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Monday, July 11, 2011
The Toyota Corolla is the world's best-selling car of all time. More than 33 million have been sold in the last 35 years, which makes it mathematically assured that you know someone who either owns one or used to own one. This car owes much of its success to Toyota's reputation of dependability and it's hard to argue with such a buying rationale.
Yet once you look beyond that single attribute, you'll discover that the 2011 Toyota Corolla is no longer the class leader it once was. The Corolla's fuel economy used to be a benchmark, but now it gets thumped by the new Hyundai Elantra's EPA-rated 40 mpg highway and 33 mpg combined. Interior quality is another area in which the Corolla finds itself outclassed. And while the Corolla has never been described as being fun to drive, the current car feels so disconnected from the road that you may find yourself thinking you're playing a very dull video game.
The sport-tuned XRS trim, with its more powerful four-cylinder engine, used to be the model of choice for Corolla buyers seeking extra responsiveness, but Toyota has killed it for 2011. Also removed from the Corolla menu this year is the XLE, which was the most luxury-focused trim in the lineup. On the plus side, the Corolla gains revised styling for 2011, particularly with the sport-look S trim, which also gets the thick, flat-bottomed steering wheel found in the new Scion tC.
If you think we believe that you can do better than the 2011 Toyota Corolla, you're right. It's not just us, either. Two years ago we invited six regular Americans to drive the Corolla alongside the Honda Civic and previous-generation Mazda 3. None of our testers put the Corolla in 1st place and all but the most senior members of the bunch placed it dead last. They echoed our opinion that the Corolla feels disconnected to drive and expressed disappointment with the look and feel of its cabin.
Today the Corolla faces even stiffer competition. Of course, the Corolla is still known for its reliability, but then so is the Honda Civic, and Hyundai has improved dramatically in this regard. As such, we highly recommend shopping around before taking a 2011 Toyota Corolla home.
The driver's seat includes a height adjustment, but I never found an ideal driving position because the steering wheel didn't tilt low enough for me. Plus, the resting place for your left foot is incredibly small — my foot was constantly sliding off it — and uncomfortable. One of our editors thought the driver's seat didn't move back far enough, either.
A snug backseat is pretty typical for the compact segment, and the Corolla is no exception. My knees were pressed into the driver's seat, which thankfully didn't have any plastic backing. The backseat doesn't offer much thigh support, either. I'm 6-foot-1, which is a tough test for a compact, but the Corolla's rear seat seems tighter than most.
Compared with the 2011 Elantra or 2012 Focus, the Corolla's conservatively styled interior looks bland. Still, all the critical controls are thoughtfully arranged and within easy reach when driving. That said, the cabin has quite a few quality shortcomings — and only a few exceptional characteristics.
Perhaps the biggest offender is the air-conditioning controls, which consist primarily of three large dials that rotate with a sloppiness not typically seen in a modern car. Every time you adjust the temperature, fan speed or airflow direction, you'll be reminded how crude these controls are.
The cabin also has quite a bit of hard plastic on the upper door trim and armrests, so no matter where you rest your left arm, it probably won't find a cushioned surface. There are also rough finishes on the minimally padded center armrest that further diminish the sense of quality, and the urethane steering wheel on our top-level S trim felt out of place on a $20,000-plus car.
On the flip side, the optional stereo in our test car showed lots of song information on its screen, it had nicely damped buttons and it included a Bluetooth streaming audio function.
The Corolla is immediately recognizable as a Toyota, although at first you might confuse it with a Camry because size is the main distinguishing feature between the two. The Corolla is slightly longer than the Honda Civic, while the Nissan Sentra is noticeably taller and bigger. With its solid roofline, four doors, and short overhangs, it looks like a bigger car.
The 2011 Corolla gets a restyled nose, and it's a clean design. Three bars in the grille, but only the center one is defined because they are body colored. Iconic Toyota emblem in the middle of the grille. Smooth front fascia that surrounds optional foglights, and a tidy functional air intake with black mesh under the bumper. It all sweeps nicely back and upward.
The bumper underlines odd headlamps, with a sweeping outline but they're bulbous, and stick out at the corners. They're bulbous in a three-dimensional sense, but sleek in their shape.
The rear end is not so clean, starting with a thick piece of chrome that stretches between the taillamps. The wing is low and thick, with winglets at its edges; it definitely adds a sporty touch and it's not overkill. The taillamps are simple horizontal slats that wrap around from the trunk to the sides of the car, and poof out from the body like the headlamps. With less chrome, less wing, less white in the taillamps, the tail would look as clean as the nose.
Exterior fit and finish are at a high level for such an inexpensive car. Body-colored door handles and mirrors, as well as the spoiler and side sills on the S, add a touch of class. The wheels look ordinary, though, even the 16-inch alloys on the Corolla S.
Every 2011 Toyota Corolla is powered by a 1.8-liter inline-4 that produces 132 horsepower and 128 pound-feet of torque. A five-speed manual is standard and a four-speed automatic is optional.
In Edmunds performance testing, an automatic-equipped Corolla went from zero to 60 mph in 10.1 seconds -- a slower time for this class. EPA-estimated fuel economy stands at 26 mpg city/34 mpg highway and 29 mpg combined with the automatic and 28/35/31 with the manual. These numbers used to be quite impressive but pale in comparison to the new Hyundai Elantra's promise of 40 mpg highway.
The 2011 Corolla is an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick. It received the top overall score — Good — in the IIHS' front, side, rear and roof-strength tests, and it has a standard electronic stability system. However, in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's side-impact crash test, the Corolla received just two out of five stars.
Additional standard safety features include antilock brakes, side-impact airbags for the front seats, side curtain airbags, front active head restraints, and a brake override system.
Check out the Standard Equipment & Specs page for a full list of safety features, and visit MotherProof.com's Car Seat Check to see how child-safety seats fit in the car.
reference:www.cars.com,www.edmunds.com,autos.aol.com
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