The first thing you might notice about the Chevrolet Venture is the new front-end styling it received in 2001, when the old cross-hatch grille was replaced by a cheery, bright-metal grin.Otherwise, Venture's appearance is either undistinguished or restrained, depending on your point of view. We do like its decisively horizontal lines and relatively short front overhang. Hey, it's a minivan. It's designed to be functional, not beautiful.
There's plenty of head room and elbow room no matter which seat you're in. A height-adjustment lever on the driver's seat lets you change driving positions without getting too close or too far from the steering wheel. The fore and aft range of the driver's seat is long enough for drivers over six-and-a-half feet tall. The front seats hold you securely with large side bolsters, yet the seating surface itself is relatively flat, which makes getting in and out easy, while encouraging you to move around on long trips. There isn't a lot of legroom to spare in the second row of the Venture, however, even in the long-wheelbase versions. The longer wheelbase models add most of their extra space in the cargo area. The Venture stays abreast of more recently designed minivans with lots of cupholders and bins for passengers to store stuff. Value Van, Plus, and LS come with bench seats in the second and third rows. The seatbacks are split and fold separately; that's handy for carrying two-by-fours and a couple of rear-seat passengers at the same time. But the bench seats are relatively heavy to remove and replace should you need more space for grandfather clocks or dog cages. More convenient are the modular bucket seats found in the more up-market models. They weigh just 38 pounds, light enough that plucking them out and leaving them in the garage is not a painful act. Five of them are standard in the Warner Bros. edition, and you can order six in LS and LT models. The backs of these seats fold flat and compact, and have indentations so cups won't slide off while underway. Folded flat, the bucket seats are easier to stash in the garage than the heavy bench seats. A combination of captain's chairs for the second row and a split bench for the third row is standard in LT and optional in LS. The LT seems to be the more adult-oriented Venture. Its captain's chairs are more comfortable for adults. The captain's chairs will not recline fully unless they are moved all the way forward, however. The Warner Brothers Edition comes with leather seating surfaces and cloth inserts. The leather part is easy to wipe up after the youngsters have an in-van picnic. Only LT offers full leather. The Warner Bros. entertainment system has a 7-inch, flip-down screen, four wireless headphones and a wireless remote control. The system plays DVD video, DVD audio and CDs. The screen has a 1.5- second video memory feature that prevents potholes, railroad tracks or other road irregularities from interfering with the sound and picture. Three auxiliary jacks for such things as video games or camcorders offer additional versatility. Talk about versatile: Passengers can use the DVD player, the radio and the CD player all at the same time. |
