New Corolla hatch double act
You could say the nose knows. The Toyota Corolla hatch has just been facelifted, and the project has involved introducing new front end designs from Europe and USA. Rob Maetzig explains.
Toyota Corolla is the darling of the New Zealand rental car fleet. Almost every month deliveries to rental companies contribute massively to the vehicle’s total sales, helping make it easily the most popular passenger car in the country.
Sales statistics for August underline all of this. Last month a total of 621 Corollas were registered – more than twice the number of registrations achieved by the second most popular car, which just happened to be another Toyota, the RAV4.
But of that Corolla total, 378 of them went to rental companies – which was 25 per cent of all rental registrations for the month.
Now this isn’t to say that the Corolla isn’t popular with private purchasers or as a fleet vehicle, because it is. Even with the rental business removed, the Toyota was still one of New Zealand’s most popular vehicles in August, and this year has achieved close to 1000 more sales than any other passenger vehicle.
The Toyota is popular – and close to 250,000 of them have been sold in New Zealand in the past 46 years – because it is one of the world’s easiest cars to own and operate. It often comes in for criticism for being boring – but the reality is that it is reliable and economical, something that is appreciated by thousands of motorists.
It’s almost certain that this popularity will continue too, because the Corolla has just been facelifted. The good news about the facelift is that it has made the model more interesting because it gives the potential buyer the choice of two distinctly different body styles.
It’s essentially all to do with the vehicle’s nose. The entry GX and GLX grades now have a European look which is derived from the facelifted Toyota Auris that was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year, while the higher grade Levin SX and Levin ZR models get their frontal design cues from the Corolla equivalent in the USA, the Scion.
So what are the differences between the two?
The top SX and ZR models have a nose that features a piano-black honeycomb mesh pattern for the upper grille, a hexagonal lower grille, and side bezels. The car also has a body aero kit.
The GX and GLX versions have a nose with a larger Toyota logo that is flanked by chrome strakes, new headlight clusters, a more prominent front bumper, and a lower grille that extends into side rails that run the full width of the car.
Toyota NZ says the use of the two design themes aim to give the Corolla a greater presence. General manager of product Spencer Morris says his company is fortunate in that it can draw on the company’s global strength of Toyota to offer maximum appeal to buyers who may have different tastes.
The Corolla facelift is a little more than just a nose-job, however. The interior has been improved so there’s a feeling of better quality, security has been upgraded, and fuel consumption is better.
The GLX version, with its continuously-variable automatic transmission that we have been driving, now has a higher-grade 7-inch touch-screen for the audio system and reversing camera display, the steering wheel has controls for the main audio switches and cruise control, and fuel consumption has been lowered by 7.6 per cent so it is now 6.1 litres per 100 kilometres.
I always enjoy driving a Corolla. They’re so easy to operate, and this latest model offers a feeling of security because you are sitting behind a dash area that is rather upright in its stance. This feeling is helped by the fact the instrument panel is black, with silver brushed metal accents and a piano black shift lever surround. Seats are upholstered in a black and grey pattern fabric with contrasting white stitching. At the GLX level the Corolla has also received privacy glass.
It’s not the most powerful hatchback on the Kiwi market, with its 1.8-litre DOHC engine offering maximum power of 103 kilowatts at 6400 rpm, and the torque tops out at 173 newton metres ar 4000 rpm. This is sufficient to give it sound but not outstanding performance, helped along via an efficient automatic that can either left to its own devices as a CVT, or can be used as a seven-speed sequential manual. All Corollas have a MacPherson strut front suspension and a torsion bar setup at the rear, and its suite of safety technology includes ABS brakes with brake assist and electronic brake-force distribution, stability control, traction control, and hill-start assist control. At the GSX level the hatch runs on new-style 16-inch alloys.
It all adds up to a raft of small improvements, both visually and technically, to New Zealand’s most popular car. It’s not much, but you can guarantee it will be enough to keep the vehicle at the top of the sales tree – rental business or not.