So too the additional rear leg room is welcome for passengers. It’s not exactly commodious for adults, but it is manageable. We’d recommend steering clear of the optional panoramic sunroof, however, unless you are certain that the only rear passengers will be kids or very small adults, because it eats substantially into the available head room.
To drive, the Corolla Touring Sports mirrors the experience of hatchback, at least when mated to this 178bhp 2.0-litre hybrid powertrain (we're yet to test the more eco-focused 121bhp 1.8-litre option). As such, it's decently composed, offering a frisson of involvement without giving up too much in the way of comfort. Although 16in wheels are available, our test car was fitted with an 18in set, and that may in part explain why some road imperfections could be felt – but that's the only negative.
Our car was also fitted with Toyota’s five-part adaptive system that allows you to scroll between various driving modes, from Comfort to Sport +. While each increment makes a notable difference to the Corolla’s behaviour, it seems a largely unnecessary optional feature on a small estate car.
The powertrain is also good: better than anything that has gone before, wonderfully smooth and quiet on a cruise (to the point that some excess wind noise off the mirrors stands out and can become mildly irritating) and decently swift when required to be so - albeit with a surprising arrival of the engine note beyond 2000rpm.
A 0-62mph time of 8.1sec puts the Corolla comfortably on par with the 2.0-litre diesel-engined cars that buyers are likely to be benchmarking it against, as does the 74.3mpg economy figure. The CO2 figure of 87g/km, meanwhile, is comfortably better. The CVT gearbox works reasonably, although the steering wheel-mounted paddle changers feel a bit superfluous beyond making the driving experience slightly more involved.
The interior of the new Corolla is a triumph in almost every way, at least in this (unspecified) form: the fit and finish are worthy of Toyota’s reputation and the materials and quality largely a match for Volkswagen’s.
The new infotainment screen looks impressive and makes good use of a combination of buttons and touchscreen functions, but it can be a bit clunky to operate and is short of some functions offered as standard by other car makers, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring.
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Photos or mock-ups? NOT a well thought out boot.
Are those really photos? The second (car driving left) has the driver nearest us. The 6th (car driving right) has the driver nearest us, and the hills behind are reversed. It's a mirror image, not a different one. That is lazy journalism.
Looking at the boot, it is not that wonderfully thought out. Typical of cars designed by people that don't actually use that style, they have lost or wasted the cross-wise width that uses the space behind the wheel arches. In the image, there is no such space. It has been filled in so there is a smooth panel at the side. This matters if you, for example, play golf. The clubs fit across the boot in that space. There is rarely enough length to a boot to fit the clubs in (at least, not if you want to fit other things in too). My previous Octavias (cars, not estates) had that space and I could get three sets of clubs in. My current golf Estate can fit in two sets this way but the boot isn't as big as that in the Octavia.
Where's the clock?
Where's the little 80s digital clock gone?! I like this car a lot, can it run on battery only for a few miles or will the engine always cut in? Would make a decent replacement for our diesel Tucson.
I'm glad to see a
I'm glad to see a manufacturer putting time and effort into something that isn't another dreary SUV, and it looks like a decent product to me. Saying that interior material and quality is "largely a match for Volkswagen's" is setting the bar quite low, though, as surely that only means hard plastics these days?