Corolla is such a better deal

If your father own the dealership, and still likes you.

If you had a life, this compulsion would disappear.

...that might be the case but I'd bet you the FOCUS is MUCH MORE FUN...! Linda

I saw a Corolla about 2 weeks ago, smash up on the side of a road!

best place for it :)

I think Lada's are best ;)

Regards

Andy Lee

Hmm, how sorry???

BTW, my Focus got the crap beat out of it (literally) by a 4500 lb SUV so my insurance company said go rent a car while we evaluate yours for replacement. I think the Focus is totalled considing the entire front end was mashed in. A really great thing about the car was that it soaked up the impact completely - I was left totally uninjured!!!! (But hey, that's another story!)

Turns out the rental agency offered me a Corolla S (only 12km on odometer - I'm it's first driver!) While it originally looked appealling with it's sporty aerodynamic package, the gloss faded pretty quick. To read the spec's - it seems to match up to the Focus fairly well. In reality - Nope!

I had some initial difficulty getting the seats to fit - the controls were placed a little different than other cars. The seat level/angle lever was in front of the tilt lever (it was set fully erect which is impossible to drive in). I had to set it back about 4 notches to feel comfortable. The head rest projects forward a little giving the driver better head support in case of an accident (that's good). The electric mirrors adjust in a similar fashion to the Focus (that's good). The steering wheel only adjusts up/down (that's bad). It's an automatic - that's always BAD! :-) Even after adjusting the seats for the best position, it feels like the seat fabric is loose and I'm sliding back and forth on it (very bad). The seat sits a bit lower than how I adjust my Focus which means the visibility out the windows is less. In fact just looking out the rear quarter feels like I'm driving blind compared to the much better view the Focus has. The front pillars seem to be in the wrong position too, leading to a narrow view of the road -- but hey, it's whatever a person gets used to, a person can mentally compensate after getting to know their vehicle. The driver footrest is only good for people with a really short "left" leg, it really should be at least an 1"-1 1/2" forward of where it is.

For an automatic transmission, it has a tachometer which is a little unusual. During acceleration it shifted lazily. It would shift from

2nd to 3rd around 90kph and from 3rd to 4th at around 115kph (5000-->3000rpm?) What the f? Meanwhile you are left with a very buzzy engine with absolutely no growl to it. MAYBE, just maybe it was because the car hadn't loosed up yet. Acceleration was deemed to be similar to an 2.0 SPI automatic Focus. The numbers for fuel efficiency seem to imply that it is more economical but then again it's only 1.8 litres vs the 2.0 litres of the Ztec.

The display is informative and attractive, the current outside temp. is displayed in the lower portion (thanks) but next to the trip odometer reset button is a small pointing arrow with the words "Fuel Door". Huh? do I press the trip button here to open the fuel door???? No - look down beside the left side of the seat while the door is open - you will find the fuel door switch along with the trunk release. The point is - the display seems to leed a person to think that the trip reset button is the Fuel Door -- really bad visual information. The console has a strange part to it -- it seems to imply that the passenger side air bag can be turned off? I dunno, I didn't get a car manual with it.

Off to the road and to try a few salom wiggles and hard turns. Fooey

- for a sport suspension, it sure felt like a soft family sedan to me. It soaked up the bumps like a bigger domestic sedan on sponges, ie. no feedback except for body roll. The cornering left me wondering where the support was - suspension was reluctant to resist any roll.

I took the car out for a stroll on the local highways during a light rain. How skittish - these tires DO NOT inspire confidence, this was especially surprising since it is marketed as a small family sedan. I felt like I was floating and bouncing, in reality I was hydroplanning whenever the wind blew crossways. This car DEMANDS much better rubber than was spec'd for it. (195/65-15). ABS is apparently optional for this car - and the lack of it shows. The brake feel is soft and the pedal feels like it has a long travel with little feedback. Unless you really jamb the foot down the car takes forever to stop. This car is NOT setup for threshold braking which is what I do for non ABS brakes. With no feedback, I have no idea how much grabbing force I'm exerting.

The interior was simple/plain black. Not sporty black, not sexy black

- just plain black. The good side was that the console had plenty of storage compartments and 2 power points. The key insertion point was on the steering stalk/dash intersection - I could actually see where I was putting the key in unlike the Focus. The radio was really basic with far too much emphasis on the rear speakers. To provide decent fade balance I had to dial in the forward speakers which then left the sound without reasonable base, too tinny and not enough spatial separation (from 6 speakers no less). The volume control itself had to be turned significantly to have a reasonalbe volume. A great feature that the Focus has is the (AVC) automatic volume adjustment which is really noticible/appreciated when you come across a vehicle without it. Manually adjusting the Corolla's radio volume several times while driving is more than an annoyance - a potential safety consideration.

Rear trunk volume is comendable - perhaps larger than a Focus sedan (tough for me to judge as I had a ZX5). The wing at the rear blocks my rear ward vision somewhat -- I really like the Focus hatchback with its lower rear ward visibility. I also prefer to have wipers on the rear window - for a hatch or a sedan, the Corolla has neither.

Overall, I thought the car should be similar to the Focus but because the car was set up for the average North American family taste, I found it very disappointing. This is not a drivers car, even with the "sport" suspension. It does have an excellent safety rating for the driver/passengers. If all a person wants is family sedan for distance travelling on bumpy roads then fine choose a Corolla but if actually want to have fun driving -- walk away -- quickly.

Considering that the particular car I drove was priced almost identically to a Canadian ZX5, you have to know that there are much better values out there. The Focus for the same money gives you ABS, traction control, heated seats, power windows, theft deterrent, better handling/steering/braking, more undercarriage clearance and more back seat room. Heck - the other small but pricier vehicle that Toyota offers - the Matrix - is a much better vehicle overall. If this car was $5,000 less it might be considered a bargain -- but then again it's competition is really a Chevy Cavalier - a POS in any language.

Follow-up post. The tires are Goodyear Integritys with dual rain channels, so in theory it should have handled better than it did in the rain. It must be all bad in the suspension. This is most definitely NOT a driver's car - it is designed for mundane small family soccer-mom commutes. The Focus is heads above the Corolla in handling, it can do both the everyday communtes and be fun at the same time.