OBZEN22's Toyota Corolla Touring Sports

Good looking, not the most spacious, Taxis favorite

Good looking compact, plenty of cargo space, flat loading area, seats fold flat. Good cargo design with useful anchor points. Comes with a plastic floor cover. Loads of room under the removable floor for a full spare wheel (no spare wheel included), or other things.

Rear passenger space OK, but not great. Headroom a bit limited, and tight around the shoulders, but sits two comfortably. Leg room OK. Pretty dark in the back.

Front seat comfortable. Not a lot of headroom, 1m93 (6'4''), seat all the way to the bottom. I would not recommend the sunroof with tall people. Display and rear-view mirror take a fair bit of space, but good visibility overall, rear visibility not great, like many compact estates.

Material quality OK, some great, some don't feel so great. I think it will hold up all right.

Safe, and enough power

Good acceleration for overtaking quickly, or merging with traffic. Breaks have no surprises. The Engine breaking modes (the paddles behind the steering wheel) are not very useful, only for long journeys in very hilly terrain. Regeneration is mild, handling is firm but inspires confidence, despite the energy saving tires. All in all, a typical mid-range compact geared towards comfort, no surprises.

Fuel consumption is a big part of the appeal. Even the 2.0L, city driving is under 4L, countryside, between 4L to 4.5L, highway is 5.5L, motorway is more towards 6.5L. Very reasonable for what is a heavy (1.5 tons) and powerful (200 bhp) car. Depends a lot on the driving style. Requires special attention to get the most of the MPG, else it's gonna feel pretty average. With good practice, can maximize the usage of the electric drive train, even up to 50mph (using the Speed Limiter). This method of driving is not for everyone.

The general driving is extremely relax. It's not a car that pushes you to drive fast, on the contrary. The approach is more zen-like, where driving in a relaxed manner is rewarded. Although it's got plenty of shove when needed.

Motorway, there is not much that can be done, so Adaptive Cruise Control, and let the car handle most of the business).

Packed with tech.

With SafetySense 3.0, the car is packed with technology. At start up, the dash lits up with many driving aids. Some may seem superfluous, when coming from a previous generation car (my old car was a Megane DCI Estate 2014). While on the road, it isn't however constantly beeping and warning you, and remains relatively quiet, unlike my brother's Yaris Cross, which tends to be more vocal.

Some safety aids may sometimes kick off, for example when driving on tight country roads, and the car thinks you're veering off-road, it may decide to give a nudge to the steering wheel. Or when encountering incoming traffic on small country roads, the collision warning triggered a couple of times. Therefore, you need to stay alert and keep your hands on the steering. The lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control should be kept for wide roads and motorways, and not country roads, or else the car may decide to break or decelerate mid corner. Collision and traffic warning can be a bit aggressive as well, in parking lots.

There are also some odd omissions. There is only ONE USB port, and I think, exclusively for Android auto, which BTW, doesn't function wirelessly (at least with my cheap phone). No USB for the passengers.

Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keeping Assists are great on motorway, but you need to be careful not to fall asleep, as the driving becomes almost soporific. Of course, you can always switch to more manual modes of driving.

The automatic headlights seem to work fine, as well as the automatic wipers. Another couple of things I'm happy to leave on all the time.

The radio works fine, better than in the Megane, but nothing brilliant. I wish they had the JBL option for the Design trim. The Entertainment system can be annoying. As stated, Android Auto is wired only, and it takes a while for the system to boot up, and strangely, it will only start Android Auto when the car is in Park. If in Drive, it will not start, supposedly because you're not suppose to fiddle with controls while driving.

Sometimes, it loses connection with the Toyota service if you have a subscription, requiring you to re-enter your password. That is pretty annoying when it happens. Another reason not to subscribe I guess :) Although I did use the app to check on the car doors, windows and even, close the dooors ro windows remotely. But when the time comes for the first renewal, I'm not sure I'll do it.

I also opted out of the motorized trunk, and the sunroof. These are unnecessary, and another potential expensive point of failure. There has been reports on those.

Relax driving, economical, reliable, well designed, plenty of space, if a bit boring.

Would I buy it again if I had too? Absolutely. I might consider a Civic E:Hev, but I am a big fan of estates. Besides a Dacia Jogger Hybrid (although, reliability...), I wouldn't consider anything else. Not even a diesel, like an Octavia. The car suits me. It does the job reliably and economically, has everything I need, and doesn't get (much) in the way. As they say, Toyotas are 'White Goods' vehicles, and this would qualify. Insurance is reasonable, even for the 2.0L. I intend to keep it for the next ten years, then who knows what cars will look like then.

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