A play for the common man
Can Toyota break the Corolla’s reliance on fleet sales? This one probably has the best chance yet, writes Richard Bosselman.
With 7300 going into Kiwi ownership in 2018 – and that was a quiet year – Toyota’s Corolla is essentially less a face in the crowd than the crowd proper.
Yet where does a Toyota that’s everywhere stand in your psyche – like, do you even ‘‘see’’ it? That’s an important question, with the car that hit No 1 through targeting company business now taking greater aim at the person in the street.
Emboldened by this hatchback (the sedan’s later) being meted more flair and undoubtedly also influenced by the national Drive Happy sticker strategy that pulls back prices and purportedly reins in discounting, Toyota New Zealand says it is determined to this year focus more on winning more private buyer interest.
Really? Eighty per cent of all new cars, including more than six in every 10 Corollas, sell into some kind of workplace deal. Moreover, massive monthly counts show how good TNZ is at smashing out centuries. So why bother sharpening up on scoring more singles?
It could be that the brand that prides itself on being the Kiwi favourite getting too cosy with company accountants is cutting too deeply into the bottom line. It’ll be interesting to chart how easily a car so institutionalised can shake off any rep/rental reputational stigma. Toyota’s competitors pray it cannot. The private sector has become their last stand. The market leader’s gain is their pain.
Everything depends on how good it is and, assessing the ZR flagship in fully petrol and hybrid is illuminating. Even though what we see here is mainly an exercise in catching up, with just one obvious sectorfirst implementation, it’s still a significant step forward.
Shifting to the new Toyota New Global Architecture platform, and adopting trailing wishbone independent rear suspension, delivers on the brand’s pledge to make this a more personable drive. It expresses finesse and enough flair to more confidently meet challenges the preceding car shirked. A lower centre of gravity is good news. It holds the road well enough to fire hope a rumoured competition-grade car will come. ZR keeps it real with decent suspension suppleness. Shame about the road noise from the Sports Maxx tyres.
There’s more content, much safety-minded. Lane keep assist and active cruise control are handy and don’t diss the automated emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist protection.
Styling and design trends accentuate the familiar, yet it just looks a lot lower, wider, sleeker and sharper, with more interesting sculptural flair, inside and out. Material choice is still cost-constrained, but detailing improves and the wireless charging pad is a well-timed nod to modern needs, but it’s a shame
the front seats lack electric adjust or memory setting.
Here’s where it steers off course. Corolla has a longer body now, but loses interior space. While the rear seats are decent and headroom stacks up, legroom back there is tight and luggage space is bad. The petrol is poorer than the hybrid, as the latter gets a tyre repair kit rather than a spare (even though the battery’s under the seat), yet. No wonder they’re downplaying the rental reliance.
Up front, it’s better. A big, typically protuberant, touchscreen is cool, and delivers builtin sat nav, plus the voice control feature is useful, though it only activated properly when spoken to in a quick, clipped tone. However, a sat nav and phone setup that effectively only accepts any interaction when the car is stopped is highly frustrating.
So which drivetrain? For me, it’d be the pure petrol 2.0-litre, a new direct injection engine. The 1.8-litre-aligned hybrid is OK, certainly has some impressive eco credentials and obviously has an edge on economy, but it’s not calibrated for towing (whereas the petrol has capacity for up to 450kg for an unbraked trailer, or 1300kg braked) and doesn’t feel as strong or willing.
Because it isn’t? Erm, as always, things are confusing in terms of power ratings with these ‘‘self-charging’’ powertrains. Here the hybrid engine can produce 72kW (at 5200rpm), and 142Nm (at 3600rpm), with the electric motor being capable of 53kW and 190Nm. Which adds up to? Well, Toyota says the maximum power output from the drivetrain is 90kW – which is about 25 per cent less than the 2.0 – and, as usual, doesn’t cite a torque figure.
The hybrid is as trad Toyota, so the battery recharges by regenerative braking and running on EV mode is such a low-speed, limited range exercise it’s only useful for crawling. Should we expect more these days?
Cited ability to deliver just 4.2 litres per 100km economy required more talent than I possess; I had it averaging 5.8L, which seemed OK, at least until the 2.0-litre subsequently provided a closer average to the 6.0L claimed optimal, with a reading of 6.4L.
Neither engine is particularly sporty, but the 2.0-litre is zestier, more responsive and works better with that constantly variable transmission, unique in provisioning something CVTs were supposed to have: an orthodox gear. They’ve given it a proper ‘‘first’’ to deliver a more natural, less fizzy launch. It does make stop-start traffic and green light acceleration less annoying. Both models are still noisy under hard acceleration, though, and 10 speeds for the 2.0-litre’s paddle shift-operated manual mode is excessive.
Can the best seller instantly achieve as absolute best in class? Not while there’s still life in the Mazda3, Holden’s European Astra and the Hyundai i30. But it offers more for the money asked, though in that respect, there’s still no harm in seeking a discount. You know what they say about old habits.