Are you a reliable friend, or a fun friend?
There’s often not too much of an overlap there – the guy who likes to wear a lampshade on his head at parties is likely going to forget to pick you up from the airport late at night. Usually, when you really need something to get done, you need your boring accountant friend to do it for you.
For a large percentage of its life, the Toyota Corolla has been most emphatically the second kind of friend. A Corolla with the four-speed automatic in beige was pretty much the pleated khakis of automobiles. Functional, but not very stylish. Efficient, but not much fun. Dependable, but not exciting.
However, the S designation on the back of this Corolla is here to change your mind about what a Toyota can offer. The colour palate is brighter, there are 17-inch alloys on display, the styling is sharp enough to stand out, and there are even rumours of sportier handling.
A party animal that’s also reliable? Can it be true? Let’s check it out.
Design
Where once the Corolla faded into the background, it now stands out. Well, sort of. The average car on the road these days looks insanely aggressive. Traffic is beginning to look like a Salvador Dali interpretation of Richard Scarry’s Busytown.
As a result, the Corolla’s new edgier look is merely keeping pace with the competition. And it does: the baby-Camry silhouette works well here, and while the large faux front grille isn’t too over the top, it’s a lot better than the Prius’s new catfish face or the Yaris’s weird lucha libre mask.
The 17-inch alloys are part of the Corolla’s Technology package and really set the car off. They also show some of Toyota’s genius here, in that it’s a single upgrade to a basic car that includes almost everything you could want without breaking the bank. Seventeen inches is a good size for a rim too; you can get 18s from the competition for a more aggressive look, but the bigger diameter rims come with a rougher ride and higher tire replacement costs.
Environment
Let’s start in the back seat, as this is the Corolla’s trump card. Much roomier and cushier than the competition, this is the kind of space you used to get from a Camry not so long ago. Add in a stroller-swallowing 340 litres of trunk space, and the Corolla isn’t just the friend that picks you up from the airport, it’s the friend that’ll help you move. That’s a good friend.
Up front, driver and passenger are rewarded with comfortable seats that are excellent on longer road trips, and a wealth of available features (which you’d kind of expect, this being the tech package). Toyota’s touchscreen-based infotainment is rapid enough, yet also simpler to use than competing systems. Also likable was the ability to customize the home screen to show the icons you use most often. Simple and easy.
And considering this is a Corolla, it’s pretty nice in here. If you grew up remembering the horrible mouse-fur surface of a beige seat, the current car’s Softex leather and fake dash stitching are huge leaps forward. This doesn’t look like the kind of car you buy from an entirely pragmatic sense, but because there’s actually a twinge of emotion here.
Performance
However, at least on paper, there’s little to be emotional about from the Corolla’s powertrain. While the competition offers dual-clutch transmissions and powerplants that rely on high compression or turbocharging for pizzazz, the Corolla gets a continuously variable transmission and a 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine making 132 horsepower and 128 foot-pounds of torque.
We are officially in the section of the grocery aisle that sells cottage cheese and oatmeal and low-fat mayonnaise-type-dressing. Sensible country.
Still, pop the shifter in D and roll off the line and the Corolla S responds with respectable acceleration. If you’re tackling an onramp, there’s a sense that power is adequate rather than fulsome, but only a gearhead will find much to complain about. Toyota even panders to that demographic a bit by offering a six-speed manual transmission.
Once on the move, the real surprise is how balanced the Corolla is through some rolling corners. It’s not a car that encourages pace, the way a Mazda3 feels a bit like a four-doored Miata, but it’s perfectly composed and competent. The steering wheel is nicely weighted and utterly lacking in feel: this is something we now say about the 3 Series BMW, so maybe we can overlook the numb helm on a compact Toyota.
With well-controlled body roll and the CVT’s tendency to keep revs low, the Corolla encourages a sane and sensible pace without the driver having to slow for the sweeping corners. The sense is that this’d be an excellent road trip car, economical and comfortable but not boring.
Features
Adding $3,915 for a total of $24,680 before freight and tax, the Corolla’s technology package adds 17-inch alloys, navigation, a power driver’s seat, semi-leather seats, a power moonroof, automatic air conditioning, keyless entry, and a push-button starter. That’s good value.
Official fuel economy figures for the four-cylinder and CVT are 6.2 (litres/100 kilometres) on the highway and 8.2 city. Good news here: the Corolla relentlessly hits its economy targets in mixed use driving. Granted, it encourages a relaxed driving style, but you can’t argue with good real-world mileage.
Green light
Dependable, comfortable, and efficient; upgraded look inside and out; delivers on its promises.
Stop sign
No high-tech safety features; powertrain delivers mileage results, not thrills.
The checkered flag
They’ve done it! A non-boring Corolla!
Competition
Honda Civic ($16,155): Offering a bit more style and a bit more zip from available turbocharged engines, the Civic promises more choice for Canadians. They also make a coupe version, if you’re not quite ready to settle for four-doored responsibility.
Still a bestseller, the Civic takes a proven performance record and tries to shake things up with new technology. The Corolla’s tried-and-tested approach may seem less exciting on paper, but still offers plenty of what buyers are after.
