I was recently given a 2004 Corolla as a courtesy car, and drove it for about three days. The car had 23,000 KMs on the odometer, and plenty of cuts and bruises from previous drivers.
My courtesy car had the four-speed automatic, power locks and mirrors, manual windows and only one overhead light. There was no height adjuster for the seats, and this particular car only had two airbags. I found while driving that the Corolla had a few rattles, something that I would not have expected from a two-year old car.
The Corolla's gauges were white on a black background with a few tinges of red, making all the information easy to see at a glance. The HVAC and radio controls were backlit in green, and I found them easy enough to operate. I would say the interior controls and layout are on par with, or just slightly better than the Kia Spectra. That's not to diminish or put-down the Corolla - I just feel they're about equal.
I found this particular car to be very easy to drive. Like a Civic, Corollas are generally reliable, good on gas and they get the job done. There's a commercial on TV here with a lady who works for a large store in returns. She gets lots of people returning stuff with various complaints. At the end of the ad we see her getting into her Corolla, and the tagline is "Corolla - one thing you can rely on". Not a spectacular ad, but it gets the message across. The driving position was good, but I could not see the front of the car. Parking the car front-first into a parking spot might be a challenge. Besides that, I found visibility to be quite good - I didn't struggle at all with blind spots.
While I had the car I didn't need to take it on the highway. In city conditions, I found it had about enough power to keep up with traffic, but that the engine was noisy. It was loud enough that I could hear it over both the radio and the fan when I had the climate control at half-strength, and the radio at a decent volume. By the way, I didn't like the fact that when I adjusted the volume in the Corolla, the display did not acknowledge that it had changed. It did not show a certain number of bars or something else to keep track of how loud or quiet the sound system was.
The automatic shifter isn't as sporty as what you'd find in other cars. For example, the 3 has a gated shifter, whereas the Corolla just has P-R-N-D lined up vertically. I don't think Toyota was aiming for the Corolla to be sporty though, so most of what you'll find in it is aimed towards being practical. That includes the seats - they were cloth, and comfortable and supportive enough.
During the three days that I had the car, I don't think I even put 100 Kilometres on it. I also wasn't given a full tank of gas when I took it, which makes it difficult to estimate how much gas it consumed. To get it up to the same level as when I got it, I believe the car took about $8 worth of gas, at about $0.90 per litre. So in my brief experience the Corolla was close to its published estimates of 8/6 city/highway litres per 100 clicks.
Styling wise, I think of the Corolla as having a 'vanilla' interior with a cute/decent exterior. There isn't really anything that sets this car apart from any other in my mind. The engine is nothing to write home about, the interior is more practical than anything else, and the exterior is conservative at best. This is a car that will reliably get you from point A to B, but don't expect a lot of fun while you're doing it. Perhaps the manual transmission makes a difference. And yes, the Sport trim might improve its overall appearance. But if you ask me, trying to compare the Corolla to the new Civic and Mazda 3, its a long way behind. It's time for a new Corolla.
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