2009 Toyota Corolla Review

Another car review!

It has been a bit but on my recent trip to Virginia I rented a new (only 1000 miles on the clock) 2009 Toyota Corolla. Figured I didn't need a big can and I would try to save the company some money on the gas.

First Impressions:
Not a bad looking car, plenty of room in the truck (maybe a 3 golf bag/2 body trunk?), good looking interior. Good lines on the exterior and everything looks to be put together well. Nice to see that the rear seats fold flat if needed and there is a rear seat release in the trunk, a very nice touch.

Interior:
Car came with a cloth interior, seems to be a very nice and durable fabric. Glad to see no leatherette. Seats are very comfortable, all the controls are well within reach. This was a pretty base model car but it had some nice features that made it seem a bit more upscale. Nice to see an Auxiliary input on the base stereo. Stereo was ok, didn't blow me away but sounded good. Center stack was well designed and all of the AC controls where easy to figure out. Gauges where all very easy to read. Tilt and telescoping steering wheel!!! A huge plus in my book since I don't like to have my arms extended straight when driving. Dead peddle area was a bit close to the seat but there was plenty of room next to the brake peddle to stretch out my leg. Mirrors covered outside well, no huge blind spots, all in all very good visibility. Car was very quite on the inside, could barley hear the engine running while at idle or when driving at 70mph. The one main issue I had with the interior was a metallic rattling that came from the drivers side door, sounded like something was loose. Something that I would have fixed by the dealer if I had owned the car.

Performance:
This is a base 4 cylinder Corolla with 132hp engine. Wasn't expecting much but the engine did have decent pep. Transmission did a good job of making sure it was in the right gear and changing quickly when needed. Steering was strange. Felt good at some point but vague at others. Noticed the odd steering behavior mainly when driving in windy conditions. Car was blown around quite a bit and it I had to be very active with the steering to keep my line. At highway speeds it was hard to keep the car on center as a very slight move in the steering wheel would move the car a very large amount. This was helpful at slow speeds and in parking lots but extremely annoying when cruising the interstates. I know this isn't a performance car but aside from the wonky steering the car handled quite nicely, it was a welcome surprise.

For my whole trip (1/2 interstate, 1/2 backroads) I returned about 33 mpgs. Not bad at all. I had the AC on for part of the trip and flogged the car a bit on the back roads to see what it could do. For the price point (About 17K from what I can figure) this is a great car. If you are looking for a car that drives pretty well, has a bit of pep, gets great mileage on regular gas, has plenty of room for 4 adults and all their bags and is well priced this is a car to look at. The only other car I could compare it to would be a Ford Focus that I rented about a year ago. The Corolla is way better than the Focus.