Road Trip: 2009 Toyota Venza a few refinements short of a great ride

2009 Toyota Venza – Click above for high-res image gallery

Earlier this spring, our own Alex Nunez reviewed Toyota‘s latest crossover type thingy, the Venza, and came away rather impressed. I do a fair bit of traveling for my day job, which usually entails schlepping a sizable amount of video equipment around. Typically we pack up our A/V gear and FedEx it to a location since airlines charge so much for extra baggage and won’t guarantee arrival times. For one of our recent trips, however, we decided to hit the road and venture from our Ann Arbor offices down to western South Carolina. As it happened, a Venza was available for duty and appeared to be well-suited to the task at hand.

We loaded up cameras, tripods, microphones and other miscellanea before heading due south on US-23 for Ohio and parts beyond. Our Venza was finished in a unique Sunset Bronze Mica color with the same ivory leather interior that we sampled previously. Under the hood was also the same 3.5-liter V6 engine that we’ve enjoyed in numerous Lexus and Toyota vehicles with torque going to all four wheels via Toyota’s all-wheel-drive system.

As Nunez described, the Venza doesn’t really fit in the typical crossover category because it’s taller than a typical wagon yet shorter than vehicles like the Ford Edge or Chevrolet Equinox. It’s more like a tall Camry wagon than anything else – which, at least in theory – is just ducky by us. Find out how the Venza fared on our road trip odyssey after the jump.

Gallery: Road Trip: 2009 Toyota Venza