CTC Review: 2009 Toyota Corolla S

[CD_Editor]

Day 1:

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Hot on the heels of the CanadianDriver 50-litre Challenge, where a Corolla in CE automatic trim was the cream of the crop (achieving an amazing 1017km traveled on just 50 litres of fuel), this week I'll be driving the Corolla S with manual transmission.  More...

[Alex MacLean]

Glad you managed to get another hit against the Chevy in this weeks article. I fell over a cliff edge just last week, but luckily there was a Corolla there to save me. I still think the Malibu pushed me. Make sure to drive this one down hill all week, get some real nice numbers. Consumer reports can't handle all the Toyota love by themselves.

[mmret]

Someone has a chip on their shoulder.

[rrocket]

^^^^WTF are you talking about MacLean?  He said the interior was very good, rear seating generous,  the brakes were great, the ride was good, the tranny extremely good, His main grip was with fuel economy, which was somewhat poor. And justified IMO, since fuel is a major concern to people these days.  Boo-hoo....cry us a river, GM Fan-Boy....


I thought the review was quite good and didn't see any obvious GM slamming...

[Alex MacLean]

Not really, I'm a little confused why he got such bad economy in the Malibu, when everyone else does much better. I notice it is very common to find things to bash when they test GM vehicles, when the same issue tends to be glidded over more often on Toyota's.

I don't have a particular thing for GM, Ford, Toyota or anyone else...except maybe Honda, because of all their motorcycles I've owned. But it's kind of hard ot not notice that there is a 10 point handicap for any vehicle if it comes from a US company.

[Alex MacLean]

^^^^WTF are you talking about MacLean?  He said the interior was very good, rear seating generous,  the brakes were great, the ride was good, the tranny extremely good, His main grip was with fuel economy, which was somewhat poor. And justified IMO, since fuel is a major concern to people these days.  Boo-hoo....cry us a river, GM Fan-Boy....


I thought the review was quite good and didn't see any obvious GM slamming...

Of course it is, and I'm no more of a GM fanboy than anyone else. And economy is definitely important, I'm just surprised that he got such worse economy than other people do. I like good cars, don't give two hoots where it comes from, but apparently someone does.

[rrocket]

Did you even READ the whole Blog?  The fuel economy, was his only nit-pick.  Do you think he's lying about it? Don't you think it should be mentioned...especially on a car with a 6 speed tranny?  

Like I said...I don't think his review was in the least bit critical of the car as a whole...only the fuel consumption..


You work for a union?    Or drive a domestic by chance? 

Either that or you're just seeing stuff in this review others aren't seeing..

And FWIW, his economy is the combined for the US EPA....James got nearly the exact same figure...(EPA= 20 US MPG...James got 20.5 US MPG)

[Honda Owner]

A large car with a 3,6 litre engine is going to be hard on gasoline. It is physics. I could never afford to drive one at today's fuel prices. It is not a great conspiracy that Canada's top sellers for years have been the Corolla and the Civic. Both are well made, have great resale and have the reliability of an anvil. GM fanboys should be telling GM to copy Toyota and Honda's model instead of whining about a conspiracy.

[rrocket]

I just thought his insinuation of bias was unfounded.  It sounded like James enjoyed the car..just didn't enjoy the fuel mileage...

[Ken V]

If you want to compare the fuel economy of a Corolla (132 hp) with a V6 Malibu (252 hp),
then why not a V6 Malibu vs a 6.1 L Charger. They are about the same percentage difference in power.

Yes, that does seem rather silly.

[Alex MacLean]

Did you even READ the whole Blog?  The fuel economy, was his only nit-pick.  Do you think he's lying about it? Don't you think it should be mentioned...especially on a car with a 6 speed tranny?  

Like I said...I don't think his review was in the least bit critical of the car as a whole...only the fuel consumption..


You work for a union?    Or drive a domestic by chance? 

Either that or you're just seeing stuff in this review others aren't seeing..

And FWIW, his economy is the combined for the US EPA....James got nearly the exact same figure...(EPA= 20 US MPG...James got 20.5 US MPG)

I don't think he's lying at all, I think certian cars tend to be driven harder by nature. A Corvette CAN get upwards of 30 MPG on the highway...but nobody does, because you don't drive them that way.

Anyway, no, I don't work for a union, I do drive a Domestic, a 2005 Impala, and FWIW, it's a plasticy, squeak filled piece of junk. I also drive a Silverado (flawless)too, and previously owned a 2004 Civic(flawless). I don't prefer GM over anything really, but I don't think the dig on the Malibu was relevant to the next weeks test. It's fine to pick the economy of the Malibu during the test, but now you are comparing a large Malibu to a teensy Corolla, and making it sound like the Malibu was crap and should perform like a Corolla in economy.

I also don't think the day by day next week will start off with a complaint about this weeks Corolla

[rrocket]

I also don't think the day by day next week will start off with a complaint about this weeks Corolla

Just like it didn't with the Malibu either...Not on Day 1, 2, 3, either...Just Day 4.   

[Alex MacLean]

I also don't think the day by day next week will start off with a complaint about this weeks Corolla

Just like it didn't with the Malibu either...Not on Day 1, 2, 3, either...Just Day 4.   

I'm talking about how the Corolla article started, not the Malibu one.

Day 1:
"My pocket book is hurting a little from last week, so here is hoping for excellent fuel economy to save myself a few pennies at the pumps."

It's really not a big deal, it's the subtle details that allow a person to easily see where ones true allegiance lies.

Regardless, like you said, the article was great praise for the Malibu. I am just surprised by the economy numbers, they don't add up unless the whole test was city driving.

[rrocket]

It's really not a big deal, it's the subtle details that allow a person to easily see where ones true allegiance lies.

Yea....how about his allegiance is with not spending any more $$ at the pumps than he has to??

I really think his comment was more innocent than you do.  He's going from a car that got 11.7L/100kms to one that gets 5 ish.  I can totally relate.  It's a breath of fresh air to go from my 11L/100km monster to my 4.8L/100km puddle jumper.  What I spend in a day of gas in the Supra, will easily last me 10-14 days in the Echo...

[wing]

rrocket is on the same page as me here.

Someone is reading way too much into it.  I loved the Malibu, I didn't love the fact that it took as much gas as my truck, but I expected it too and simply mentioned it.  By the way, look back at my Aura review I got 13.5L/100km with the Aura so I was glad to get better with the Malibu.

My blogs are blogs, not reviews, I write with a different style for the blogs, more informal, I often mention previous cars in my blogs to keep readers going on a story that is all.

Thanks for reading

[Alex MacLean]

I apologize, reading again, I can see I was wrong. I guess sometimes the American cars get a bad reputation, so I get a little defensive over the ones that are pretty decent.

I love the website, the reviews are usually fantastic, and you guys always have the best shots, and typically more of them than any other review site. It's nice to have a picture of jsut about everything to get a good idea of exactly what is being described.

I'm sorry for coming off as a jerk.

[wing]

Apology accepted, I have no hate for GM, not sure why others think I do at times, recently I have more praise for them then anyone else actually.

[carcarcar]

I'm curious to know how this car is compared to the Astra. The Astra has a 138hp engine and in this same sort of review a few weeks ago was described as "extremely slow" so I wonder how Toyota does with a 132hp engine...

[wing]

Will let you know carcarcar   Although the astra I tested was an auto, so a manual makes it "feel" less slow.

[Cortina]

I don't mind the new Corolla. It is very conservative. But I really think they drop the ball on this one when you look at the radical Civic. I still say they put the wrong headlights on the car or something. I'm not keen on what looks like a gap above the headlights. It looks sloppy. Not something you see from Toyota. I keep wondering if the  original design was more Euro Toyota Auris which was a replacement for the Corolla name anyway. Because we know they did delay a bit on the Corolla.