We went out to grab milk and came home with a discontinued Toyota Unicorn

I’ll just say it: I hate buying cars. I rank the entire experience right up there with packing boxes and moving. For the last 13 years, I’ve happily avoided it, pushing my trusty Audi well past the 165,000-mile mark. I am completely fine driving a car into the ground, but over the last few years, the Audi’s repair bills were starting to gently (and expensively) suggest that the end of an era was approaching.

Plus, our lifestyle has changed. Ever since moving out to the North Fork, we’ve realized that sedan life just doesn’t quite cut it anymore. Between hauling groceries, loading up on landscaping supplies, and someday getting another dog, we definitely needed to upgrade to an SUV or a crossover.

So, while we were out running that innocent errand for milk, we decided to spontaneously swing by the Toyota dealership in Riverhead. You know, just to look. Just to compare the Highlander, the RAV4, and whatever else was on the lot.

Famous last words.

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The Wishlist

Having borrowed a lot of hybrid and EV vehicles through GM’s creator program over the past few years, we were already incredibly comfortable with the idea of making the leap to an electrified drivetrain. And given the current state of gas prices, we were highly motivated to reduce our fuel costs.

We also wanted something reliable… something with easy, predictable maintenance that we could confidently drive for the next decade.

Naturally, wanting premium comfort but needing reliability, we initially started looking at Lexus crossovers. It only took a few minutes of browsing to realize that a Lexus was absolutely out of the budget. (It has been a minute since I had to look at car prices, and my goodness, they have definitely gone up in the last thirteen years.)

But as I was researching vehicles that checked all of the above boxes, one name kept popping up in my searches: The Toyota Venza.

The Secret History of the Venza

If you aren’t a car nerd, you probably haven’t thought about the Toyota Venza in years… if ever. Toyota officially discontinued it after the 2024 model year, but its demise wasn’t because it was a bad car. It just suffered from a fatal case of middle-child syndrome, a confusing name, and a fascinating bit of factory math.

• The DNA: Built on the exact same platform as the ultra-popular RAV4, the Venza was designed to be a sleek, commuter-friendly, luxury-leaning alternative. In Japan, it is actually sold as the Toyota Harrier, a car that shares massive amounts of its architecture with the Lexus NX.

• The Vibe: It was dubbed by reviewers as “a Lexus disguised as a Toyota.” It features acoustic glass for a whisper-quiet ride, incredibly premium soft-touch materials, and a hybrid powertrain that delivers a jaw-dropping 40 MPG.

• The Wagon Baggage: If you remember the original Toyota Venza from 2009 to 2015, you probably remember a bubbly, oversized station wagon. When Toyota brought the name back in 2021 for this new, modern crossover, the “Venza” name carried confusing baggage. Buyers heard the name and pictured an old wagon, entirely missing out on the sleek SUV sitting on the lot.

• The Mass Market Factor: The Venza simply didn’t fit into the traditional American utilitarian box. It sacrificed a little bit of cargo space for its sleek, sloping roofline, and it wasn’t rated for towing. The mass market mostly ignored it, opting to buy the boxier, more rugged-looking RAV4 instead.

• The Assembly Line Math: The Venza was built in the exact same Japanese factory as the RAV4. From a business perspective, discontinuing the slower-selling Venza allowed Toyota to free up precious assembly line space to just pump out more of their endlessly waitlisted, best-selling RAV4s.

But for people like us who don’t need to tow a boat, but do want premium comfort, top-tier fuel economy, and legendary Toyota reliability… the Venza isn’t a failure. It’s an absolute unicorn.

The Universe Takes the Wheel

As we know from our recent home purchase, I am not one to ignore signs from the universe.

Literally, the very first car we stumbled upon when we walked onto the lot was a Venza in the top-tier Limited trim. Better yet, it was Toyota Gold Certified. My old Audi had also been a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle, so I already knew the immense value and peace of mind that comes with a factory-backed warranty and a rigorous inspection.

If I had been custom-ordering a car, I probably wouldn’t have chosen a white one. But seeing Toyota’s “Wind Chill Pearl” finish in person completely changed my mind. It has this gorgeous, multidimensional depth to it that I absolutely love.

Of course, buying a car on a whim comes with logistical hurdles. Because I still bank with Wells Fargo, and there aren’t exactly branches on every corner out here, we had to drive out to Holbrook to get the official bank check.

But clearly, the universe wasn’t done delivering. Right there in the same shopping center, we discovered a massive, brand-new Whole Foods that just opened up in March. I legit felt like a kid in a candy store, not realizing how much I’d missed having one just a few blocks away when we lived in Williamsburg. (Hilariously, we had our milk sitting in the back seat the entire time. That said, now that we have a fuel-efficient car, I won’t hesitate to make a trip out there the next time we need our favorite honey or almond milk!)

The Handover

A massive shoutout is due to the wonderful staff at Riverhead Toyota, and specifically our sales rep, Ali Shah. Coming from someone who genuinely dreads the dealership experience, Ali and the team made the entire process incredibly smooth, transparent, and painless. (Mostly, he just left us to explore the cars on our own and only stepped in when we were ready to do more than just browse.)

I drove off the lot feeling like I had cracked a secret automotive code. We got our crossover. We got our 40 MPG hybrid. We got a beautifully quiet, tech-loaded interior that feels like a Lexus with the maintenance costs of a Toyota.

And yes, we remembered the milk.