As I sit here in the dealership’s waiting area while the mechanic dudes give my car it’s 20,000 mile tune-up, I realize I never wrote a proper “hey we got a new car!” post. Turns out I’ve got some time to kill so, lucky you?
We’ve had our Toyota Venza now for 11 months. Yes. 20,000 miles in 11 months. We drive quite a little bit.
It’s our “main driver”. The kid hauler. The first choice. See, before we had this car we had 1 car that was the kid hauler and 1 car that got good gas mileage. And the Venza does both. So this is our go-to for any errands we run or any trips we take; whether we have the kids with us or not. Hence the 20,000 miles.
Most of those miles have been put on by Andy…he drives about 75 miles a day so he takes the car most days. I joke that we have joint custody of it since I get it during his school breaks/holidays and on the weekends.
Of course there have been minor annoyances…like the controls on the wipers and lights are the total opposite of our other vehicle so I’m constantly having to “relearn” everything. If it was my daily driver I guess it wouldn’t be an issue.
Then there’s the point of the car seat installation. The car is a 2013 model, the “Extended Rear Facing” recommendation has been a thing for a while now. When I went to upgrade Reese’s seat from the infant to the rear-facing convertible seat I was pretty disappointed to find that it didn’t have the ERF floor anchor. I guess I just assumed that Toyota would be on top of that junk and I wouldn’t have to jimmy rig a tether strap around the front seat mount. {First world problems…I’m aware}
Overall? I really do love it. It’s comfortable. Roomy for a car {technically I “crossover”, I suppose}. We like the looks of it. It gets decent gas mileage. The car seats fit well. There are a number of little touches you don’t even notice until…well, you notice them and you’re like “wow, that’s pretty sweet little feature!” {i.e. the adjustable center console/elbow rest}.
The point of this post? I don’t know…a time killer, I suppose. But seriously, if you’re in the market for a new car and you’ve got a family, want good cargo space without getting an SUV and need decent gas mileage check out the Toyota Venza.
The end.