[Baddychat]

Excellent review Severus and great pictures to boot.

Congratulations on your new ride and wishing you thousands of happy and safe miles!

Cheers

[Rajesh Rawal]

Very nice and detailed review indeed

I also like the vicinity where the pictures were clicked ,clean,green and calm

[shashank.nk]

Very well written review there mate. We're looking for a D segment car and I found myself agreeing with you on many occasions regarding each of the cars you've discussed.

Corolla looks so much better in real than in photos,congrats on the car and wish you a joyful ownership period with it !

[Cyborg]

Congratulations Severus!
Extremely well written and unbiased review.
Wish you a super ownership experience of a super car.

Cheers

[Severus]

Thank you everyone for the congratulations.

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Also the pricing for this particular model is a revelation. I could never have guessed that a Corolla could cost 19 lakhs OTR and that too a petrol!

Originally Posted by D4D

The corolla has changed drastically. INR 19 lakh on road is a high price for a petrol.

Originally Posted by rr_zen

Having said that its hard to digest the fact that the on-road price is a whopping 19 lacs. Am glad I bought my Civic more than 4 years ago and had shelled out 14.2 lacs for the same at that time. Also reminds me of GTO's thread on depreciating value of D segment sedans which feels so apt.
Happy and safe motoring !

Yes, price is a bit on the higher side, but Octavia and Jetta are even steeper! Only Elantra is cheaper than the Corolla.
rr_zen, I remember there was a time when an Accord retailed for 15-16 lakhs ex-showroom. Slowly and steadily, D1 and D2 segments (C2 as well) have become pricier over the years..

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

Thank You for such a detailed review! I don't read many reviews except the T-BHP official ones, but I went through each and every line of your review

Good choice of color there as compared to the usual white/silver. As extreme_torque said, its quite expensive, but worth the money nevertheless.

As you drive her more and pass the engine break-in period, do let us know how it performs. Many small but significant things you covered, although they are not a deal breaker but they add to the feel-good factor definitely at this price point.

-Bhargav

I'm glad you liked the review so much. Yes, I'll try and give an update on its performance after a few thousand kilometers. It's not our daily drive though, so there's still some time for that.

Originally Posted by Amarendranath

My My My-those alloys on the car. If it was me, those alloys and only those alloys would have sealed the deal.

May be I didn't get a glimpse of those alloys on your Corolla or may be we were blinded by the love we had for the Jetta. Opted for it and no complaints whatsoever.

Amarendra, I know how much importance alloy wheel design holds for you from your Jetta ownership review. It's hard to choose between Corolla's and Jetta's alloys.

Originally Posted by totaloverdoze

Great review, but a N/A 1.8 liter petrol engine on a 19.05 lacks car is not so cool...
Also I must say this the best looking Corolla to date.

All petrol cars in this segment have 1.8 litre or lesser capacity engines, mate. Even the Superb, which is from a segment higher, has a 1.8 litre motor. Engine size alone is a very small factor in an engine's performance. Engine construction, technologies and drivetrains are equally or even more important for a great drive.
And yes, it is indeed one good looker.

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

Very nice and detailed review indeed

I also like the vicinity where the pictures were clicked ,clean,green and calm

Thank you Rajesh. This open space is adjacent to my house.

Originally Posted by shashank.nk

Very well written review there mate. We're looking for a D segment car and I found myself agreeing with you on many occasions regarding each of the cars you've discussed.

Corolla looks so much better in real than in photos,congrats on the car and wish you a joyful ownership period with it !

True, the car has much more road presence than the pictures suggest.
p.s. You can PM me too if there's anything you want to discuss regarding your decision.

Originally Posted by D4D

How is the rubberband effect of the CVT controlled?

Enjoy your ride. And as I say to many people: "A toyota will outlive you"

Originally Posted by Amarendranath

I'm not sure about the rubber band effect of a CVT from what you wrote I don't think it's a bother?

Really, there is next to none rubber band effect in this CVT. Don't know the exact technology behind it, but Toyota has been lauded around the world for it. A Google search about it will be more helpful.
D4D, a car's typical life is 20 years if kept well. Hopefully I live longer than that! Cheers!

[drmohitg]

Excellent and a very detailed review. The colour really looks very good on the car. When I bought my Altis, I don't recollect seeing this colour as an option and black was effectively ruled out by parents for reasons similar to yours. Congratulations on the car and ofcourse one can never really go wrong with the Corolla. It has got quite a bit of history.

Did the car come with those Yokohama's as standard? Quite surprised as usually I have seen Toyota only offering Bridgestone or Goodyears.

Coming to ground clearance, the car would not offer you any problem 99% of the times. But please dont be over confident with that figure of 180 mm. My Altis has a GC of 175mm IIRC and when fully loaded it has scarped a few breakers due to the ultra light suspension. So there might be a instance when a fully loaded Jetta might not touch but the fully loaded Altis might.

The rear AC vents are surely a miss but I really doubt if you will miss them much unless you have parked your car under direct sun in the Delhi Summers and the initial 10 minutes might be a little incovenient. Otherwise the AC is a chiller.

Really glad to see that they finally started offering a smart key fob with a boot release button, something that I dearly miss on my car.

Last but not the least, what were they thinking in omitting the sliding front arm rest feature? It is such an excellent feature and would not have costed them anything extra. I infact hate driving any car now without that sliding arm rest since my Altis has really spoilt me on this. God knows how much money did they save by omitting this!!

[totaloverdoze]

Severus All petrol cars in this segment have 1.8 litre or lesser capacity engines, mate. Even the Superb, which is from a segment higher, has a 1.8 litre motor. Engine size alone is a very small factor in an engine's performance. Engine construction, technologies and drivetrains are equally or even more important for a great drive.

@Severus - Well with N/A I meant naturally aspirated 1.8 liter engine. Superb/Laura have a turbocharged engine.

[thesilentone]

Congrats Severus on a detailed and wonderful review and have a great time with the car. Great pictures also.

Nice to see the spare alloy and even nicer to note that it is placed in the right position up. How I hate Honda City for providing the spare wheel inverted wherein the wheel has to be unbolted and rebolted everytime the air needs to be checked.

Rear a/c vents is a definite miss but could probably find its way later during an upgrade. Otherwise seems to be a decent package except for the price which could be a little lower.

By the way, how do you find the ride quality on the low profile tyres? 205x55 seems to be a tad too low for comfort.

[Amarendranath]

Originally Posted by Severus

Amarendra, I know how much importance alloy wheel design holds for you from your Jetta ownership review. It's hard to choose between Corolla's and Jetta's alloys.

once again beautiful car buddy! Beautiful alloys!

Can I know how much does each wheel cost?, can you let me know the outer diameter of your wheels. ( can you please take the pains to check ) One last favor, can you please also check the diameter of the logo on the wheels.

[sandeepmohan]

Peace of mind ownership comes as default with just about anything Japanese you buy. When it comes to the automobile, it can't get better than a Toyota. The Corolla has history, a very reliable one. Who could care if it was boring. My first experience of traveling in a Corolla dates back to May 1991. I was blown away by the quality, refinement and reliability. All of these attributes continue to this day. Nothing has changed.

I feel the new Corolla moves away from the boring theme to a little sharp. Can't say the same for the interior though. I find the Altis interiors far ahead in every way. The way the shifter sticks out is also super old school.

The best handling Toyota I have driven to date is the Etios and it looks like some of its attributes with regard to ride and handling have now reached the Corolla.

Good to know the cvt has improved. I am willing to let go of some performance on a cvt over a risky dual clutch unit. Dual clutch units are surely the way forward but they need to stay reliable. I don't understand why Toyota or Honda don't offer a dual clutch gearbox on cars in this segment.

For an automatic, the economy numbers your Corolla delivers is very good.

How responsive are the paddle shift controls? I tried them on a Civic in hope for faster gear shifts but it felt about the same as leaving the gearbox to carry out the shifts.

Hyundai are surely on a roll. I blown away when I stepped in to a Elantra. I could not believe it was a Hyundai. Very high quality.

I love the value for money Skoda offers. Too terrified to buy one.

You sure spent a bomb on your new Corolla but I'd like to think of it as an investment that you don't ever have to worry about.

[Severus]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Congratulations Severus!
Extremely well written and unbiased review.
Cheers

Well, I tried. Some unintentional bias may still have crept in!

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Did the car come with those Yokohama's as standard? Quite surprised as usually I have seen Toyota only offering Bridgestone or Goodyears.

Yes, she came with these Yokohamas as standard. They are very silent too.

Coming to ground clearance, the car would not offer you any problem 99% of the times. But please dont be over confident with that figure of 180 mm. My Altis has a GC of 175mm IIRC and when fully loaded it has scarped a few breakers due to the ultra light suspension. So there might be a instance when a fully loaded Jetta might not touch but the fully loaded Altis might.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll try not to become overconfident with such a high figure of GC. Though as i mentioned, the suspension doesn't feel all that soft compared to the previous-gen, though it maybe because of the lower-profile tyres. I'll update on the usefulness (or not) of the high GC after a while.

The rear AC vents are surely a miss but I really doubt if you will miss them much unless you have parked your car under direct sun in the Delhi Summers and the initial 10 minutes might be a little incovenient. Otherwise the AC is a chiller.

Yes I agree, but still it was that one extra comfort feature to have in the blistering Delhi heat. Monsoon's arrived anyway, so no problem for now!

Last but not the least, what were they thinking in omitting the sliding front arm rest feature? It is such an excellent feature and would not have costed them anything extra. I infact hate driving any car now without that sliding arm rest since my Altis has really spoilt me on this. God knows how much money did they save by omitting this!!

LOL, I really have no idea why this was done!

Originally Posted by totaloverdoze

@Severus - Well with N/A I meant naturally aspirated 1.8 liter engine. Superb/Laura have a turbocharged engine.

I'm glad you took this up, as I had forgotten to mention a point in my review. Despite the push-you-into-the-seat acceleration of Jetta TDI and Octavia TSI at higher rpms, it's the Corolla 1.8 that leads both of them when it comes to low end throttle response, making for a linear and more suitable power delivery at low speeds. Can be attributed to 'natural aspiration' I guess.

Originally Posted by thesilentone

Nice to see the spare alloy and even nicer to note that it is placed in the right position up. How I hate Honda City for providing the spare wheel inverted wherein the wheel has to be unbolted and rebolted everytime the air needs to be checked.

Oh.. Didn't know about that issue in the City.

Rear a/c vents is a definite miss but could probably find its way later during an upgrade. Otherwise seems to be a decent package except for the price which could be a little lower.

Yeah but why omit them in the first place?

By the way, how do you find the ride quality on the low profile tyres? 205x55 seems to be a tad too low for comfort.

Ride quality is good, as I mentioned. Not all-absorbing, but still quite comfortable.

Originally Posted by Amarendranath

once again beautiful car buddy! Beautiful alloys!
Can I know how much does each wheel cost?, can you let me know the outer diameter of your wheels. ( can you please take the pains to check ) One last favor, can you please also check the diameter of the logo on the wheels.

Haha, sure I'll do that if you really want.. You want to swap the wheels on any of your existing vehicles?

[Amarendranath]

Originally Posted by Severus

Haha, sure I'll do that if you really want.. You want to swap the wheels on any of your existing vehicles?

On the plan to get the New Polo, if that works out then would love to swap the wheels. I'm skeptical as the polo has 15 inch tyres and these are 16 inch and hence all the details. I'm hooked on those wheels and would definitely want them. Also tried to photoshop( for the first time) with the help of a friend, the MODS would probably blurt out in laughter after looking at the below pic,

I hope i have not offended by uploading the pic, I want those wheels man! I cant buy the corolla now for them so speculating on how to catch hold of them. And rated the thread a 5 star buddy. You should be celebrating, yours is the first on team-bhp i believe.

[a4anurag]

Severus, Man now that is a Toyota and boy it is just beautiful to look at. Beautiful is an understatement actually.

Hearty congratulations for the Corolla. A first on T-BHP.

Nice colour and alloys. I'll buy these alloys once Swift Sport is launched as it runs on 16" rims.

Originally Posted by Amarendranath

I'm skeptical as the polo has 15 inch tyres and these are 16 inch and hence all the details.

You'll have to go for a low profile tyres to keep the OD (Outer Diameter same) as stock.

Wont put more detail else we'll get reported by the MODS. Lets get back to the Corolla now and not hijack his thread.

Anurag.

[aseem]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Brilliantly detailed review! Thanks for sharing. Also the pricing for this particular model is a revelation. I could never have guessed that a Corolla could cost 19 lakhs OTR and that too a petrol!

I see you have been put off by the price of the car. But Corolla is not alone, Octavia, Jetta are in the same league. For the price of 1.8 G Auto Corolla you get a manual 1.4 Ambition Tsi from Octavia. So can't really single out Corolla & this should not clout our judgement of the car.

Compared to top model CVT automatic of City, the 1.8G Corolla is a sensible upgrade & choice. The dollar is no longer at 48-50 so of course there is a hit in all CKD or not heavily localise car prices.

[nik_kapur]

Great Car for 15L and not 19L IMHO.
Having said that its certainly the best looking Corolla till date and very nice to drive. I would choose a 1.8TSI Octavia anyday over this car for around 20L.
The Corolla will of course offer an ownership experience that is hassle free and a resale value that is respectable.