Corolla is king of the hill
Interior, exterior additions make the world’s favorite car even better
Globally, the Toyota Corolla is a bestseller and for good reason
Clearly, the small sedan market is not the most exciting category to drool over, but when it comes to a best-seller or a chart-topper, we do enjoy the opportunity, and for Toyota, it’s just that.
In this Grasso’s Garage review, we kicked around in Toyota’s 2021 Corolla; globally the vehicle with the highest sales.
Our 2021 XSE model was a dream for the small sedan as its commuting ability matched with comfort, style and price was no match for the competition. It came with power heated seats, wireless charging pad, and my favorite, sport mode, which gave it that little edge in the rpm department.
For 2021, the Corolla showed out with interior and exterior additions that were all notable. The interior displayed a new infotainment system at 8 inches including navigation and nine JBL speakers paired with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay capabilities, wireless charging pad, SiriusXM all for an extra $1,715. Cloth/ leather seats, a blue threaded accent stripe in the dash also came with our XSE. Nine model options beginning at $19,925 for the L version rising to $28,210 for the XSE
Apex Edition are available in the fleet.
Exterior sightlines were Corolla-like and had tons of visibility from all placements in the sedan. It was low to the ground and would pretty much fit anywhere in the city-type setting.
A 2.0L four-cylinder dual overhead cam 16-valve engine with variable valve timing was quiet and ran great, producing 169 stout horsepower aligned with a peppy 151 lb.-ft. of torque. Although the economical continuously variable transmission was present, it was quiet and didn’t whine like a snowmobile at high rpms.
We were very impressed with the front-wheel-drive Corolla and its ability to check so many boxes when searching within the economy daily driver category. It all makes sense as to why Corolla remains the world’s top-seller.