Anthony's Analytics: 2021 Toyota Venza Limited

by  Anthony Fongaro - 06/29/2021

In the land of Toyota, hybrids are the king. We all know that the Prius helped this revolution of hybrid vehicles and Toyota has milked the Prius for everything it had. Since then, almost every model from Toyota is a hybrid. Not to be outdone by any of its competitors, Toyota has also decided that a few models that weren’t hybrids should now be hybrid only. Having these vehicles be hybrid-only helps with fuel economy while utilizing annoying CVT transmissions. Case in point: the new Toyota Venza. 

Before I have you guess what kind of engine the Venza has, let’s talk about the exterior. If you remember, there was a previous Venza. After quite a few years later, Toyota brought this one back. The front has a higher-end look compared to some cheaper Toyotas along with a lot of fake vents and a blue Toyota badge. What does this mean? This Venza Limited came with Titanium Glow paint that looks great alongside the 19” alloy wheels. There’s a big crease that starts from the front wheel arch and slopes up towards the tail light. Welcome to the first of many Hybrid badges which is not surprising at all. 

Is this a good-looking rear-end? After living with it for a week, I have to say that it grew on me. Still, I don’t think it’s good-looking. Striking for sure, but not good-looking. That sloping rear-end means the rear-glass is very shallow. We have another blue Toyota badge along with another Hybrid badge to showcase that once again, you have a Toyota hybrid. The best view of the Venza is looking at the basic silhouette. Although I would go with the Blueprint blue paint, the Venza looks pretty good. The rear-end is a bit much but it wouldn’t turn me off to not look at it.

Jump to the inside and immediately look to the left of the steering wheel. That’s where you’ll find your heated steering wheel button along with traction control and a camera feature. Toyota does this a lot and I never understood why the heated steering wheel button isn’t on the steering wheel or near other heating functions. Still, the steering wheel has all the functions you’d want for the infotainment and safety features with a horribly cheap black piece on the bottom of the wheel. The dials may be analog, but a $2,000 option gives you a great head-up display with speed, speed limit, and navigation views. 

Move over to the right and you have Toyota’s massive 12.3” infotainment system and it works quite well. My only gripe is you won’t be able to fully scale Apple CarPlay to the screen. There’s a little part of the screen that also shows up with climate control or other features. This won’t go away but you can have it on either side of the screen. Climate control buttons are all haptic, so they feel odd and get an immense number of smudges on the black plastic. Under that is the starter button, which attributes to weird locations that Toyota places buttons. Between the shifter and the started button are the controls for the auto-hold, EV mode button, and drive mode button. 

Being the Venza Limited, you also get a few additional niceties either standard or a part of one package. There are heated and ventilated seats within fingertip control. These were easy to use compared to looking around for that heated steering wheel button! Still, the Venza Limited has a party piece. It has a Star Gaze Fixed Panoramic Roof that uses a button to switch between a bluish tint that blocks out the view or can show the sunshine in full. It was really cool, and I used it when it was dreary outside.

Remember that this is a Toyota hybrid, so don’t get your hopes up for a V6. Instead, it uses a 2.5-liter inline-four with some batteries that produces 219-horsepower and 163 lb-ft. There’s a dreaded CVT and, combined with AWD gets the Venza Limited from 0-60 MPH in 7.5 seconds. That doesn’t sound too bad, but it just feels slow. I tried to be as light on the throttle as I could in EV Mode, but I must have touched it a little too hard to make it go back into hybrid mode. The only way to feel actual power is to put it into sport mode. 

Of course, this is a midsize SUV with a bunch of batteries stuffed in it, so handling is exactly what you expect. Don’t push it. This thing will understeer and feels obligated to take corners. Also, don’t push it because that drone from the CVT is so annoying. I know this is for fuel economy, but there has to be some gearbox that can help with the fuel economy. By the way, I got up to 42 MPG driving in regular conditions which is literally the only reason to get a hybrid. The Venza Limited did a little cruise on the highway where it’s apparent that its weight hinders trying to pass.

Something standard that Toyota does is Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 which is the name for all their safety features. This includes blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, and some sensors. The Limited model also gets a 360-degree backup camera along with a good JBL speaker system. There are a few packages available, and this one had the $2,000 package. The full name is "the Advanced Technology Package and Star Gaze Fixed Panoramic Roof." Along with that panoramic roof which doesn’t open, you get a $725 heads-up display. 

A loaded Toyota Venza Limited starts at around $40,000 with this one being about $43,000. If you skip that panoramic roof, you can knock it down to $41,000. The thing is, the Venza is flawed. The build quality isn’t really there, the head-up display was a little fuzzy, and the engine was way too loud when you had to accelerate hard. Still...42 MPG in a midsize SUV is quite impressive. If you want to look at one, go towards this Limited model. There is an XLE, but with options, it comes out to $39,000. If you are looking at a Venza, also take a look at the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Sante Fe. If you can get past some of the quirkiness, take a look at one. 

Some Nerdalicious Stats

Engine	Hybrid 2.5-liter inline-four	Power: 219-horsepower Torque: 163 lb-ft
0-60 MPH	7.5 seconds	Competitors are faster by over 1 second.
Fuel Economy	42  MPG	A/C on, ventilated seats on, and 42 MPG? The benefits of a hybrid.
Transmission	CVT	The negative of a hybrid.
Price	$43,000	Very middle-of-the-road pricing.
Drivetrain	AWD	It’s an SUV of course it has AWD.
Verdict as a Number	6.7/10	It’s economical but flawed.