Venza

When we got the Venza, the plan was that we'd lease it until next year, then buy it (we did this because the cost of a new car, in the same year as the France trip, was prohibitive). Well, that's still the plan -- but now we're starting to think that we might immediately swap the car for a minivan again. The reason: We like the Venza, but its got some irritating flaws. None of them are major, but collectively - well...

Not to say that there isn't much to like about the car. There certainly is. For example -

Audio - XM Radio, excellent speaker system, Bluetooth for the phone (and audio, if our phones supported that)
Power drivers seat with lumbar support
Power sunroof in front, static sunroof in back
Auto dimming headlights; auto-dimming rear view mirror
Windows - all windows are power down/power up
4 cylinder engine has decent mileage, decent acceleration
Excellent turning radius, stopping distance
Seats four very comfortably, five pretty comfortably
Looks - it's a sharp-looking vehicle. I see it and think I'm glad that we own that.

It's just the nits that, after a while, add up --
- The radio controls are difficult to read in anything but dim light or darkness
- Color. Turns out that white really does show dirty easily. Boy, does it ever.
- Cruise control - - I have to peer over the steering wheel to see if cruise control is engaged (the indicator is at the very bottom of the speedometer). And if we hit a hard bump, it forgets its setting (has to do with whether 'traction control' is engaged)
- Maintenance nag screens - Toyota loves to nag about maintenance. (The Prius does it, too.) When the Venza needs maintenance, it puts up a display on the main screen, right where it normally shows temperature controls, that won't. go. away. But - no 'low fuel' chime. (Light, yes; chime, no. You have to notice that it's lit. )
- High window sill - it's probably safer, yes - but to use an ATM, I have to raise the seat all the way up!
- Storage in front is clunky. They tried, but ...not so great
- Storage in back - spacious, yes, but only two grocery bag hooks (the minivan had six or seven), and one weak light. (Guys, if you're marketing to boomers, we like lots of light. We just don't want to admit it.)
- Space - we find, to our surprise, that we miss the overall space of the minivan. Space between the seats, space between the rows, three rows of seating. We thought heck, we don't need to carry seven people! We're not hauling tons of stuff! But we miss it. And sometimes -- as in, this coming summer -- we do need to be able to do exactly that!

Basically, we were a little to eager to move from the minivan stage to the the kids in college stage. Some of those things that bother us are, admittedly, problems of the idle rich. But that problem with trying to read the radio screen is an ongoing irritant, and all of the others cause dammit! moments.

Will we swap? Truthfully, probably not. We'll think about the built-up equity that we'd lose, the automatic loss of value from new to one year old, and we'll probably keep it. But we'll certainly think about it.