Wake up and see all the changes
Great North Rd is good fun for petrol-heads young and old alike. The smorgasbord of new car dealerships is a sight to behold, and — every once in a blue moon — you’ll stumble upon a car you’ve never seen before.
This week, that car happened to be one of the most important releases of 2018; the new Toyota Corolla.
We've been giving it plenty of praise of late, given its integral role in Toyota's overarching plan of making its products less of a snooze. And after a brief discussion on Thursday, we were let loose for a spin in a top-spec ZR model.
The ZR comes loaded with plenty of tech and trim changes. It wears a body-kit and 18-inch wheels on the outside, and a heads-up display, ultra-comfy heated suede sports seats and more on the inside.
That's on top of the standard equipment across the range, which includes stacks of safety tech — like adaptive cruise control, lane-tracing assist, and autonomous emergency braking.
The SX and ZR models share the same naturally aspirated 2-litre four-cylinder engine with 125kW of power and 200Nm of torque. Humble figures on first reading, but that's 21 per cent more power and 15 per cent more torque than the outgoing 1.8-litre. There's also a 72kW, 1.8-litre hybrid variant.
The biggest story here, however, is how the Corolla looks, inside and out.
Unsurprisingly, things are well bolted together inside. The difference is that the design has matured and the material quality has improved across the board. Plush surfaces don't just adorn major touch points, they also find home all over the dashboard and door panels. Although, the big slab of piano-black plastic on the transmission tunnel will attract dust.
As for the exterior, a shrinking violet the new Corolla certainly is not — particularly in ZR trim. The leering headlights wrap around the nose while feeding into the honeycomb grill. And around the back, the boot lid looks like an unfolded piece of origami paper.
Whereas buyers will either love or hate it, we tend to think that it's one of the most ambitiously styled Corollas since the 90s; something that truly stands out in its own segment.
Of course, dressing something up to look as if it’s a ball to drive is one thing — making it engaging and fun is something different. Without giving away too much, the Corolla delivers.
It launches next month, which should involve a proper spirited drive. So Driven’s full driving impressions (and pricing) will come then. But I will say the Corolla’s new CVT is a wonderful thing.
Unlike other CVTs, it comes with an “automatic” first gear complete with torque converter. This means that the Corolla has great off-theline pick-up — revving out to redline before switching over to a pulley-driven CVT arrangement once it's reached a certain speed.
There is much more to learn about the new Corolla — things that cannot be gauged from a short and sweet blast around Auckland. But, from our early reading, Toyota is on to a very good thing.