Will this Year’s Venza Hybrid take my v’s place? Probably

Love the looks, but paid for with reduced cargo room. My 2013 V now has only 58,000 miles. COVID has made it travel less than my walk to get mail. The only trouble I have with the Rav 4 is engine noise. My guess is it's more capable than this Venza will be. After driving my songs new GTI, it just reminded me that cars can be fun too. I worry so much about the batter and inverter after seeing tears from wonders replacing them. I wonder if my low mileage will spare me that disaster?

 

anyone test drove it yet? curious on cargo space and drive?

to me Rav4 is a lateral move from Prius V and it has even less cargo room which is a bummer. venza kinda hit the mark but I need it to be 1 more MPG better to qualify for the tax incentives (40MPG combined). I'm now forced to look at a xc90 plugin. to me it's a shame that toyota didn't keep up with innovation with it's lead with prius and is now a bit behind with their plugin lineup.

 

that's too bad, that's all the strikes i can take on the venza.

<-- desperately waiting for a plugin hybrid with > room than prius V from toyota

 

I remember being invited to the unveiling of the first plug-in from Toyota and the first 7 seater hybrid (your 'V'). I think it was only at the importer's facility that I realised they were two different vehicles...

I do have a pic somewhere from the visitors parkinglot: loads Prii in a row

 

maybe we should all wait to see what 2022 has in store for us. extra 7k significant incentive to alter peoples buying patterns. for me venza not meeting my state's 40MPG EV tax benefits is a no go. Otherwise it will be on my top consideration list as a replacement for the 2016 V. it's clear to me that toyota is behind with PHEV trend and no longer has the dominance on hybrid it once had. it's time they try to catch up with the competition by doing something innovative

 

You all make good points about the Venza but I have my eye on the 21 Sienna. I am curious about the towing capacity of the hybrid Sienna though.

Now that we are both retired and with our lifestyle I believe that we could get by on one vehicle. We could sell our Odyssey and trade the PriusV for the Sienna. We drive the PriusV most of the time that we are in Ohio and only use the Odyssey to pull our utility trailer or on our annual migration to Florida where it becomes our daily driver for a few winter months.

I quickly discovered that the PriusV has virtually no soundproofing. The noise level on the highway gets annoying but then again it was designed as an economy car. Vans are much bigger boxes with loads of glass and I don't know how they do it but the touring versions of them are pretty quiet. I would expect that the soundproofing in the Sienna would match or exceed that in the Odyssey. I would be happy with a 36 mpg combined Sienna as a daily driver and it would have all the farkles that newer vehicles now come standard with.

 

The 2021 generation 4 Sienna has a towing capacity of 3,500 pounds when it has the tow prep package: https://www.toyota.com/sienna/features/weights_capacities/5402/5411/5419

The tow prep package has been standard on both FWD and AWD versions of the 2018-2020 generation 3 Sienna but was spotty on the gen 3 Sienna before that - sometimes standard, sometimes optional and sometimes not available at all.

I'm not yet understanding which 2021 Sienna can have the tow prep package. I do know that a Toyota receiver hitch for the Sienna is incompatible with the feature that allows one to open the rear hatch door by wiggling their foot under the bumper.

I'm especially disappointed that the optional factory receiver hitch hangs below the bumper of the 2021 like it did on the generation 3 Sienna. Why couldn't Toyota have finally integrated it like on the Highlander. Maybe one of the aftermarket hitch companies (Tork Lift, Curt, Draw-Tite) will introduce a mostly hidden receiver hitch like they did for the generation 3 Sienna.

There is a very active sub-forum on the Sienna Chat forum about the generation 4 Sienna: Toyota Sienna Forum - siennachat.com

 

We only use our utility trailer in the Spring for bulk mulch or to occasionally move bulky furniture etc. and I don't want to give up that capability. I didn't consider that there may be interference between the hitch and the "toe under the bumper" detection to open the liftgate.

Thanks for the heads up. I will visit that forum.

 

I'm stuck with my old v for now. At only 58k on the odometer, it just doesn't make sense for now. Two things I love about it.
1. Cargo room
2. Reliability

That's about it, it's noisy, fairly spartan, and decidedly no fun to drive at all.

I got to sit in a new Venza, not drive one. Nice Limited trim, extremely nice inside. Hated the controls, hated them. But the enormous 12" screen wowed me in dual screen mode, very nice. But if you get that screen, you lose some easy to use control buttons. While comparing cargo room, it's not all about the raw numbers. I find that the Rav 4 has more useable room than my v. The Venza definitely sacrificed cargo room for styling. Also the rear seat has that dreaded hump, I don't think anyone really wants to sit there.

Every report I've read on the new Venza says it's luxurious and rides very well, and is very quiet. My only real complaint about the Rav4 hybrid which I have drive, is that it's not as nice inside. I still think the Rav4 engine is way too noisy, even for 2010, much less 2020.

 

Yeah it definitely seems to be a good deal there. We're not quite there with going for one car yet, but if we did, having good cargo room, AWD and great mileage would be nice. With the trips I've taken this year, I'd probably never have to put gas in the prime.