Mike

You get a choice of two four cylinders, neither make more than 140 horsepower out of 1.8 liters. They both make 126 torques.

Well that's underwhelming lol. But that's not the worst part by a wide margin. You get a choice between a manual (moms and old people don't want), a CVT (awful) and...drumroll....a FOUR speed automatic. IN 2014.
http://jalopnik.com/2014-toyota-coro...s-it-511859056

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"He shouted: 'You've won! Didn't you know?' I didn't, and it's about the nicest thing I've ever been told" -Bruce McLaren, 1968 Belgian Grand Prix

cluffenstein

it's better than a 7 or 8 speed automatic.

At least they offer a stick shift. Props for that.

Edit: I was going to see if the Focus still offered a manual... but Ford hates linux

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Mike

Stick is still a staple in the subcompact class. Yes, Ford has a manual in the Focus, and Fiesta. GM has a manual in the Sonic, Cruze, Cadillac ATS, CTS, etc. Dodge has a manual Dart, the Avenger probably will when its refreshed in 2014. The Civic still has a manual, as does the Accord even.

I'd respect a 7 or 8 speed auto a ton more, not sure how it is worse. Sure, perhaps it's over complicated, expensive, over engineered, but a 4 speed automatic? This crap is straight outta 1985...it's just lazy.

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"He shouted: 'You've won! Didn't you know?' I didn't, and it's about the nicest thing I've ever been told" -Bruce McLaren, 1968 Belgian Grand Prix

S D

Doesn't bother me at all, the only Toyota I'd consider is an FR-S and that's one car that they made right.

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Kenny McCormick

Time to pick nits with it. Hmm..

I do like this. I wish we'd stop using thoes god-awful HIDs and start using LEDs. These things last for-bloody-ever, use next to no power(You'll lose more wattage to the wiring than the lights themselves a lot of times), and they're infinitely more durable as well.

LED headlights as industry standard pl0x.

Oh yay, let's require a $350 windshield replacement whenever the radio antenna breaks. BRILLIANT!...I thought we moved away from this crap years ago. It was big in the early 90s, and then suddenly it wasn't a thing anymore.

Hmm...maybe with an option to have the door handles contrasting to make 'em easier to find at night? Not too much to argue with here. Translation: We took the back seat from our grandfather's Ford Cortina and stuffed it in here with new upholstry. nice This should be illegal. So annoying.

Nice, nice. Yay, let's put the world's most useless filter on the car. Bet it's hidden in an incredibly hard to reach nook that involves dismantling the entire dashboard to access and isn't even listed in the maintenance intervals, either. Nice for those that'd use it. I just ignore my phone though.

umm........


Thank you, semi-anonymous Jalopnik editor.

Better than I expected, actually. Not ba-...waaaaaaaaiiit a minute. Wait wiat wait. Hold the phone, stop the presses and all that jazz.

DRUM. BRAKES?! asdfgfdg come on Toyota that crap got old years ago. Four corner discs is industry standard even in bargain-bin crapmobile class. Get with it. S trim axle should be standard for all corollas.

Yaaaay, loads of aids to make inept drivers more inept. Bet there isn't an off switch for any of it, either.

I do like the electronic brake bias adjustment, that would come in especially handy on pickup trucks where the weight bias could shift wildly depending on trailer/cargo status. If you're towing near-max it'd make sense to automatically shift the brake bias rearward, since there's more grip back there than there is empty. Not sure what good itt'l do on a little family sedan like this, but it is a nice little gadget that I wouldn't mind retrofitting.

...erm...yeah. I think, if I were buying a car in this segment, I'd look pretty strongly at what Ford and GM are offering before I even thought about coming to Toyota.


Too many gears. No sedan has any business with more than six, and most will never have a use for more than five. 7 and 8 speed boxes are notorious for hunting around because the computers can't make their mind up which gear to be in...bad enough with just four to choose from but with eight on hand they're changing gear every thirty seconds.

If it works it works. The Camry and the Corolla have always been bargain-tier generic 12' slabs of car, so there's no incentive to push the envelope with them. The people that buy them buy them because they're cheap and dependable, they don't want or care about anything beyond that. For people like that a 4 speed automatic transaxle is just fine.

For the record I do agree that a 4 speed autotragic in 2013 should only be found on a golf cart, but at the same time, look at the type of car we're talking about. The typical Corolla customer doesn't care. They just want 12 feet of Toyota sedan. That also explains the laughably weak kneed four pot engines, the likely lack of accoutrements, and from what I can tell the stamped, flat-black steelies with gaudy plastic covers.

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Mike

Oh I know that if you get more than six gears the gearbox is perpetually confused, that's no secret.

I'm finding it hard to fathom why it took them this many years for a refresh that...didn't really do much. Can anyone find a major imrovement in this car?

Its entire powertrain pushes no boundaries, is quite conservative and outdated in a market massively crowded and competitive.

I'm sure the suspension is nothing special, being a Corolla.

I hate to sound like Clarkson, but how hard can it be? Seems like Toyota was sitting around, then suddenly realized they needed to update the Corolla! So they slapped some bodywork together, made the interior better and called it good.

In other news, I'm truly wondering how long it takes you to do all those quotes, Kenny. I tried it once. Grew too impatient lol.

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"He shouted: 'You've won! Didn't you know?' I didn't, and it's about the nicest thing I've ever been told" -Bruce McLaren, 1968 Belgian Grand Prix

Kenny McCormick

I guess it's just because they know their buyers don't care about anything else? Maybe they're just complacent? Who knows. I do know it's the last car I'd look at if I were buying in that segment, though.


As for the quotes...they're not too bad to make, actually. Takes longer to get my clipboard to behave itself sometimes.

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afb_ali

is it right that corolla doesn't need mechanic?

Mike

Any vehcile will break at some point. Toyota is no different.

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"He shouted: 'You've won! Didn't you know?' I didn't, and it's about the nicest thing I've ever been told" -Bruce McLaren, 1968 Belgian Grand Prix