If you want to gauge how successful a minivan is, just talk to the occupants of the second-row seats. If they say they would be happy to schlep across the country in the vehicle, you know that the van’s maker got the recipe just about right. That was the case with my 12-year-old twins as they lounged in the reclining captain’s chairs in the Sienna XLE, viewing their favorite media on a large, 16.4-inch-wide screen.

The previous Toyota Sienna wasn’t a bad vehicle, but it wasn’t as good to drive or as well-packaged as the Honda Odyssey. This latest van rides on the same 119.3-inch wheelbase as the outgoing Sienna, but is 0.8 inch shorter and 0.8 inch wider (coming in at 200.2 inches and 78.2 inches, respectively). It is the same height overall, though, at 68.9 inches. We would describe the redesign as distinctive, but the front end is pretty brutal.

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Remember the previous Toyota 4Runner? Yeah, neither do we. Toyota’s compact, pickup-based, do-it-all 4×4 helped ignite the SUV craze when it launched in 1984. But in the years that followed, the 4Runner became increasingly marginalized as Toyota flooded its dealers with trucks and crossovers intended to plug every conceivable niche. The 2003–2009 fourth generation bore little resemblance to the cheap, scrappy 4Runner we fondly remember, having retreated upmarket as a dedicated mall-cruiser offering an optional V-8 and leather-laminated cabin. Annual sales dwindled to fewer than 50,000 units.

For 2010, Toyota is trying a retro reboot of sorts, returning to a simpler time with a truck aimed at outdoorsy buyers who like the FJ Cruiser, with which the 4Runner shares its frame and major components, but want proper rear doors. Even so, volume is expected to remain small at perhaps 35,000 units, says Toyota.

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When you sit in the 2010 Toyota Prius, you notice all those little things that provide the “Prius experience” – the shift lever, information screen, center-mounted instrument panel – are all present, but they’re slightly different and noticeably improved. The time it takes to adapt to the revised interior is emblematic of the new Prius experience. It’s the same oddly shaped hybrid that almost two million buyers love, but it gets better mileage, looks sharper and is packing more technological whiz-bangery than any vehicle this simple to drive has the right to.

We recently tested the 2010 Prius at its North American launch through the vineyard-covered fields and hills surrounding Napa, California. Through it all, the hybrid, officially rated at 50 mpg, performed well and delivered better-than-expected fuel economy. In fact, when we pushed the car’s eco prowess by using the EV mode as much as possible and employing a few other tricks, we blew that EPA estimate out of the water by almost 15 mpg. And we weren’t alone.

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During the Toyota Venza press presentation in gorgeous Farmington, Pennsylvania, we listened to Toyota describe the recipe for the perfect modern station wagon: Take one of the country’s most popular sedans—the Camry, natch—add more trunk room for your junk, raise the roof a few inches, and leave everything else where it is. The thing is, Toyota won’t call the Venza a wagon.

Nor, for that matter, does it consider the Venza a crossover, the term every other manufacturer calls its wagons when it’s too chicken to call them wagons. To describe the Venza, then, Toyota came up with a yet-undiscovered wagon-avoidance term: “the car, optimized.”

Mix of Highlander and Camry

Eyes rolled around the room. Isn’t “the car, optimized” the very definition of a wagon? Toyota’s feeling is that the Venza is about 70-percent car, 30-percent SUV, but in contrast to most crossovers and sport-utes, the Venza makes no promises of off-road dexterity. (Although, interestingly, the Venza offers the same 8.1 inches of ground clearance as does Toyota’s own Highlander.) It also doesn’t offer a third-row-seat option, so mechanically speaking, what you have here essentially is a “Camry, optimized.” Read more »

The Paris Motor Show will see the world debut of Toyota’s all-new European flagship model, the Avensis that will be available in both sedan and station-wagon variants. Following the initial release of a rear 3/4 shot, Toyota has now let out more images of the Avensis including the first photos of the interior and of the station-wagon model.

Designed, engineered and built in Europe, the third generation Avensis features a more distinct and crispier design than its predecessor. Notable styling elements include the BMW-like Hoffmeister kink, the high beltline and the somewhat ‘obtrusive’ design of the vehicle’s front-end. The interior styling on the other hand is more evolutionary as it echoes that of the current Avensis.

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