2021 Toyota Venza Street and Off-Road Review

Today we're taking a look at the all-new 2021 Toyota Venza. In this review we'll hit the street and mountains to see how it stacks up against Toyota's own RAV4 and the midsize competition. That's coming up right now on Driving Sports TV. It appears that Toyota wasn't content to dominate the compact crossover market with the RAV4, which was all new in 2019. We were especially impressed by the hybrid model of the RAV4, which combined efficiency and capability in a compelling package, even if it did struggle a bit off-road. Here we are just one year later and now it's time to look at a midsize offering from Toyota. This one is based on the same platform as the RAV4, but slightly larger. It's targeting the popular midsize models like the Ford Edge, Honda Passport, and the Chevy Blazer. The design rejects the blocky machismo of the RAV4 in favor of swooping lines that terminate in a fashionably aerodynamic boot. Toyota's calling it the new Venza. This resurrects a name that last appeared in 2015. Only then it was a slightly larger and more wagon-like crossover. This 2021 Venza starts at $32,470. The model we're testing today is a mid-range XLE, which starts at $36,000. Our test car does include a number of options, so be sure to check with Toyota for final pricing. In Toyota's pursuit to electrify their lineup, the new Venza will only be available with a hybrid all-wheel drive powertrain. This combines a 2.5 liter gas engine with two electric propulsion motors, for a total combined output of 219 horsepower. Electric power is stored on a lithium-ion battery system. The transmission is an electronically controlled, continuously variable unit. The EPA is expected to rate economy at up to 40 miles to the gallon in the city and 37 on the highway. Even though the wheelbase is the same as the RAV4, the Venza is about 6 inches longer, measuring 186.6 inches. Our XLE has 28.8 cubic feet behind the second row, or fold down for larger objects. Toyota hasn't released total capacity with the seats down, but we expect it's fairly similar to the RAV4's 70 total cubic feet due to the longer body, but lower roofline. And under the floor is a full-size spare. Now this is interesting right here. Normally this is just a piece of like composite or plastic, but in this case they've actually added extra sound deadening. It all just shows just how they want to make this vehicle more sophisticated than a standard RAV4. Plenty of room in the second row. I've got leg room, I've got headroom, I have my own vents, I even have two 2.1 amp power sockets, and an armrest with cup holders. The main cabin of the Venza is as dramatic of a departure from the RAV4 as is the exterior. Even in this mid-level trim, the design and materials are excellent. XLE models come standard with an 8-inch display, but ours was upgraded with JBL sound and a 12.3-inch screen from the upscale Limited model. The seats were nicely trimmed with faux leather and suede-like inserts. The driver's position features eight-way power adjustments, including lower back. Three-stage seat heating is optional. Overall, the interior is just nicely thought out with details that make this model really stand out against the competition. Like other Toyotas, the center display is clear and easy to read with lots of information available at your fingertips, including powertrain status and safety systems. Select between the three drive modes, including normal, eco, and sport. The EV button allows you to use just electricity at very low speeds. One of the highlights is the large touchscreen. I really like the latest version of Toyota's system, even though the navigation graphics are a bit out of date. But it is functional. You can even use freeform voice commands. You can adjust climate from the touchscreen, or you can use buttons beneath the display. But be aware that fingerprints are an issue on the piano black surface. Plug in a mobile device for Android Auto or Apple CarPlay compatibility. Wireless charging is available, but the position isn't very convenient. Switch the car into reverse for a rear-view camera. Another low-res camera, but it does have tracking lines and a tow hitch connector line, which is funny because this vehicle isn't even rated for towing. Other safety features include blind spot warnings, collision mitigation with bike and pedestrian detection, and adaptive cruise with steering assist. Toyota says the all-wheel drive system can push up to 80% of available power to the rear wheels in slippery conditions. Let's see how that translates with full throttle on gravel. In normal drive mode, you can see a lot of wheels spin up front. The back wheels are basically going along for the ride. Now sport mode. Similar result, but is that a little more bite in the back? I think it might be. Finally, sport with traction off. A lot of spin up front, and similar results in the back. To see how this compares against the RAV4 Hybrid, let's look at our tests from last year. Yep, that is pretty similar overall. Of course, most Venza owners will never leave pavement. On the road, the Venza can use both the rear motor as well as brake vectoring to help the crossover handle even twisty roads with ease. It'll apply a little brake on the inside corner front wheel to help rotate the vehicle, as well as use extra power in the back to assist with the same. Toyota also tuned the suspension specifically for the Venza, to give a ride that's smoother than the RAV4, but not quite at Highlander levels of refinement. Now let's see how it does with a 0-60 test. I'm going to go ahead and stop completely right here. I'm going to put the car into sport mode. Okay, it's in sport mode. It's in sport for the transmission, and 3, 2, 1, go. Everything flies back. 20, 30, 40, 50, 60. You know, that's plenty quick. I mean, what do you need it to do? It's a family crossover, right? Driving this car on country roads is really a joy because, you know, the RAV4 is a pretty decent vehicle, and of the different RAV4s, the hybrid is my favorite. And this Venza is only available as a hybrid. The model we're driving is the all-wheel drive kind of mid-trim edition, but it still has all the things that makes the Venza special compared to the RAV4. Specifically, that's suspension that is a little bit nicer. It's also a little bit quieter overall. And then, of course, there's the looks. Now, in terms of capability, is the Venza, you know, better than the RAV4? Well, I would say instantly, probably not because it doesn't even have a trail button like the RAV4 does, which really positions this as kind of a street-going hybrid RAV4 for people who don't really see themselves going off-road. However, this is an all-wheel drive vehicle, and I think it's our duty, my responsibility to test that all-wheel drive system. Ideally, we would test it in the snow because that would be the primary condition that you would be driving this vehicle in. However, since it's mid-July in the Pacific Northwest, yeah, there's no snow. So we're going to do the next best thing. We're going to take it up on a trail and see how this all-wheel drive system responds to slip. Because honestly, if you're sand or you're slipping on snow, it's kind of the same thing in terms of how the all-wheel drive system reacts, whether it just spins those wheels freely or if it locks up and redistributes torque as needed. So with that, let's go ahead and dip into the mountains, and we'll see how well this Venza does. So taking this off-road is, of course, pretty ridiculous. It has 7.8 inches of ground clearance, which isn't a lot. Also, it doesn't even have a trail mode, which is actually why I'm really curious to do this, because we've taken, of course, every RAV4 up here, which this is based on, and tested it out, but we've never done it on the standard all-wheel drive setting. So let's see what that can do. So here's the first little challenge. I mean, getting through this really isn't a question, but we really want to see how this system responds. Let me get the screen up here. Actually, let me put the screen up here that has the all-wheel drive system so I can see what the wheels are doing. There we go. Okay. Already, I'm getting a little bit of wheel slip. Oh, let's put it into comfort mode. We don't need to be in sport, so normal, normal mode. So using wheel braking, as wheels slip, it clamps down and redistributes that power back into the system, just like a normal RAV4. It's putting a lot of torque to the back motor there and gets us through it with, you know, minimal drama, all things considered. I think that's a fairly favorable first test. Now let's see if it'll do the rest. Now to the rock hill climb. This is a 20% grade with large rocks and a very uneven surface. Like the RAV4 Hybrid all-wheel drive and the Highlander Hybrid, the Venza forgoes the typical mechanicals to power the rear wheels. Instead, the back half is powered exclusively by one of the electric motors, which produces up to 89 pound-feet of torque. In our prior tests with the RAV4 Hybrid, that vehicle did struggle a bit, even with a trail mode. So it'll be interesting to see how well the Venza does today. So I'm going to go ahead and keep this in drive. I'm also going to set the drive mode to normal, which should do a decent job of shifting power to the back as necessary. Like I said, this has less ground clearance than a RAV4. You're looking at about 7.8 inches. Also, no underbody protection. And I need to look up the numbers, but I believe the approach and departure are worse on this vehicle. At least looks like it's worse because of that long nose in the front. So let's see. Can you off-road a Venza? Because we're just creeping along here, it's doing it in all-electric mode right now. I didn't tell it to. It just decided that electric would be good for this. So we're going to go ahead. That beeping is the parking sonars. Here comes the first challenge as we put all of the weight on just two wheels. Yep. This one and this one, it's trying to apply brakes as they're spinning. What does it look like? Can I just keep my foot into it? Will it get us up it? It does. It was able to take some of the power from those two wheels and redistribute it back into the system. First challenge taken care of. Let's see how we continue to do as it gets more challenging. Dip a wheel down. Really concerned about that nose. Okay. Before I go any further, I'm going to stop right here and I'm going to take a look at our ground clearance. Oh yeah. I think we're okay. It's looking good so far. Let's continue on. Now we're about to go over that big loggy thing. It's doing a decent job here. Now, even though this is a very similar system to the RAV4, it's quite possible that they've reprogrammed this to be a little bit more aggressive with the all-wheel drive system. We just don't know. Yeah. Slipping right there, actually. I'm really impressed. I mean, this is a very capable system. When I first brought it up here, because it had no trail mode, I honestly thought that it would have a harder time with that, but it was fine. Now let's look at downhill. Toyota's not really known for doing downhill assist. They like to do crawl control on their more advanced off-roaders. So there's really, there is no crawl control on this vehicle. So I'm just going to have to use my foot. I have to be careful about compression when I come down, so I don't clip the nose on a rock, because that'd be awkward. Did I mention this is a pre-production vehicle, probably hand-built? I'm sure it'll be fine. I think there's like five of these in the US right now. It's got only 7.8 inches, but it's got it in the right places, I guess. Nice. Okay, well, that's test number one, but we're not done yet. I got one more test for this thing. Still can't get too eager here. Gotta be safe. Even after a couple tests, I think we still need to learn a little bit more about how this all-wheel drive system works. Time to break out the slow motion. For that, we've come up to the short slant climb, and we're going to see what it does. Now, we have a slow motion camera attached to the outside, so we can see the wheels spin and see how well this system responds to slippery situations. Now, the whole concept here is we want to see how this all-wheel drive system does compared to vehicles like the new RAV4 Prime and even the Subaru Outback, which, though isn't a direct competitor, would certainly be cross-shop by some. Now, we haven't tested the Outback's non-X-Mode here, but the Outback comes with X-Mode, so you're going to have that additional capability. Now, granted, this is a rock face with some light dust and gravel on it. It's basically very similar traction-wise to what you would find, you know, going up a snowy hill. So, because we can't have snow, we're going to use this as our reasonable facsimile. Now, let's see how it does. I'm in normal drive mode, and I have the transmission in normal as well. I'm going to crawl up, and now I'm going to stop right here, and now we're going to see what the all-wheel drive system does when it has, like, not much grip at all. We're on a steep incline, and let's do it. It's breaking that wheel. It's putting as much power as it can to that back motor. It's now breaking both front wheels. That's interesting. You don't see that very often. And up and over. Let's look at the outside in slow motion now and see how that responded. You can see that front wheel really struggling for grip with those all-season tires. Here, the wheel braking is much more apparent than in the previous test, as you can see the front wheel come to a complete stop as it attempts to push torque to the opposite wheel. As for me, I have the gas pedal down all the way, allowing the computers to sort through the traction issues. And though it does struggle, it does manage to make it up the obstacle. This means it'll probably do quite well in everyday slippery conditions like hills covered in snow and ice, even if a Venza owner will never really take it off-road. Comparing it against the Subaru Outback Onyx XT with X-Mode, you can see Subaru's trail system really does a much better job of redistributing power from spinning wheels back into the system, giving more power to the wheels with grip. Likewise, the plug-in electric RAV4 Prime, which has a similar all-wheel drive system as the Venza, does a better job because of that trail-specific mode. Plus, of course, it has extra power from the bigger batteries. I think that's certainly more than anybody else is going to do with a 2021 Venza in the real world. I have to say, the system's very capable. Who knew? I mean, honestly, I did not expect it to do this good. For more tests just like this, be sure to subscribe. Also, take a look at our back catalog. We have over 500 videos. I'm sure you'll find something you like. For Driving Sports TV, I'm Ryan Douthit. Thanks for watching.