Featured Post: Toyota Venza review

The Toyota Venza gives up all SUV styling pretenses in favor of big-hatchback utility and a truly car-like atmosphere.

If you're trying to place the 2015 Toyota Venza into a nice, neat category, you might want to give up and simply embrace its usefulness. It isn't a station wagon, and it's no SUV; yet it has higher seat height than a car and available all-wheel drive. Even more so than other

crossover utes, it refuses to be defined so easily.

That's how we'd describe it in the most logical of worlds--but why add to that naming confusion? It's simply one of the more practical, carlike mid-size vehicles we can think of, a highly functional piece that takes the best attributes of those car types and blends them into something new and neat-looking. (Okay, maybe it's not so new, if you remember the AMC Eagle, but still.) 

The five-seat Venza looks like the grown-up, grown-out hatchback it really is, one with the extra room and ride height it needs for occasional adventures and excursions. Refreshed slightly in 2013 but mostly identical to its 2009 origins, the Venza has a big, toothy grille that's the sole overstatement in its entire portfolio of lines and curves. With its somewhat lower profile and roofline, compared to other crossover utes, the Venza seems knitted together particularly well from Toyota's parts bin.

There are four-cylinder and V-6 Venzas, and both are offered with all-wheel drive (V-6s, in fact, come only with AWD). The 2.4-liter four-cylinder is rated at 182 horsepower, the V-6 at a strong 268 hp. Both are paired to a six-speed automatic. Four-cylinder models are perfectly adequate but uninspiring, while V-6 models have a stronger, smoother character that makes it feel more like the Lexus RX 350. Road noise is an issue on coarser surfaces, with the four-cylinder more than the six. Gas mileage isn't much different between the two powertrains, with four-cylinder Venzas at up to 20/26 mpg, and V-6s checking in at 19/26 mpg.

In drives of Venza models from previous model years, we've found these wagons to drive a bit more like a well-sorted minivan than a sportier wagon or an SUV. You sit higher up, but in terms of ride and handling, the Venza is more car-like than most other alternatives. With moderately soft suspension tuning and rather numb steering, it's by no means exciting to drive, but it's competent and never struggles to defeat the driver's intent.

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