Compare the2024 Honda CR-VVS 2023 Toyota Venza

For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Honda CR-V have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision. The Toyota Venza doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.

The Honda CR-V has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Venza doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.

Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the CR-V deploy with different levels of force or don’t deploy at all to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The CR-V’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The Venza’s side airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.

When descending a steep, off-road slope, the CR-V’s standard Hill Descent Control allows you to creep down safely. The Venza doesn’t offer Hill Descent Control.

Both the CR-V and the Venza have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, driver alert monitors, available all wheel drive, blind spot warning systems, rear parking sensors and rear cross-path warning.

Side impacts caused 23% of all road fatalities in 2018, down from 29% in 2003, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced its side barrier test. In order to continue improving vehicle safety, the IIHS has started using a more severe side impact test: 37 MPH (up from 31 MPH), with a 4180-pound barrier (up from 3300 pounds). The results of this newly developed test demonstrates that the Honda CR-V is safer than the Venza:

For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, daytime pedestrian crash prevention, and nighttime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the CR-V its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2023, a rating granted to only 30 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Venza is only a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2023.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2023 Initial Quality Study of new car owners surveyed provide the statistics that show that Honda vehicles are better in initial quality than Toyota vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Honda above average in initial quality. With 4 more problems per 100 vehicles, Toyota is rated below average.

Both the CR-V and Venza have a standard automatic start/stop engine feature to stop unnecessary fuel waste and pollution at stoplights and heavy traffic. The CR-V (except CR-V Hybrid) has a standard disable switch for the system, so a driver can keep the engine from shutting off when the vehicle stops temporarily.

The CR-V has a standard cap-less fueling system. The fuel filler is automatically opened when the fuel nozzle is inserted and automatically closed when it’s removed. This eliminates the need to unscrew and replace the cap and it reduces fuel evaporation, which causes pollution. The Venza doesn’t offer a cap-less fueling system.

For better stopping power the CR-V’s brake rotors are larger than those on the Venza:

The CR-V stops shorter than the Venza:

For better traction, the CR-V has larger tires than the Venza (235/60R18 vs. 225/60R18).

The CR-V EX-L AWD handles at .84 G’s, while the Venza Limited pulls only .80 G’s of cornering force in a Motor Trend skidpad test.

The Honda CR-V may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs up to about 400 pounds less than the Toyota Venza.

The CR-V uses computer-generated active noise cancellation to help remove annoying noise and vibration from the passenger compartment, especially at low frequencies. The Venza doesn’t offer active noise cancellation.

The CR-V has 7.7 cubic feet more passenger volume than the Venza (106 vs. 98.3).

The CR-V has 1.4 inches more front headroom, .4 inches more front legroom, 1.2 inches more front hip room, .5 inches more front shoulder room, 3.2 inches more rear legroom and 7.4 inches more rear hip room than the Venza.

The CR-V has a much larger cargo volume with its rear seat up than the Venza with its rear seat up (39.3 vs. 28.8 cubic feet). The CR-V has a much larger cargo volume with its rear seat folded than the Venza with its rear seat folded (76.5 vs. 55.1 cubic feet).

The CR-V’s cargo area is larger than the Venza’s in almost every dimension:

The CR-V has a 1000 lbs. towing capacity. The Venza has no towing capacity.

The CR-V uses gas struts to support the hood for easier service access. The Venza uses a prop rod to support its heavy hood. It takes two hands to open the hood and set the prop rod, the prop rod gets in the way during maintenance and service, and the prop rod could be knocked out, causing the heavy hood to fall on the person maintaining or servicing the car.

The CR-V EX/Sport has a standard remote vehicle starting system, so the vehicle can be started from inside the driver's house. This allows the driver to comfortably warm up the engine before going out to the vehicle. The climate system will also automatically heat or cool the interior. The Venza doesn’t offer a remote starting system.

The CR-V’s standard speed-sensitive wipers speed up when the vehicle does, so that the driver doesn’t have to continually adjust the speed of the wipers. The Venza’s standard manually variable intermittent wipers have to be constantly adjusted.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducts detailed tests on headlights for their range both straight ahead and in curves and to be certain they don’t exceed acceptable amounts of glare to oncoming drivers. The CR-V’s headlights were rated “Good” by the IIHS, while the Venza’s headlights are rated “Acceptable.”

The CR-V is available in both front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive configurations. The Venza doesn’t offer a two-wheel drive configuration.

Consumer Reports® recommends both the Honda CR-V and the Toyota Venza, based on reliability, safety and performance.

The CR-V was chosen as a Car and Driver’s “5Best Trucks/10Best” for 2023 and 3 more times in the last 22 years. The Venza has never been chosen by Car and Driver in their “10Best” issue.

Motor Trend selected the CR-V as their 2018 Sport Utility of the Year. The Venza has never been chosen.

The Honda CR-V outsold the Toyota Venza by over seven to one during 2022.