NYIAS: Fifty-Year-Old Toyota Corolla Gets New Nose

Chris Tonn
by Chris Tonn

The eleventh generation Toyota Corolla has been refreshed with a new beak-like nose, and equipped with new safety features and options. Furthermore, as the Corolla is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, a special commemorative edition has been announced.

I’ll expect to see a few of these rolling across the blocks at the Barrett-Jackson auction in 2046.

The restyled Corolla offers an optional suite of safety features, referred to as Toyota Safety Sense-P. We have been assured that it is not a mobile bladder evacuation device; rather, a package including a pre-collision system that detects pedestrians, radar cruise control, lane departure warning, and automatic high beam headlamps.

Those headlamps are now fitted with LEDs across the line from the base model up to the XLE.

The 50th Anniversary Special Edition is limited to 8,000 units, all well equipped, and featuring unique alloy wheels, Black Cherry stitching on the seats, steering wheel, shift boot, and armrest, and Black Cherry accents on the door and dash.

Unsurprisingly, the Anniversary car is in Black Cherry, as well as Classic Silver and Blizzard Pearl, and will be available fall 2016.

Required with any special car release these days, Toyota developed a marketing campaign centered around the hashtag The campaign, in partnership with Buzzfeed, allows Corolla owners to share their memories of owning the best-selling car worldwide.

[Images: Toyota]

Chris Tonn
Chris Tonn

Some enthusiasts say they were born with gasoline in their veins. Chris Tonn, on the other hand, had rust flakes in his eyes nearly since birth. Living in salty Ohio and being hopelessly addicted to vintage British and Japanese steel will do that to you. His work has appeared in eBay Motors, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars, Reader's Digest, AutoGuide, Family Handyman, and Jalopnik. He is a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Association, and he's currently looking for the safety glasses he just set down somewhere.

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  • Frozenman Frozenman on Mar 24, 2016

    This isn't funny anymore, there is something very very wrong down at Toyota HQ.

  • SnarkyRichard SnarkyRichard on Mar 25, 2016

    And I thought the Lexus RC was ugly with it's giant sucker fish grill and late 90s Camaro turd like side profile . Looks like Toyota is trying to outdo those Mazda clown smile grills .

  • ToolGuy "Honey, someone is trying to cross the moat again"
  • Rochester "better than Vinfast" is a pretty low bar.
  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
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