THE GOOD 12 v3.0 - PART XI

TOYOTA VENZA

Beautiful cars of yesteryear weren't full of overwrought styling idiosyncrasies or oversized wheels and grille badges. Clearly then, the Toyota Venza is not a beautiful car. Nevertheless, the Venza is a bold approach from a conservative automaker. Tall wagons are all the rage, yet a Toyota foray into this segment assembles an aura of general acceptance because of its underpinnings and the brand's reputation.

The foundation of the Toyota Venza is as solid a platform as can be found in the North American marketplace. Venzas can be equipped for budget-minded family car buyers or elite performance crossover costumers looking for fun, luxury, and the obvious dose of practicality. MIndful of its competition, you may believe the Venza to be too small inside, too big outside, or more car-like (or truck-like) than necessary.

To be precise, the Toyota Venza is the everyman's car. The capacity to haul whatever it is that consumes your busy life is present and accounted for. Your concerns may revolve around fuel economy or dynamics - the Venza ought to alleviate such paranoia. Venza buyers are the smart ones. They're the ones buying a traditional vehicle wrapped in a modern skin. Like the Matrix beneath and the 4Runner above, the Venza suits your supposed "active lifestyle" to a T. Granted, Toyota's Venza does so with a design that'll force forgetfulness of your grandparents' station wagon.

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Engines: 182/268; 182/246 lb-ft of torque from a 2.7L inline-four or a 3.5L V6

Base USD Price: $25,975

City Mileage: 19-21 mpg

The Camry: It's easy for Toyota to make a whole lot of money off the Camry. First, they sell a whole lot of Camrys; over 400,000 a year in the USA alone. Then they use the Camry's platform and/or engines in numerous other vehicles, including this Venza. Imagine a Camry that looks good, isn't identical to your neighbours car, with the utility of a tall wagon, for not much more money than the Camry itself? That'd be the Toyota Venza.

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ENTRY-LUXURY CAR SALES IN CANADA (NOVEMBER 2009)

Merge the Mercedes-Benz C-Class with the Audi A4. Quite a car, eh? One would also assume that the combined Sales Stats would be wicked sweet. Except, judging by November's Canada Auto Sales figures, the BMW 3-Series would still sell more than a Mercedes-Audi C4. As for the low-lifes from Lexus, Infiniti, Cadillac, and a few other prominent luxury automakers, their sales are but a trickle compared with the insurmountable 3-Series Bimmer.

Get the October story here or check the equivalent U.S. Graph here.

BEST-SELLING SMALL LUXURY SUV IN CANADA (NOVEMBER 2009)

Every one of the vehicles listed below were their respective brand's best-selling SUVs in November. Except one. The oft-rejected BMW X3, a Bad 8 Supersize loser, didn't sell as well as the larger, more expensive BMW X5. Each and every model in this Graph are the most inexpensive route to the luxury SUV lifestyle in their particular dealerships. Translated: this is where the volume ought to come from. At BMW, that simply isn't the case. Help is on the way with the equally ugly BMW X1, by which time the X3 will hopefully have undergone a makeover.

For all the Numbers from October's small luxury SUVs, click here. Through this link you'll find the Sales Stats on these very same SUVs in America.

TOP 5 BEST-SELLING SUVs IN CANADA (NOVEMBER 2009)

Perhaps unfairly, The Good Car Guy links the basically identical Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra but doesn't do the same for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain. GMC sold 711 Terrains in Canada in November, but as General Motors makes more of an effort to differentiate their products it becomes more challenging for GoodCarBadCar.net Sales Stats Graphs to combine their figures.

Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In Canada - November 2010

For your information, were the two GM crossoverish SUVs linked for the purpose of calculating the Top 5 Best-Selling SUVs in Canada, they'd forge a path to the number four spot. The Equinox, by itself, is in fifth behind a handful of steadily successful small SUVs. For October's report, click here, or check November's best-selling SUVs from south of the border here.

TOP 5 BEST-SELLING TRUCKS IN CANADA (NOVEMBER 2009)

Even combining the sales of Chevy's Silverado and the GMC Sierra - which, as you see, they are in the Graph below - isn't enough to tackle Ford's indomitable F-Series pickup trucks.

The F-150 and family is the Cosa Nostra of trucks in North America. No matter how capable the competition, the big Ford comes out victorious. Of course, the Ford is helped by being, quite possible, the best pickup truck available. But one gets the impression that even if Chevrolet/GMC, Dodge, Toyota, and Nissan produced slightly better trucks, the Ford would still take the Sales Stats crown. For October's Top 5 Best-Selling Trucks Graph, click here. Or check out the equivalent U.S. post here.

Canada's Top 5 Best-Selling Trucks In November 2010

TOP 10 BEST-SELLING CARS IN CANADA : NOVEMBER 2009

Honda continued its reign of Canadian auto-selling dominance with a strong performance in November. Civic sales were nearly 700 higher than in November of 2008. To American observers, the most surprising character in this Top 10 has got to be the Toyota Venza, a vehicle not yet so accepted south of the border. The Venza out-sells the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, and Nissan Altima in Canada.

Canada's Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In November 2010

For addicts of the GCBC Awards, forgive this interruption. There's a few Canada Auto Sales/Sales Stats/Graph posts yet to come over the next few hours before regular programming resumes with Part XI of The Good 12 v3.0 tomorrow morning. Check out October's equivalent Graph here. Or grab the info on America's best-selling cars here.

THE GOOD 12 v3.0 - PART X

SMART FORTWO

Parallel parking a smart fortwo, the Mercedes-Benz-developed city car, comes as easily as selecting new music on an iPod click wheel. Natural simplification of the automotive breed is the smart's calling card. Dial 7-627-836-7896. "You've reached smart fortwo, all the car a duo'll ever need," the operator says.

Fuel economy in GoodCarBadCar's long-termer has been better than the EPA estimates. Driving the smart is.... a blast. The smart's steering is active, grip is always surprisingly abundant, and the shifter becomes your friend once you become a learned fortwo driver. This adds up to an itty-bitty microcar that's truly fun to chuck across a twisty backroad.

However, 10/10ths driving pleasure isn't appropriate grounds for buying a smart fortwo, whether it's in pure, passion, or Brabus trim. smart cars are money savers. Budget helpers. Wallet thickeners. Fund protectors. Running costs are ridiculously low once the resale value, fuel costs, maintenance, and insurance are taken into account along with the low MSRP. Have fun. Save your money.

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Engines: 70 horsepower; 68 lb-ft of torque from a 1.0L inline-three

Base USD Price: $11,990

City Mileage: 33 mpg

Across The Pond: In other parts of the world, Mercedes-Benz fits generation 451 of the smart fortwo with a highly efficient 0.8L diesel and, in some cases, a turbocharged 1.0L triple generating around 100 horsepower. While smart sales are inconsitent in the United States, it seems likely that the availability of unique powerplants (or even a 5-speed manual tranny) could spur smart sales to a loftier plateau.

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