Why we’re running it: To see if this hybrid can strike the sweet spot between a car and a van
Month 1 - Month 2 - Month 3 - Month 4 - Specs
Toyota's cruise control is great - 24 April
I don’t know how people who are not motoring journalists feel about this, but I love conventional cruise control and in most circumstances dislike adaptive cruise control. I basically use it as a hand throttle, changing lanes and overtaking as necessary. Most cars with adaptive control don’t let you switch to standard mode, but the current generation of Toyotas do. Excellent.
Mileage: 19,356
Life with a Toyota Corolla Commercial: Month 8
Dishonest trip meter exposed, while B mode gets a fair hearing - 10 April
A few weeks ago I mentioned my intention to be a bit more scientific about calculating the Corolla's fuel consumption.
Annoyingly, the thing is just too darn fuel efficient, and I still only have a sample size of a handful of fill-ups. Still, it's enough data to conclude that, actually, it's a bit of a liar and tends to over-read by a couple of miles per gallon.
Hardly verdict-altering stuff: high 50s instead of low 60s is still pretty good, and I still think the car is generally excellent. I find the misreading computer quite odd; surely it's not beyond Toyota's engineers to make it accurate, and I can't imagine they're doing it to catch out lazy journalists.
Anyway, economy has recently improved further, but I'm not sure whether that's thanks to rising temperatures or because I got round to setting the tyre pressures. Probably a bit of both, given that the Corolla has a battery to condition and does a pretty good job of keeping the cabin warm even when the engine isn't running.
While we're on the subject of fuel economy, I thought it was worth a closer look at the Corolla's hybrid system, and I'll start with a clarification: a few weeks ago I mentioned the B mode on the gear selector as a loathe it', which prompted a letter from a reader.
First off, loathe is a hyperbolic way to describe my feelings, but years ago someone thought it was a catchy heading, and it's remained part of the template for these reports ever since. More accurate would be that I find it less useful than it could be, but that's not quite as punchy.
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Nice pretty pictures of the "van", but not a single one showing the load bay?
We all know what a Corolla Estate looks like from the outside, maybe the photographer wasn't briefed, or the interior shots weren't interesting or arty enough...
We seem to have come a full circle with people buying vans half a century ago for tax benefit, then installing rear windows and seats to convert to a small estate.
Presumably that's no longer possible in 2023 since any such modification would invalidate insurance and would be picked up during the MOT test?
But well done Toyota (and others) for spotting a market opportunity and exploiting it!