2015 Toyota Corolla Hatch

23 December, 2015   By: Alex Forrest

The Corolla is no longer just a ubiquitous and bland run-around. It’s been given some spunk and that’s exactly what it needed given its competition.

Its mid-life update happened back in June, and the biggest changes have been in the styling and technology departments.

There’s a large part of Toyota’s customer base which will keep buying Corolla because they’re reliable, a known quantity and have virtually guaranteed strong resale value.

However, as we’ve seen with the local Australian can manufacturing industry, you can’t rely on that faithful group of customers forever. You have to move with the market and Toyota has clearly done that with the refreshed Corolla.

     

Among the improvements, the new Corolla has better fuel economy thanks to the CVT auto version getting a revised transmission, taking consumption down from 6.7L/100km to 6.1L/100km. The manual versions also have slightly improved economy (down from 7.1 to 6.7L/100km).

However, the most important change has been the addition of a reversing camera, which is now standard across the Corolla range. Toyota thoroughly deserves a big thumbs-up for this given reversing cameras as standard equipment are a rare in small cars.

There are four model grades, starting with the entry level Ascent, then the Ascent Sport, SX and the range-topping ZR.

     

These four variants have been split into two distinct looks, with the Ascent and Ascent Sport getting a cleaner design, particularly at the front end.

The SX and ZR get a more overtly sporty look, with more distinctively scalloped front and rear skirts, a set of side skirts and a set of wider (up from 205mm to 215mm) and larger diameter (17inches versus 16in) alloy wheels.

In addition, the interior has received a number of upgrades such as the increased use of premium materials including polished metal surfaces, better plastics on the door trims and a generally much less fussy-looking dash design.

The revised interior now has those little elements of luxury which consumers are increasingly expecting in their small cars.

Clearly, Toyota has been taking note of the Mazda3 and the Volkswagen Golf and gone for a bigger slice of the private buyer market to add to its already substantial stranglehold on the fleet sales market, being hire cars.

The new touchscreen is better integrated with the vehicle, is more user-friendly and no longer looks like an aftermarket sound system.

Suspension tweaks include revised front shocks and sway bar bushes, which Toyota says improves ride quality. It does indeed ride very well for a small car.

Its handling is notably sharper too, especially on the top two models in the range, which have 17-inch wheels as opposed to the 16s on the Ascent and Ascent Sport.

Engine noise is still a little intrusive when under load, but the Corolla is far from alone in that regard.

Adding to the Corolla’s appeal is the addition of two new snappy new paint colours called Blue Gem and Citrus. The latter, which was the colour of our test car, is particularly striking.

The new Corolla carries a 5-star ANCAP safety rating.