09 COROLLA FIRST DRIVE

[regfootball]

ouch

Even so, we’re disappointed with the design and materials used throughout the interior. The peanut-butter lids doubling as rheostat dials for the climate controls are particularly horrifying from a company that could probably buy any one of Detroit’s Big Three automakers with the change in its pockets. If Toyota wants to maintain its lead in this business, we dare suggest it benchmark some of GM’s interiors and then do better, not worse.

Besides, the best-selling car of all time deserves better, doesn’t it?

http://www.caranddriver.com/previews/14440...ta-corolla.html

Edited December 24, 2007 by regfootball

[Dsuupr]

Once again we learn toyota is following the path of the old GM. Straight from a toyota exec, "it saves us money and besides the customer still knows we build the best cars out there no matter what the magazines say."

[dimitri0917]

Overall, I'm hoping this car will fail!

05 Civic --> 06 Civic == Game changing

Cavalier --> Cobalt== Revolutionary

07 Impreza --> 08 Impreza == Totally different

07 Focus --> 08 Focus == Huge for a refresh

08 Corolla=09 Corolla

SAME FRICKIN CAR... ugly as sin too!

I smell a stinker.

[Drew Dowdell]

Once again we learn toyota is following the path of the old GM. Straight from a toyota exec, "it saves us money and besides the customer still knows we build the best cars out there no matter what the magazines say."

Talk about ghost of Christmas past...Roger Smith??? Is that You?!

[Paolino]

I still don't understand how this is the car that was delayed--delayed to be so vastly improved to compete with the revolutionary new Civic.

[Camino LS6]

"a terminally limp-wristed automobile"

:rotflmao:

And to all (except Toyota) a Happy New Year!

[CSpec]

The Corolla seems pretty awful. Hopefully the Cobalt replacement can run circles around it.

[Robert Hall]

Meh...just another boring generic... it's amazing how many car buyers want generics, though.

[regfootball]

it seems to me like they deliberately tried to make more like a Kia.

[buyacargetacheck]

Car and Drivel has never been kind to the Corolla (except for maybe the old 16V GTS). But then again the Corolla isn't the impractical, hard-riding kind of sled they like. Remember, most of the editors at car mags don't actually buy family cars for their own use and therefore don't have the perspective of a buyer that looks for reliability, good resale, good insurance rates, etc. For its target market the Corolla was about perfect to begin with - no wonder "the new Corolla is no quantum leap." Duh!

[Northstar]

Car and Drivel has never been kind to the Corolla (except for maybe the old 16V GTS). But then again the Corolla isn't the impractical, hard-riding kind of sled they like. Remember, most of the editors at car mags don't actually buy family cars for their own use and therefore don't have the perspective of a buyer that looks for reliability, good resale, good insurance rates, etc. For its target market the Corolla was about perfect to begin with - no wonder "the new Corolla is no quantum leap." Duh!

Because the Hondas they like so much are totally impractical and ride hard as a rock.

Get real.

[VenSeattle]

Remember... the new Corolla was even delayed a year because of the new Civic... Can you imagine what it was like before?

[mustang84]

Keep up the good work Toyota. Every day you make GM look a little better as you continue to cheapen out your product. I've heard the same things said about the '07+ Camry interior from owners, and the '06 SE I rode in wasn't anything to write home about. It's like Toyota isn't even trying anymore.

[Cory Wolfe]

Toyota... Following Lindsay Lohan and Brittany Spears en route to total destruction.

[gm4life]

This is excellent news I fear they will still sell like mad but maybe not like the once did. This car is one ugly bastard child for sure, and I am very under-impressed with it along with the 2005 Avalon, 2006 FJ, 2007 Camry (especially), 2007 Turd (especially), 2008 Sequoia (especially), and now the Matrix and this really ugly Corolla. I think they are becoming the GM in the 1980's. Not caring and still selling, but hey I am so glad they screwed up another one, I actually sorta liked the old one, but this thing is ugly is everyone on the design team blind? Someone said they are making GM look a lil better each day, they really are. The only "new" Toyota I like is the Rav. Way to go... I wish you slow sales in the new year Toyota. And to every other brand I wish a great new year. (Especially my GM and fellow domestics!)

[gm4life]

Opps forgot the ugly new Highlander, I can't wait to see the next Sienna, oh man Priv what ever it was called here we come and the Prius's are just werid. Have the products got less attractive or is it really just me being a Toyota hater? (I think they have!)

[regfootball]

This is excellent news I fear they will still sell like mad but maybe not like the once did. This car is one ugly bastard child for sure, and I am very under-impressed with it along with the 2005 Avalon, 2006 FJ, 2007 Camry (especially), 2007 Turd (especially), 2008 Sequoia (especially), and now the Matrix and this really ugly Corolla. I think they are becoming the GM in the 1980's. Not caring and still selling, but hey I am so glad they screwed up another one, I actually sorta liked the old one, but this thing is ugly is everyone on the design team blind? Someone said they are making GM look a lil better each day, they really are. The only "new" Toyota I like is the Rav. Way to go... I wish you slow sales in the new year Toyota. And to every other brand I wish a great new year. (Especially my GM and fellow domestics!)

I liked the RAV until i drove it and then i barfed.

[CARBIZ]

Remember... the new Corolla was even delayed a year because of the new Civic... Can you imagine what it was like before?

:rotflmao:

Toyota has always produced lackluster products, but now the media's love affair seems to have worn off. Lutz delayed the Cavalier when he saw the 'new one' and the Cobalt was the result, but at least that was 3 years ago! I agree that within Toyota's corporate culture it would have been impossible to produce a 'segment busting' small car, but to still fall short of the Mazda 3 and current Civic is shameful. And that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[thegriffon]

This is just the standard Toyota 5-year upgrade on the old platform. The big change was introducing the wide-body version underpinning the 1st-gen Vibe and Matrix. The Corolla sells too well for Toyota to realize there's a problem with this when the competition makes a more significant upgrade. In Europe the Corolla was still under-performing and so the Japanese models (Corolla Spacio and Runx) were replaced by the Corolla Verso and Auris on the wide-body platform. Toyota has better compact sedans—the JDM Premio and Allion, which use a longer wheelbase like the Civic and Astra sedans.

[ellives]

I've said before and I'll say again: The most glaring advantage the Corolla has is gas mileage. Nothing else competes with 37 highway (other than the Prius.) The Aveo gets what? 34? This is a huge gap that needs to be closed by every other manufacturer.

[Duncan]

Anyone else seen the ad for the Mazda 3, in which the shamed Corolla owner closes his garage to hide his purchase from the beaming Mazda owner? Replace the Mazda in that ad with any number of other compacts, and it still makes sense. Which is sad for what used to be the absolute benchmark of small sedans, even if it was never an excitement machine.

I'm still looking into the details, but I think 1999 (for the 2000 model year) is when Toyota began to lose their collective wisdom about the automotive world. Note that the original Tundra, the Echo, the original Prius, and the exceedingly boring second-gen Avalon were all introduced about that time - and that the Lexus SC and Supra were dropped about the same time.

Compare this to 1982, when GM released nearly identical versions of the J-car to every single division - even Cadillac - without so much as grille and headlight differences. It took a long time, and several more crucial missteps, to make up for complacency and errors like that. One can only wonder if Toyota is undergoing a similar crisis of mediocrity at present.

As for gas mileage - yes, it's important, but even with oil at a hundred bucks a barrel, I still don't think we're to the point where it will be the overriding factor for a majority of buyers. An excellent selling point (and you're beginning to see it in advertising more and more), but not yet a crucial one, I'm afraid.

[regfootball]

today, i was at the auto body place getting the estimate to fix my car, they had automotive news magazine and in it was a story on the 09 corolla.

it was LMAO because they were interviewing the head engineer dude or whatever from Japan I guess on the 09 Corolla.

first question was 'why did you have to delay the program' and the answer was because the engineers were needed for the turd and camry. etc.

then, the questions were like, why only a 4 speed auto? why only rear drums? why only beam axle? all the answers were about cost mostly, or 'it works fine like it is'.

I was LMAO because they were asking the same questions like they were asking GM all the time....when the press was ripping on GM exclusively.