good job providing interesting surfaces and unique styling, the influence of the L-Finesse styling language from Lexus cannot be denied with this fat wagon. If we were to describe it, we'd say it occupies the imaginary space in Ford's lineup between the Flex and the Edge, but with swoopier lines.

The exterior isn't where we have complaints, however, it's the inside that falls short of our expectations. Imagine a boardroom meeting of Toyota planners deciding which was the most cost effective way to curry favor with drivers. They'd toss around some ideas and settle on very nice leather seats. Their studies would determine everything else could be second rate and weirdly designed and the customer wouldn't notice. You now have the basic feel of the Venza's interior.

The comfort, support and quality of the seats is fantastic; Lexus RX quality stuff. What isn't leather is plastic with a texture somewhere between tree bark and old, wrinkly skin. The fake wood is rivaled in badness only by the trim in the Cadillac Escalade (meaning it's really fake). Somehow the HVAC controls manage to be low in button count but high in nonsensical control scheme. The infotainment system will fight you, but eventually submit to your intention. Assembly quality fell short too, with the passenger side vent failing even a basic level of fit and finish. Not all is bad though, the gauge cluster is super clear and the second information screen at the base of the windshield has great graphics and provides a lot of the vehicle status information in a straightforward fashion. The HVAC system will happily freeze you out of the car or deep fry you in an instant.

Then there's the center console. A singular train wreck of ergonomics. The only way it makes sense is if the whole thing were designed to kowtow to iPod owners with ADD. See the little door next to the shifter? Its only real purpose in life is to hold an MP3 player, otherwise it's functionally useless clutter in valuable real estate. The cup holder section holds another slot which would hold an iPod laying on its side, but nothing else. The whole section slides under the armrest, but only half way, to mostly reveal a stowage area underneath. The armrest in turn slides up over the cup holder section, but only kinda, and then opens up with a plasticy scrunch we haven't heard since driving a '90s era GM. If there's one thing that annoyed the hell out of us about this car, it was the center console, and admittedly that's a silly thing to get worked up over, but it was really that annoying.

Despite our V6 AWD tester's rather hefty 4045 Lbs curb weight, this car will scoot. The 268 HP V6 delivers 246 lb-ft of torque and is mated to a very well-sorted six-speed transmission does wonders to make the car somewhat entertaining in a straight line. The suspension is paradoxical though. One would imagine a hefty, family car to get a nice soft suspension that wallows a bit in corners and provides little or no feedback. The Venza splits the difference, with a moderate amount of body roll and a steering feel that's more present on-center than off-, but the suspension only manages to keep things smooth on the gentle stuff, while heaves and potholes are surprisingly jarring. Don't have too much fun, or actually any, cause you'll be punished hard at the pump. When we were gentle as lambs with the Venza, the best we could manage was a paltry 18.5 MPG overall, which is pretty low on the scale for a car claiming 18 MPG city, 25 MPG highway.

That last figure is most indicative of the Venza's nature. This is supposed to be a Toyota right? Remember? Reliable, well built cars which are frugal at the pump? We'll admit that, if you're a cow-eyed crossover buyer looking for something super comfortable, inoffensive, able to carry the brood around with the backing of a reputation for Toyota reliability, it's an option as long as you're snooping around the car's $25k starting price. But at our tester's $38,444, it's well outclassed by rivals at the same price and below. The Venza is a fat wagon with a big pricetag in a crowded market and it just doesn't deliver the quality, fuel economy, or value we expect from Toyota.

Also see:
• 2009 Toyota Venza, Part Two
• 2009 Toyota Venza, Part Three