.but my point was that the stories i have read from US sources,seem to damn the car with faint praise..isn't that wot [sic] they need wif [sic] $4.25 gasoline.
At 7.0l/100km in the real, perhaps this is the kind of car the USA indeed needs.The Corolla posted all-time best-ever USA sales of 52,826 units in May 2008. Somebody must like it. It is all about making money and Toyota is rather good at that.
Europe limited Japanese imports for for many years, making it harder for the Japanese makers to get a foothold. These limits were finally lifted for the 2000 model year. There are also many Toyota models that we don't get here such as the Auris and the Aygo. The 1,8 litre Corolla would be considered a large car there. The EU is also a smaller market than the USA, roughly 10m units per year vs 15m in the USA.
Still, in 2007, Toyota sold 1.24 million cars in the EU in 2007, up 10% over 2006 and 132,550 of them were of the hugely profitable Lexus line. This compares to slightly over 2.75 million units sold in the USA. Clearly, Toyota has more competition in Europe where fuel efficiency is paramount. Their lack of diesels in the past years didn't help them much in Europe.
GM would be very wise to bring the Opel Corsa 1.3 CDRI here, I drove one in Europe last year and loved it. Great car, more than adequate power, tons of torque and 4 litres/ 100 km.
Canada is really small beans when it comes to car sales.