Toyota Venza named Official Winter Vehicle of New England
click the image above to view a hi-res gallery of all the Winter Vehicle Award winners
New England's mercurial weather places demands on vehicles and drivers that other regions often don't get to enjoy. To help guide residents of the northern hinterlands, the New England Motor Press Association recently gathered its regional autowriters together to choose this year's Official Winter Vehicle of New England. Autoblog attended and did our part by casting ballots for the various categories, and the results have been tallied. Toyota's new Venza is this year's overall winner, supplanting last year's champ, the Volvo XC70. Fierce competition in other categories led to a couple of ties. Check out the gallery for all the winners.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Mitchel 5:31PM (2/26/2009)
I'm pretty sure the official car of winter in New England is the Subaru Forester.
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the vegas style guy 6:26PM (2/26/2009)
Yeah, I think I'm going to check with the Sisters of Sappho on this one.
andrinoe 8:46AM (2/27/2009)
LMAO, your right.
Ben 8:56AM (2/27/2009)
The official car of New England is a old beat up plow truck followed closely by the Subaru.
JD 5:32PM (2/26/2009)
I never liked the looks of this car.
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Mazda FTW! 6:23PM (2/26/2009)
And what does your name translate to in English?
Torrent 7:23PM (2/26/2009)
I saw one on the road 3 days ago. It's so frickin garish.
MemphisNET 5:35PM (2/26/2009)
You're telling me a car with a base wheel size of 19'' is your winter car of anything?!
Yea.. ok...
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MikeW 6:03PM (2/26/2009)
Yeah that is really jacked up.
18/19 should be all-season/summer
17/18 should be winters.
Dan 9:26PM (2/26/2009)
It needs the 19" wheels to fill out the beltline up around the driver's shoulders. Put reasonable 16-17" wheels on there and it'll look even stubbier.
Thank the jaywalker impact standards for this goofy eyesore.
MikeW 9:59PM (2/26/2009)
16" aren't going to clear the brakes.
17" would probably clear the tie rods and any other clearance issues, if they are sufficiently narrow 225/70 17
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp?make=BFGoodrich&model=All-Terrain+T%2FA+KO&partnum=27SR7ATAKORWL&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes&place=0
18" should still look good
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Winter+Dueler+DM-Z2&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes&partnum=46QR8DMZ2
casey 5:39PM (2/26/2009)
this is BS! i've lived in new england my entire life and the winter car of choice now, and for the past 25 years, has been the Subaru. doesn't matter which one, although the Outback wagon is so ubiquitous as to be invisible now. there is no way this new Toyota is anything to anyone around here.
BS!
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jjmcubed 6:08PM (2/26/2009)
Looks to me to only be new cars. By looking at the gallery, all of them seem to me to be from the last model year. Until they tell us how they chose the autos, we will all be somewhat in the dark.
no. 5:40PM (2/26/2009)
This thing looks like ass. I'll gladly take a Ford Edge over it.
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Yaroukh 5:42PM (2/26/2009)
+1
Not speaking about how ridiculous "official whatever of winter" is.
no. 5:44PM (2/26/2009)
Yeah. I'm pretty sure they completely forgot about the Subaru.
JF 12:22AM (2/27/2009)
Not a fan of the Venza (just call it a damn Camry Wagon!), but the Edge is no better looking. It has the looks of a hatchback but the tires and ground clearance of a truck. Has no more storage or mpg than a traditional wagon (which the Venza is much closer to) Kind of contradicting IMO (like many CUV's out there).
Stumpy 5:40PM (2/26/2009)
Andthe FWD version. .... or not... doesn't say..
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Matt Scott 5:41PM (2/26/2009)
why would anyone buy this over a preowned rx330?
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zapperdude60 5:52PM (2/26/2009)
would anyone buy this?