WardsAuto: Boring Corolla Rests on Its Laurels
"Other than a borrowed grille from the Camry SE, some 'character lines' in the sheet metal and the Camry’s 2.4L 4-cyl. engine/5-speed automatic transmission in the top trim, there’s little to get excited about with the new model." WardAuto proclaims that "Toyota has delivered a downright boring Corolla for ’09." On one hand, Christie Schweinsberg seems to appreciate the value of vanilla, pointing out that the Corolla didn't suffer a sales slump prior to the new model's introduction (a la Honda Civic). But she can't get her head 'round the fact that Toyota didn't do, well, anything about the Corolla's narcoleptic sheetmetal and driving dynamics. And that's bad because…? "Toyota says it is aiming to conquest Mazda3 buyers, the youngest demographic in the segment, with its new Matrix hatchback rather than the Corolla, but that seems shortsighted. A more dynamic Corolla would have given Toyota more ammunition with which to target that crowd." Or less pleasure for its existing customers. The article disses the Corolla's delayed intro while flagging ToMoCo's quality issues (the reason for the delay). Schweinsberg concludes with a quote that could have come straight from the mouth of a domestic competitor. Oh wait, it did. "But with Toyota’s quality reputation beginning to suffer just as competitors are building better small cars, there’s no guarantee the auto maker will be able to continue selling '350,000 appliances a year,' as a competing OEM exec recently put it."
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End-of-year sales results aren't out yet this AM, but for class-leading sales of the 6 year old Corolla to have gone up year-to-year says a lot: an aging, but affordable & economical car is sufficient for even more Americans than ever. The average economy car buyer cares little about at-the-limit steering feel or IRS, advantages that the Mazda3 has to go along with its rock-hard interior plastics and higher price.
If you have a formula or a system and its successful you don't mess with it. People expecting the Corolla or Toyota to be on the decline due to a perceived lack of desirability based on one's own taste are barking up the wrong tree. If you deliberately make a small economy car slightly more rakish in design for looks at the expense of utility and make a trade off by making more acceleration while giving up a little fuel mileage you might please this website's and the Mazada 3's fanbase but that would drastically decrease the Corolla sales.
Mazda U.S. Sales 1995 283,745 . . . 2006 268,786 Toyota's US sales over the same period increased from a little over a million to over 2.4 million units. Corolla by itself sells 1.3x as many vehicles per year in the US as the entire Mazda lineup does. Toyota would be idiots to try and trade places. The Corolla is just about perfect for it's intended market. I'm not about to buy one, but 350,000 or more of my fellow citizens, er residents, will be pleased with theirs.