May 25: What's in a name?

One of the first crossovers or maybe even the first? Whatever you called it, the Toyota Venza, with us from 2009 until 2016, was an unusual effort from Toyota. How unusual?  Check it out........

For one thing it was good looking at a time when looking at a Toyota was the next best thing to taking a sleeping pill. And check out the size of those seemingly huge rims, 20 inchers when 18's were considered to be big. Another anomaly from Toyota. So what happened to the Venza. In our world of suv and crossover adoration this creation should have set Toyota's world on fire. Initially it did, but for some reason, they let it sit and made almost no changes over its eight year run. So what happens in the ever changing car world? Yeah, you got it. People forgot about the Venza and moved on to the next big thing.

Now five years after Venza's funeral, Toyota has announced a new one for 2021.......

 

Place it between the Rav4 and the Highlander and you've nailed its size and price. Here's an interesting (at least to me) point, this model is called the Harrier everywhere else in Toyota's world. I guess Toyota thought we'd fondly remember the forgotten Venza. It's called name recognition, folks.

Harrier. This name has been on a Toyota suv for years and we've had it in the North American showrooms from the beginning. Recognize it........

 

Of course, you do, This is the Lexus RX350, that we've sold since the late '90's. I believe it's been the best selling luxury suv since it's intro. But why call it the Harrier and sell it as a Toyota? That's easy to answer. The Lexus brand is a recent addition everywhere else in the world except North America. So what carried a Lexus nameplate over here, was a Toyota everywhere else. You can thank me for this tidbit of semi useless car info at your next social distancing cocktail party

So what's in a name? Now you know.

Until next time........