Toyota Venza test drive since 2009

Comparative test: Honda CrossStour against Toyota Venza

Such cars do not choose, their purchase is always forced to circumstances. Buying such a car of your own free will is like admitting that you like girls with liquid hair and thick ankles. It is always the case with them: first you ride the BMW 3 episodes, and then your wife needs a place to take seedlings to the dacha, and the rear doors and the DVD player with the kids.

And then the time comes the triumph of universals like Honda Accord CrossStour and Toyota Venza. Well, or at least their existence begins to look justified.

These tall station wagons, offering more space for your things and more or less attractively looking on the road, are something like SUV, but they do not have a voracious V8 under the hood. They do not have details that have related to them with large heavy trucks.

It goes without saying that neither Honda nor Toyota will add attractiveness to your image. You can even say goodbye to those remnants of the coolness that were also present in your image. These machines have neither quite large discs, nor wide enough wheels to give them at least a little menacing or chic. These are station wagons, and in their case it matters only what is inside. But you should not worry. No matter how much your friends wrinkle at the sight of a similar car, your family will be grateful to you endlessly.

The return of the station wagon
Honda and Toyota did everything in their power to be able to position these cars as something completely new, like crossovers that deny the categorization of a bomb that can fundamentally change the picture in the chosen segment of the car market, if you want. But if you discard all these beautiful words, it turns out that in fact CrossStour and Venza are Accord and Camry in the Service Service.

There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of in this case, because Honda Accord CrossStour and Toyota Venza have all the features and pleasant little things that overgrown over the years of sales of Accord and Camry. If we compare them with the corresponding sedans, several fundamental differences, such as the increased planting height and the optional all -wheel drive height, are immediately striking. And both cars, good or not, received several unique stylistic solutions. Some of them are very useful. The fact that both cars are equipped as a premium version of their analogues in the sedan body can also please in certain situations.

Yes, for the right to manage such a city car you will have to lay out a considerable amount. The price of the cheapest Honda Accord CrossStour begins at $ 30,000, it will be a front -wheel drive version with V6. The basic equipment of Toyota Venza involves a series of 4-cylinder engine, but even for this you will have to lay out at least $ 26,000. The charged versions, like those that have arrived for us for testing, cost the owners of $ 37,000 for Honda and a little more than $ 39,000 for Toyota .

Have you thought that the latest representative of the line of body family cars can cost cheaper than a primitive SUV collected on the basis of some pickup? This is from the field of fantasy, but for that kind of money these crossovers offer a lot of pleasant things for family auto, such as the navigation system, the hi-end stereo, the heated leather seats and the rear view camera, so you will not get a single dog.

Big rear yard
The very essence of the existence of these cars is a large roomy trunk. Toyota Venza cargo compartment is wide and flat. Honda CrossStour offers a narrow deep space. If you transfer this to numbers, then the volume of space behind the rear seats Venza is 870 liters, behind the seats of CrossStour 727 liters.

To make it easier for you to navigate, the volume of the baggages of the Accord and Camry sedans is 400 liters. It is also worth noting that the configuration of the station wagons CrossStour and Venza allows you to freely load things into the luggage compartment, without the usual tetris sedans.

Talking the Honda Accord CrossStour, we managed to find out that a large suitcase and a baby stroller are placed in its luggage compartment, although all this is included in Venza, and there is still free space. But what is much more important, Venza has such an option as an electric drive of the rear door, while equipping such a CrossStour will not work. On the other hand, Honda has several niches for storing trifles under the floor, and Toyota not a single one.

If we consider the maximum capacity of the main priority, then the Toyota Venza 1980 l against 1420. The rear seats of both cars are folded according to the 60/40 scheme, and both in the luggage compartment have a lever to completely fold the backs of the rear seats, if such a need arises such a need for loading .

Again, the Honda Crosstour is shorter and already an opponent, which means that its luggage compartment will deliver more troubles with the placement of such a complex cargo as a bicycle, although in the end it will enter the trunk, allowing you to fold the back of only one rear seat. In Venza, the same bike enters without problems, and your child will not be able to chew his tires, sitting in the back seat.

Two sides of one medal
If you forget about the capacity and dimensions of the tested cars, CrossStour and Venza look and behave almost like the Accord and Camry sedans. If you do not pay attention to the fact that in CrossStour you sit a little higher, there is a feeling of being driven by Accord, everything looks so much here. This, apparently from the fact that the CrossStour salon is completely borrowed from the Accord sedan.

And this is good. Indeed, thanks to this decision, Honda Accord CrossStour 2010 received a well -reading tool panel, high -quality finishing materials and a magnificent review. Everything is done and adjusted soundly, which also pleases. If you do not take into account the chaotic accumulation of buttons on the central panel, CrossStour 2010 Qualitatively assembled family car.

With Toyota Venza, everything is somewhat different. The station wagon received a unique interior that does not resemble Camry. On the raised central console there is a speed of speed switching, just above the simplified climate control control system. It is connected in the central console and a variable configuration located between the front seats, where the cup holders, connectors for connecting the iPod and a niche for trifles are located.

In general, the Toyota Venza salon does not reach the declared level everywhere. The automatic transmission lever is good for the hand, the central console is understandable, but the rest of the cabin looks too cheap for a car with such a price. The climate control system control buttons seem completely fragile, the wooden finish looks unconvincing, and the material that is covered with the steering wheel and the front panel are too rough to the touch, and it looks cheap.

We also could not help but notice that the Venza who arrived at us is often poorly collected. Some panels are poorly combined with each other, others bend. As if something crushes on them, you do not expect this from the company that builds its reputation to control the quality of its products.

They go like sedans
To expect something from these machines except a soothing driving means to ask too much. This is a soft sofa on wheels for five. You do not control them; You are just sitting and you are being taken. In general, both cars are equipped with a well -tuned suspension and get enough power. The V-shaped six, which is equipped with Venza, develops 268 hp. And it is aggregated with a six -speed automatic, while CrossStour has at its disposal five speeds and 271 horses.

An additional transfer plays Venza on hand, because it allows you to exchange the first hundred almost a second faster than CrossStour (6.9 versus 7.8 seconds, respectively). And this is contrary to the fact that Toyota weighs 33 kg of high Honda (1863 kg versus 1830).

Our own impressions of the management of these cars are pushing to the idea that not only the additional transmission of Toyota determines the noted differences, because the Venza automato switches more willingly and demonstrates an excellent reaction to the position of the gas pedal even in normal mode. If you sharply press the accelerator pedal in Honda, then the gearbox first considers for a long time whether it is worth switching, and only then gives the required power.

A similar situation also develops with handling. The twenty-inch wheels and the more aggressive rubber of the Goodyear Eagle RS-A, which is included in the standard equipment of the luxury version of Venza, provide more adhesion to the road and a more acute reaction at the entrance to the turn. On slalom, this tandem provided Venza advantage over Honda 1.6 km/h. Even when moving as usual Toyota Venza, it seems lighter and more agile Honda Accord CrossStour. And if not for an artificial steering wheel, Venza control could not be only pleasant, but even interesting.

CrossStour, equipped with more modest wheels and not so aggressive rubber, and also having softer chassis settings, rides softer and more comfortable on the uneven surface. Although the Honda steering wheel is fundamentally no better than that of Venza. It constantly seems to him that he was about to break out of his hands, and the information content is clearly lame. The car is very smooth, in its cabin is quieter than in the Venza salon, so it is even more pushing and relaxing.

Security first of all
If for your family you always strive to get all the best, then the purchased car should offer more safety and functionality than you ever need. In our case, everything is simple with safety, since both cars are equipped with a huge number of pillows and an electronic course stability system that provide protection before and during the accident.

Both machines in the standard have an anti -lock brake system on all four wheels, which as a result provides them with approximately the same result in the test for a full stop at a speed of 100 km/h (39.3 m in Honda and 39 m in Toyota). The brake pedal in Venza is a little better, because it is quite light, and therefore it is convenient for the driver to dose the effort.

Both cars, at your request, may have a full -wheel drive system, which also increases the level of safety in bad weather conditions. It is very difficult to understand what these cars are capable of, until suddenly the front wheels are losing the traction with the road, and the system immediately redirects the torque to the back axis to help align the car.

On a wet road, we felt the work of this system only at a sharp start. In the snow, apparently, things would be a little different, but even the basic versions of both models with front -wheel drive are equipped with a clutch control system. Although for the sake of having an all -wheel drive car you will have to come to terms with its increased mass. And, as a result, with appetite. According to ERA, Toyota Venza with all-wheel drive consumes half a liter more than the front-wheel drive version, and in Honda Accord CrossStour this figure is 0.85 liters along the highway and 0.42 liters in the city.

The best of two
If we talk about the convenience of daily operation, then Toyota Venza has an advantage in the form of more convenient rear seats and an optional DVD player. Another option that can facilitate your life is a system of launching a motor without a key that Venza can be equipped, but CrossStour does not.
 
Despite the high quality of the Honda Accord CrossStour interior decoration, after a week behind the wheel of both cars, our preferences were on the Toyota Venza side. Yes, the quality of the Toyota finish leaves much to be desired, but everything else is on his height. You can argue about the style and shape as much as you like, only that Toyota Venza offers the best combination of a place for passengers, the capacity of the luggage compartment and technical filling.

It is just as slightly worse on the highway and a little more economical at the gas station. Not the legend of the automotive industry, of course, but sitting behind the wheel and getting into taste, you understand that this is a worthy compromise. Just ride your family.

Alternative opinion, senior editor Josh Jaco:
It is very difficult to experience passionate feelings for such a car for mothers. They are not cars in the traditional sense, they are not SUV and not minivans, in love for which I confess without any constraint. These are strange station wagons, depending somewhere in uncertainty, crowding somewhere between and not causing special love due to a complete lack of determination.

Below I brought my criteria what and for what reason I like.

If it were a comparison of engines and transmission, then Toyota Venza would defeat. Its engine is better, because it easily accelerates to pleasant speeds, despite the lower, in comparison with the opponent, it is more responsive and offers some control over the work of the transmission through steering wheel switches. Venza controllability is also a little sharper, thanks to a tougher body and large wheels.

The reverse side of the above advantages lies in the fact that the large Toyota is not as comfortable as the plush Honda. But most caring mothers will not want to jump on each bump. Even in the CrossStour salon, it is more pleasant than in Venza. In Honda, all interior details are carefully thought out and solidly executed, and this is noticeable. The Honda interior design feels a creative approach, and its practicality is much more relevant than in Toyota. All materials are selected with taste and are perfectly combined with each other. But, God, how unsympathetic he is.

Mathematical calculations and calculations in this case are completely meaningless. Both cars precisely amaze the target planned by the manufacturer. No flagrant misses. Both cars will serve you perfectly. And both are absolutely faceless family means of movement. If you are looking for this, buy anyone, there is no difference.

Note Drom.ru
The Honda CrossStour model is sold in Russia with a 3.5-liter V6 engine,
5-speed automatic gearbox and all-wheel drive. The cost of the machine starts from 1,799,000 rubles.

Toyota Venza, according to our information, will appear on the Russian market no earlier than 2013 after restyling. It is assumed that modifications with a 4WD and a 2.7-liter 4-cylinder engine will be imported to us. The price should not be below 1.5 million rubles.





 

Source: Insideline