I was making my way through my morning paper recently when my progress was interrupted by a paean to perfection by automotive journalist Matt Nauman. Normally, I don’t pay much attention to the local paper’s car reviews or features; thanks to wall-to-wall dealer ads, these syndicated features are about as independent-minded and critical as a stage mother watching her daughter perform Grease on a high school proscenium. Of course, pistonhead that I am, I still scan them. And Nauman’s work stopped me in my tracks. The subject of his unadulterated adulation, you see, was the Toyota Corolla.
It’s easy to understand the car hack’s choice of subject matter. After 40 years of incredibly humble service, the lowly Corolla is the far-and-away sales champ of all time. With 31.6 million cars sold worldwide it’s The Car That Just Won’t Go Away. More Corollas have occupied our streets than all of the Golf/Rabbits, VW Beetles, Ford Escorts, Honda Civics or Model T’s produced by hand of man.
Although Nauman’s mechanical hagiography matched the vehicle in question for overall excitement, his article was not without insight. His pat-on-the-back interviews, for example, included Keith Byrd. For over eleven years, Mr. Byrd has been one of the thousands of gainfully employed autoworkers who've helped breed 2.5 million Corollas at the Toyota plant in NUMMI in Fremont, California. Byrd described what has become his life’s work with a librarian’s passion. “It’s kind of like water. When you want to get a drink, you know it’s refreshing, but you don’t talk about it all the time.”
Cupid’s automotive arrow also whizzed straight past David Zatz. The man whose surname Dr. Seuss would adore runs the Toyota Corolla fan site corolland.com (which admonishes its readers to pronounce it “Corolla-Land” even though they couldn't quite swing the domain with the "a" in it). “You’ve got good trunk space," Zatz effused. "It’s quiet inside. It corners well enough.” Ernest Bastien, Vice President of Toyota USA’s Vehicle Operations Group added his faint praise to Nauman’s Corolla love-in. “It’s a car that meets the needs of most consumers on an everyday basis.”
[Fair disclosure: I’m guilty of participating in this conspiracy to numb American motorists’ hearts and stultify their minds. My first new car was a shiny 1979 Toyota Corolla SR-5 Liftback, a green machine that tried hard to suggest “sportiness,” but instead delivered just enough utility and economy to keep me driving it for six years. I have served my penance and have emerged on the Other Side.]
The Corolla’s greatest sin– perhaps its only sin– is boredom. Toyota exec Bastien is right: in its many ancient and modern forms, the Corolla has and will continue transport its passengers from A to B with little cost and intrusion. But it will also generate the least desire to stare at the keys and wonder where to take her next. This is precisely why enthusiasts will gleefully deride such a vehicle on these e-pages. This is why sister Camry, venerable and useful as it might be, nearly made it onto the TWAT list.
Too right too. The Corolla is as sexy as Aunt Bea, dressed in steel, plastic, rubber and glass. It’s the automotive equivalent definition of “wallflower.” The Corolla is a shaped box on four wheels. It turns as sharply as cheese. It screams to speed as quickly as Ol’ Paint. It whirs and hums and wheezes. It is to exciting transportation what Slim Jims are to fine cuisine. On any pistonheads’ automotive wish list, the Corolla fits just above moped and girl’s bike.
For enthusiasts, driving a Corolla is living death. Sure, Toyota tuners will argue that the humble Corolla can be modded and prodded into a speed-mobile that can kick serious Civic backside. My question to them would be: why? Is there a reason – any reason – to expend a serious number of Franklins on a vehicle that will still be, in the final analysis, your mother’s car?
In the Corolla's defense, the model was offering five-speeds and DOHC engines back in the ‘70’s, when Detroit was hard-pressed to give motorists four-speeds and SOHC four-cylinder engines. The Corolla offered– offers the two characteristics people look for in a car: economy and reliability. It set the standards for other small cars… which they singularly failed to achieve.
Yes, well, great. Meanwhile, the Corolla is the match to the enthusiast's fuse. One is always sedately lumbering along (safely below the speed limit) ahead of us and a line of others when we…want…to drive. We shake our heads, never quite understanding why buyers choose to make the public statement, “I really don’t care what my car drives like, handles like, or says to the world. And, when it breaks, I’ll get another one.”
Been there done that. Get the damn thing out of my way.
93 Comments on “And then there’s Corolla dependable...”
Back to TopLeave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You can also login using Facebook Connect.
I had a friend with a ‘92 or ‘93 Corolla (in Geo Prizm form, aka Schism, or another term referencing a body fluid). She once drove my ‘95 Golf with the 2.0, aka 2.slow, and commented that “the car just wanted to go and go, pretty soon I was at 90mph and didn’t even realize it. It was a lot of fun!” That sums up the Corolla.
And don’t forget a worse offender–the Tercel, or as my friends used to call it, the Turd-for-sale. Man, I love silly car nicknames.
In recruiting people for my reliability research, I’ve noted a big difference between Honda owners and Toyota owners.
Both groups put a high priority on reliability.
But Honda owners like to perform a lot of research before buying another Honda.
In contrast, Toyota owners don’t want to do any research. They just buy the brand they’ve heard is the most reliable.
The way Consumer Reports reports survey results doesn’t help. By obscuring how much reliability you’re trading off to get the “reliable boring car”, people tend to overestimate the amount and err on the side of caution. I hope clearer, more readily comparable stats will help.
More detail on this issue:
http://www.truedelta.com/pieces/shortcomings.php
All of this said, not all Corollas have been boring. I really liked the mid-1980s Corolla GT-S, the first mass market car with a four-valve engine. And the recent XRS (not available for 2007 wasn’t bad.
AH – the one car that I should have bought – a 1986 Corolla GTS. The last of the rear wheel drive ones. Only car I regret not buying. Since then, they have never even registered on my auto buying radar.
Behind the wheel, we have two roles. One is as driving enthusiasts.
The other role, and it’s probably ninety per cent of our driving is as transportation consumers. This is normally driving we’d just as soon not do. Commuting. Fetching the kids from piano lessons or picking up groceries.
Under those circumstances, the reliability of the car becomes extremely important.
For most of us, the driving experience goes as well as it possibly can when the car starts and gets us to work on time without fuss. We didn’t have to call AAA, or coax it in for repairs or bum a ride and get to work late or any of that.
After that, as transportation consumers, economy is the second most important way we evaluate the car. Good fuel economy! High resale value! Low maintenance, repair and insurance cost!
While actually behind the wheel, in traffic, the most important thing in the transportation consumer experience is probably the signal-to-noise ratio fight between the radio and ambient noise. We want the car to be fairly quiet.
And we want to feel reasonably safe when tailgated by an Escalade.
The Corolla excels in what transportation consumers want. And Toyota sold 32 million of them and made a crapload of money doing it.
I gotta admire that. And, in my role as tranportation consumer, I want a Corolla. When I can afford to dedicate a significant chunk of my income to the driving enhusiast role, I’ll add something else to my garage, just for fun, next to a Corolla.
Don’t forget that there’s lots of goodwill with those millions of Corollas sold. My wife had one for 13 years that she has fond memories of, and would be quite content to get another when we’re up for buying a car in the next few years. Never mind that the enthusiast in me would like to get something like a Mazda3, but it’s going to be her daily driver, so she gets the last call.
Michael Karesh:
November 9th, 2006 at 10:54 am
But Honda owners like to perform a lot of research before buying another Honda.
That’s my sister-in-law exactly. She wants to replace her 10 year old Civic. She read car reviews, got the CR car buyer’s guide,etc. Test drove the new Civic, didn’t like it. Now she’s saving a down payment for a new Accord, and will happily drive that for 10 more years.
My former spouse is a Toyota nut. She has owned Toyotas exclusively her whole adult life and all have been bought new. She started with the Corolla (a ‘78 then an ‘82) then graduated to Camryhood, where she has been since 1988.
The Corollas she had were fun cars. Both were RWD, and were light, so they had an adequate amount of pickup even with the slushbox. On the downside, they were softly sprung and had numb, overboosted steering, but you could still throw them into a turn with reasonable expectancy of coming out the far side. Where these little buggers shone was with RWD – put a set of snow tires on (back then we only put them on the rear wheels), and they tore through anything that did not exceed their ground clearance. At the time, I lived on the side of a small mountain in NH and could always navigate up and down in the winter. Some of my neighbors with much bigger cars couldn’t make the grade, as it were. As far as reliability goes, they were both pretty much “change the oil and add gasoline” cars. Neither one had any major repairs as I remember.
So I have fond memories of the old Corollas, but the FWD feel turns me off. The amount the car has grown is alarming too – the Yaris is about the side of the old Corollas. Hmm, maybe I should go out to California and find an early 80s era Corolla for a commuter car…
The one thing you can’t fault is that the Corolla as well as most Toyotas are purpose built. The Corolla’s job is basic, reliable, economical transportation and it does that very well. Not every car has to be exciting and many consumers just don’t want the car to look offensive if it does what it should.
I disagree that just because most driving is commuting and so forth that it can’t be fun. Give me a Porsche 911 and my commute will be very fun. Give me an M5 and dropping the kids off and going grocery shopping will be fun. If you want a reliable car that isn’t torture to drive get a manual Impreza or a Mazda 3. Good handling, peppy engines, economical and reliable. Even if I could afford two cars a fun one and a commuter I’d end up with a Mazdaspeed 3 as the commuter and a Z4, Boxster or 350z as my fun car. But then I care about the drive not just the destination.
Excellent commentary – I remember a ‘98 Corolla that I had in Arizona as a rental and that thing was horrible. Cheap feeling interior (at a time when it was already being held up as a paragon of quality), and was dangerously underpowered. It basically could not maintain the 75mph speed limit on any hills – and more kicks at the gas pedal than an ’80’s Chuck Norris movie would not get that thing to downshift. Noisy, underpowered, frustrating, uncomfortable and boring – not the best memories of a car.
I do have a question about the interior quality of the Corolla. Last year I looked at both a Civic and a Corolla. The quality of the interior materials and interior fit and finish of the Civic seems much higher than the Corolla. The price wasn’t that different. What is the story behind that?
Howard
Here is one reason why people keep returning to buy Corollas. I was recently following an old rusting Corolla that had a sign stuck in the rear window. It simply read 475,000 kms.
I grew up in a Silver Tercel wagon, back when you could get such things. It was spacious, dependable, and cheap to run.
Sure, it didn’t excite the blood, but it did what it was supposed to, and if I need excitement, I can assure you I don’t need a 3,000 pound hunk of metal to get it.
Does that mean I don’t want one?
…. Apparently not, because I spend rather a lot of time on sites like this. :)
But despite that, and the fact I’ve been pining for a G35 since 2002, I probably won’t ever purchase another car that’s not a used wagon of some sort.
Because when it comes down to it, I know there’s much more important things I could use my money for. While I enjoy my time debating the merits of devices that inspire passion in my soul and jealousy in my wallet (such as $1500 espresso machines, $700 video cards, and $40,000 vehicles), I am at heart a depressingly practical person. I’ve got credit cards, a mortgage, and food that needs to be on the table, and when there’s money left over, I’ll feel a lot better using it to help those less fortunate then me then I will spending it on some luxury item.
Great article – though I would add that there are times when driving a wallflower like the Corolla can be more fun than piloting a performance car.
For example, I had to temporarily trade my 330i in for a Hyundai Sonata for my daily commute to Manhattan. Much to my surprise, the drive in the Hyundai was a more enjoyable affair.
I no longer had to worry about swerving at every pothole for fear of having my fillings come loose or, even worse, a bent rim. The steering in the Sonata, mercifully devoid of feedback and full of assist, let me paralell park with none of the of the bimmer’s stubborness. There was no rev-happy engine tempting me to switch lanes constantly or try to plug every hole in traffic. Finally, its nice being able to drink a cup ‘o joe without the burden of an inevitable upshift.
Of course, I can’t think of many situations other than gridlock where I’d pick a Hyundai (or Corolla) over a Bimmer, but they have their place and may even provide some unexpected “driving” “pleasure”.
passive
I’m with you there. You know, all those stock analysts don’t usually own most of the stocks they cover. I try to consider myself an impartial analyst–no conflicts of interest ;)
For practicality, though, a Bimmer bought and cared for over 15 years is still genrally much cheaper (per day/month) than the latest Honda Accord that is traded in after 3 years, upside down. I want to find the sweet spot of passion, longevity, and cost of ownership, rather than jump at the newest, hottest money pit. Like you, I’ve got far better and more important things to spend money on.
I owned two 1988 Chevy Nova, aka, Corollas, produced at NUMMI. One got rear-ended so we got rid of it. The other blew a head gasket (I think) at 88,000 miles with an estimated repair bill in the area of $1K . . . had to be towed from my driveway to the junkyard. In my 20 years of owning new cars (all of them sold by either GM or Ford), THAT was my only really bad experience. Anecdotal evidence falls both ways . . .
Exciting comments for an exciting car :-)
My first new car was an ‘81 SR-5 notchback, a new model that year. It was finally put out of its misery 15 years and 340,000 miles later.
I love the Corolla. I love what it stands for – an appliance to get you from A to B without emotion or trauma. For minimal bucks. While not my type of car (I like SOME road feel), I can see how millions have been sold.
Until I convinced her that after crossing the “50″ threshold she deserved to reward herself and graduate to a Camry with leather, my sister was content to purchase her 6th Corolla.
Its that good.
I’ve hated Corollas as much as the next guy (though I liked my ‘77, which I drove from ‘85-93). In particular, my best friend’s 1994 Geo Prism. Even with a stick, I prefered not driving to driving that thing. His ‘04 slushbox, however, is a decent car, and I suspect if you transported that car back to the 1960s or even the ’70s, the handling, steering precision, and even the acceleration would be considered quite sporty.
1) Any car produced in that quantity is boring. That’s the definition. Just imagine 30,000,000 Bimmer 325’s. You get the idea. But then, doesn’t that mean it’s the best offering in the segment? Over the years, the inferior models just disappear and they sure hoped to have the privilege to be boring.
2) The average American sedan is Camry. Let’s never forget the economical context behind the Corolla. I am not suprised if anyone earning more than $40k per year finds the Corolla too “lowly”. But what if you earn $20k per year? The world average income is much lower than that. They probably have to decide between the lowly Yaris and the quirky Aveo.
ash78:
My wife’s first new car was a 1992 Toyota Paseo aka Placebo aka Potato. It got her grad school and her first job with ease. We kept it for 12 years and replaced the oil, battery and tires. Never an unscheduled visit to the dealer. Did we buy another? No, but it was a great car for the time. I sold it to our doorman and he’s still driving it.
I recently had to borrow a early-00s vintage corolla as my more “exciting” ride was in the shop for a week.
It wasn’t half-bad. Seriously. The visibility was great, it handled well enough and was quiet enough. The seats were comfortable/no backache during my commute, the climate control kept me warm and the controls weren’t at all confusing. And it got near 40mpg.
Sure the plastics were cheap looking and “fast” is the last thing that this car was.
But if this is the level that “cheap” cars are performing at these days, then I’m certainly impressed by how far the automakers have come. If the corolla is responsible for driving the quality level up, then more power to it.
Kids today have no idea just how crappy cheap cars used to be. Oh, the stories….
My first car was a 1979 Toyota Corolla. Four doors, slushbox, factory standard AM/FM radio, a gift from an aunt since she didn’t need it anymore. No idea how many miles were on it, the odometer only had 5 digits, IIRC. It was bright yellow, hence I named it the Mighty Lemon Drop. I loved that car, and only gave up on it after the wiring crapped out and I couldn’t get it fixed to suit me. It may have been underpowered but by God I felt like a king driving it. Call it first love but it was vastly more fun to drive than a later POS “luxury car” I drove, a 1979 Lincoln Town Car, coincidentally yellow.
Personally, I think driving enjoyment has more to do with who is doing the driving than what is being driven. Unless it is an abomination of an auto, you can have fun driving it. The flip side, I believe, is that there are plenty of high-end cars out on the road being driven by people who regard them as no more than status symbols and hate twisty roads with a passion.
My wife and I make more than six figures, yet she drives a Corolla – she’s owned two different Corollas over the last 16 years.
Of course, she wants a new SUV, but for a commuter car that you spend 30 minutes driving twice a day on choked roads, it works perfectly fine, and it cheap to keep.
They do become noisy rattletraps over 100,000 miles, but they do run forever if you can stand that.
There is no denying that it is a good if slightly bland car. This is surely is not news to anyone. The value proposition is very good and I am confident Toyota will add a pinch more spice to the next generation.
I would rather see masses of people with smaller incomes driving Corollas than fire-sale, off-lease SUVs they can’t afford to maintain or refuel. Betty, the single 53 year old IHOP waitress, should really skip the ‘03 Explorer for $79/week and look at a Corolla CE. Her days of missed work for repairs will be near nil and she will be able to afford new tires before the steel belts show through.
NeonCat93, you had a yellow Town Car? ewwww.
I had a blue 83 Corolla. I loved that car. It used a lot of brake pads, which seems to be a common toyota problem. I broke the rear axel going over a curb, backed into a concrete light post for $1200, replaced the clutch and got it painted when it was 9. Otherwise it was problem free.
I have fond memories of the car, especially driving in the snow, but I bet I would be surprised how awful the drive is compared to my current cars.
Consumer Reports just came out with their fall auto preview, and once again Corolla is recommended and noted to be one of the 4 most reliable small cars.
passive:
I’ve never gummed up the Internet pipes with a reply like this before, but….here goes:
Right on! Good post!
As much as I lust for a new 911 or the like, I couldn’t imagine allocating that much money to “me” and not to a higher purpose.
To that end, I skip every AMG and supercar post on this site and every other automag I get. But I read and savor every review I find for cars that “regular” people drive.
Might be worth noting that even though the current Corolla showed up in North America as a 2002 model, it was actually a 2000 model in the rest of the world, which means next year’s replacement is really a couple years late. Doesn’t seem to have hurt sales though.
One of my friends owns a 92 Corolla, which came with lifetime free oil change option. As bad as it is, the oil change clause did not specify minimum intervals.
Needless to say, with free oil changes every 1500-2000k miles, my friend will be driving it for eons :) Great car, never left him stranded, got good gas mileage, powerful enough to move out of its own way, and it came with the most durable interior I’ve ever seen. The best car for people who care about the desitnation and don’t care about how they get there.
I really dislike boring cars but boring is subjective. A crown vic does not bore me while a camry does. Anyway, I recently had the lowly experience of dealing with a rental from mazda while my windows were being tinted at the dealer. The 06 corolla four door was not at all what I was expecting.
It had grown upright (read tall) instead of the low beltline prism design I was used to when I last drove one. It was high strung on a long stretch of four lane (read rural at 70mph) and the windage reinforced my upright impression. It didnt help that the car had the stench of curry and the console was sticky with what seemed to be slurpy residue. Overall, if you commute long distances, this is not the tool for the job.
Good friends of mine just traded into an 06 camry from an 89 corolla SR5 though, which was a very nice car. After 275K miles and only a thousand or so on the camry, they miss the old SR5 already. The SR5s of the early and late eighties at least looked decent but were pretty solid cars that made a reasonable effort to inspire the driver. It would be nice if Toyota offered the sportier versions of the corolla that they used to (and Im not talking about the hokey XRS sedan). Instead, we have six SUVs to choose from in the Toyota lineup. Kinda sounds like a GM or FoMoCo shift to me.
> What’s wrong with basic, refined, economical,
> and reliable transportation? Ohhhh, it’s BOR-ING
> to you. Well, F.O.
Nothing’s wrong with it. I just don’t understand why it must be completely devoid of style.
Last year I bought a new stove for my kitchen. It works great. The old stove we had when I was a kid worked fine, too, but it had some style; it had Flash Gordon chrome trim around the clock and chrome accents on the dials. It was cool. My new stove is not cool; it is just an appliance.
Why must the Corolla be so boring? It’s not like it is some great engineering problem; all they have to do is change the shape of the sheet metal, make the headlights round, and perhaps add some chrome. Yet Toyota continues to sell us nothing but vanilla.
Hi everyone, I’m new here. This is truly a great site.
We have had many cars in our family over the past four decades including American, European, Korean and Japanese brands.
The European ones are the best to drive but cars like the Corolla are the best to own. I bought a 2002 Corolla for my wife and never gave it much consideration as I had my 2003 Civic which to me drove better. Or so I thought. The Corolla was vastly better built and actually the better car over longer trips. I grew to love that Corolla. It was so well made – the quality was like a baby version of the old Lexus models. I have heard that the current Corolla, which is built one hour outside the Toronto area where I live (as well as NUMMI and other global locations) is built to the original Lexus tolerances.
Since I’m not wealthy, if I was to have only one car it would be a Corolla, although the stick shift isn’t great.
Toyotas are not great for throwing around corners but if you drive long distances, cars like Corolla and our 2006 Camry LE are hard to beat for comfortabe economical cruising.
To me Toyota has built a refined version of what American cars are supposed to be like. If the better small/midsize GM cars of the late 1970s and early 1980s had kept improving, they would be the mighty Corolla/Camry.
Why must the Corolla be so boring? It’s not like it is some great engineering problem; all they have to do is change the shape of the sheet metal, make the headlights round, and perhaps add some chrome. Yet Toyota continues to sell us nothing but vanilla.
Toyota does make a somewhat less vanilla version called The Matrix. Similar mechanicals, similar size though more useful b/c its a wagon.
Still not pee-your-pants exciting, but better.
Greetings to Dunworth. You are welcome here. And I agree with you: the Corolla stole the relatively numb "big car" feel of American cars from the 70's, downsized it and perfected it.
They gave/give the people what they want– cheap, reliable, boring cars– and reap the rewards. For the rest [of us], well there WAS the Supra.
Also, I've banned algibson from posting on TTAC. While TTAC encourages spirited debate, we will not tolerate abusive language towards the site, its authors or fellow commentators. Although I do my best to monitor flamers, trolls and centaurs, please email me at robertfarago@thetruthaboutcars.com if you spot any commentators who violate this community's commitment to civility.
Right here is why GM, Ford and DCX may soon flush into the history books.
The Corolla is exactly what the dependable (as dependable as could be made with the technology of the day, anyway), inexpensive, unpretentious Ford Model A was, once.
Nothing flashy, maybe. Nothing overpriced for sure. Dependable.
Yet this is the “Model A” of the late 20th and 21st centuries.
Now, in contrast, in the same time that Corolla has been selling and selling and improving on a good formula from one generation of car to the next, we also have the “competition”:
Ford. PINTO (un-frickin-believably bad. Had one from new, absolute D R E C K ). FIESTA. ESCORT. FOCUS.
Chevrolet. VEGA. MONZA. CHEVETTE. CAVALIER. GEO sub-brands. CAVALIER II (Total and complete J U N Q U E – had one from new, know all about it). PRIZM (ironically, a Toyota Corolla which Chevrolet STILL could not successfully sell). COBALT.
Pontiac. ASTRE. SUNBIRD. T-1000/ACADIAN. 2000 series, wasn’t it? Daewoo built LEMANS. SUNFIRE. VIBE (ironically, a Toyota Matrix clone which Pontiac CANNOT successfully sell).
Plymouth. The “Cricket” from Great Britain. Great nation, but they couldn’t build cars in the 1970’s for sh!t. Mitsubishi’s rebadged Arrow. Horizon. Sundancer. Neon. Then, nothing.
Dodge. The Mitsubishi built Colt. Omni. What was the pre-Neon thing called anyway? I forget. Neon. (Absolute and total K R A P P – unfortunately I know, I had one from new, my wife had one from new). Now, Caliber?!
I think my point is probably crystal clear, here.
And my friends wonder why I “abandoned” the big 3 after 30 years of car buying and bought a Prius?! Obviously, I didn’t give “them” enough chances, right?
Who can complain about the Corolla? My mother bought one new in ‘99 and the only time it has been to the shop was when she backed it into a tree. This is the danger faced by American car manufacturers. No one equates Chevy, Ford, or Dodge with this kind of reliablity, whether the opinion is deserved or not.
I owned a ‘90 Geo Prizm about 10 years ago. I can only conclude that somehow when the Toyota nameplate was ripped off the front to make a Geo some of the quality went with it. That car was in the shop constantly for warranty work. I finally had to buy a Dodge to get something even less reliable. I will give the Geo one peice of credit: It still ran after a roll-over accident.
As an owner of a 2001 Corolla, I can say that I don’t consider it to be a box on wheels. Granted, I am comparing it to a 1990 Civic, but I think the Corolla is a good balance of gentle, soft, and quiet while still having exactly the right amount of power for everyday driving. In other words, the Corolla is my smooth-sailing Buick-like family car.
One other issue that no one has mentioned is the excellent availability of new and aftermarket parts as well as the extreme ease of maintaining the Corolla. For instance, I can change the oil/filter without a jack. It is full of little touches like that. It is more than just economy, it is pseudo-luxury for those of us who do not aspire to spend a lot of money on a vehicle at any stage of ownership–ever.
Having owned a Corolla and ridden and driven in many more, I can understand its best features which many here have highlighted: reliability, economy, useability, some level of refinement and its steady improvement over the years.
It lacks some of the other things I find essential, like style, adequate power, a tossable chassis and…passion.
The Corolla is indeed a great car to own, but I prefer to drive. There are simply better instruments available – even cost-competitive ones – for that specific purpose.
“I owned a ‘90 Geo Prizm about 10 years ago. I can only conclude that somehow when the Toyota nameplate was ripped off the front to make a Geo some of the quality went with it. “
This says something, but I’m not sure what. The same vehicle down the same line but with a different badge . . . and you’re sure that somehow the quality got pulled out somehow. That in my opinion is the biggest problem that the domestic manufacturers have. You take the same car and identify it with two different manufacturers, and you’ll get people who will swear it’s a big POS in one case and god’s gift in the other.
As I mentioned, I owned a GM badged Corolla and it was not the best car I ever had by a long shot. Funny, but I didn’t think “wow . . . GM managed to screw this up by just putting their name on it!”. Instead, I thought “wow . . . Toyotas really aren’t perfect after all”. Just a matter of perception, I guess.
BTW . . . what the heck is a centaur?
To be fair everyone else I knew that had a Prizm at the same time had much better luck out of it. Maybe mine was built on a Thursday before a 4 day weekend or something. This does not change the fact that my particular car had me on a first name basis with the guys at the service dept. Aside from the different name plates and (I think) less insulation what was the difference between the older Prizms and Corollas?
Corollas are great cars. So were the Prizms. I like them, and would give my blessing to any recent college grad that wanted to buy one – new or used.
But the modern domestic cars in the segment hold their own better than you give them credit for. The Focus is actually a great little car for the money and sells almost as well as the Corolla. Consumers Reports LOVES the Focus (check out their latest recommmended lists). The Cobalt outsells the Focus and nips at the heels of the Corolla (within 10% total sales in 2005).
The Civic, however, handily outsells the Corolla. It is a much more compelling driver’s car than the Corollappliance. The Civic has more ’soul’.
The Corolla is indeed a great car to own, but I prefer to drive. – Joe Chiaramonte
My initial reaction to this was that I should never lend you my car.
By the by, I don’t know about soul, having never driven one, but the latest round of Civics are extremely good-looking. I have four Toyotas and really, really like them but I am going to at least visit the Honda dealer the next time I buy a car.
My friend had a tercel from th 80’s probably. In 2004 or so, it finally dissolved. He went to the dealership he had used before and who had done all the maintenance on the tercel, and bought the least expensive new toyota they had, which was an Echo. He paid cash, a day later went to pick up his new appliance – er – car.
That was it. He is the perfect Toyota customer. No dialogue, no chit chat, i doubt if her even had a test drive. Paid sticker.
And, other then bein dog ugly, its a prettty comfortable car, even in the back seat. Oh , and they are both lawyers, so money was never the issue.
The North American Corolla is quite conservative. Other Corollas sold worldwide, such as in Europe and Japan, are more exciting, and have good performance. So why aren’t they seen here? Market demands.
In Europe and Japan, there is enough of a demand to offer these. For the longest time, Americans did not demand a sporty compact. But that demand seems to be growing, which is why the next North American Corolla will be more sporty, as well as staying true to its roots.
Ar-Pharazon: “This says something, but I’m not sure what. The same vehicle down the same line but with a different badge . . . and you’re sure that somehow the quality got pulled out somehow. That in my opinion is the biggest problem that the domestic manufacturers have. You take the same car and identify it with two different manufacturers, and you’ll get people who will swear it’s a big POS in one case and god’s gift in the other.”
I sort of agree with you here, however, it is possible that the car is slighly different when the nameplate is switched. It’s all in the tolerances. If the parts they put in the car meet more stringent tolerances, there will be fewer of them, so the price for that part will be higher and can be put in the “higher quality” car. I bet if you looked at the parts shared between the Lexus ES and the Toyota Camry you’d see that the Lexus gets first crack at the low tolerance parts. Same probably with the Audi A4 and VW Passat. Or really any car with a shared platform, the higher price brand probably gets the “better” parts, even if they’re all the “same”. Another example: Why does a Delphi sourced alternator put in a Toyota Tacoma last forever, but the AC Delco (Delphi) alternator in my Dad’s Buick Regal hardly last 20K miles intervals before replacing? Toyota pays higher prices for parts, so Delphi sends them the good ones and the left overs go to those not willing/able to pay the higher prices (GM).
Sorry for getting off topic.
Yawn…
BTW
BTW . . . what the heck is a centaur?
If I remember correctly it’s a creature that’s half man half horse from Greek mythology.
My driver’s ed car was a Corolla, and as far as I remember, it was a competent small car. I mean, I can barely claim to have driven it, as I drove it with the caution of someone who had only gotten their license a week earlier. However, inasmuch as it felt like an economy car, there were a few nice touches in weird areas, just the kind of thing that shows (or at least gives the perception) that Toyota paid attention to the details. For instance, the gear shifter felt like the mechanism was surrounded by jello. And, considering the car had seen about 70,000kms of use (or abuse, not all of us beginning drivers were so cautious), everything seemed to have held up fine. It wasn’t an exceptional car in any way, but it’s easy to see why so many people (including just about every driving school in the greater Toronto area) chose Corollas.
That being said, the only reason it would’ve been any fun to drive is because it weighs next to nothing.
I understand, nutbags.
Part of me would still like to have a Corolla GT-S. You can’t buy ANYTHING with rear drive, a rear seat, and 2,300-pound curb weight these days. Great seats, too.
It was the first 16-valve car I ever drove, a real eye-opener. Redline was 7,800 or so. No torque down low, but so what? Wind the thing out!
No other love for the Corolla GT-S? Most people too young to remember it?
I have been an avid reader of this website since I discovered it 8 months ago. I have never had the urge to make a comment until I read this article. My qualification as a pistonhead is ownership of some 120 plus cars and trucks in 25+ years of driving. Never owned a BMW, Mercedes,or anything even slightly exotic or sporty,but I have owned many run of the mill Chevys,Plymouths,Datsuns,VW’s Toyotas etc.I’ll save the tale of why the General lost me for a more relevant time, but this article brought back fond memories of the many Japanese econo-boxes I have known and loved.
Most were underpowered (Mazda RX-2 excepted) which likely prevented me from scaring myself cornering,most were 4 or 5 speed so mediocre brakes weren’t an issue. One thing they all were was incredibly reliable, economical, and generally well built, well thought out little machines. My only regret is that rear wheel drive is so hard to find these days, the original Datsun 510 was a hoot to drive! Thanks for your excellent web site, and I look forward to seeing more articles about “Joe Six-Pack cars”
The Cobalt outsells the Focus and nips at the heels of the Corolla (within 10% total sales in 2005).
The differene, of course, is that the Cobalt is sold mostly into fleets at a drastic discount.
I’ve been saddled with more Cobalts than I can count over the past year (Avis), and they are not close to the Corolla in terms of build quality. Granted, they are rental cars, but with 10k on the clock the ones i’ve driven did not feel like they were designed make it another 90k.