17 photos
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda is a racer, through and through — a motorsport enthusiast with high-octane fuel coursing in his veins. So why, with someone like Toyoda at the helm, does most of America look at Toyota as a milquetoast car company? Especially despite the brand’s incredibly capable off-roaders like TRD (Toyota Racing Development) versions of the Tacoma and 4Runner, not to mention the ridiculously entertaining GT86? Because last year alone, three-quarters of one million Americans bought either a Toyota Corolla or a Camry — cars not exactly known for their pulse quickening features. Not enough of the general public is buying the exciting vehicles Toyota keeps pumping out. That’s about to change.
It’s safe to assume all performance cars should handle well, but not all great-handling cars are necessarily ‘performance’ cars. It’s easy to get swept up in the mythology and iconography of classic cars like the Datsun 510, BMW 2002, original Nissan Skyline or Alfa Romeo Giulia, which by today’s standards are revered as ridiculously well-handling cars but labeled as ‘enthusiast cars’ as a result. Consequently, brands capitalized on that with modern reincarnations built as expensive, high-performance machines marketed to a small group of die-hard fans familiar with the history — the modern cars couldn’t be more unrelated to the originals. They forgot about the customer base that made them so successful: the average buyer.
The key to all those cars’ initial successes — the 2002, the Skyline, the Giulia — was that they handled well and were affordable and approachable to the average buyer. That’s what Toyota is trying to bring back with the Corolla Hatchback. They want to bring a good handling car of their own back to the people. Sure, the GT86 can hustle, and the hype around the second coming of the Supra will in all likelihood follow through, but only a handful of people will buy those cars. The trick is to make the car 330,000 Americans are already buying a blast to drive.
The Good: Three critical factors have to work together to create an inspiring and entertaining car: the engine, the transmission and the handling. If the engine is a piece of crap, you’ll dread every waking minute your foot has to venture towards the gas pedal; if the transmission lags behind the engine — even if it’s a good engine — it’s the same story. Likewise, if the car can’t take a turn to save its life, it’ll be no fun to move around. Luckily for the new Corolla Hatchback, all three work together wonderfully.
Exterior design and interior styling also get top marks. Compared to its Civic and Golf competitors, the Corolla’s bodywork lands in a relieving middle ground. That is to say, it’s not nearly as over-designed as the Civic, but carries more character lines, creases and angles than the minimalist Golf. Inside, thankfully, Toyota employed some cloth upholstery. While there is some leather, the driver and passenger seats get a nicely woven cloth in crucial areas on the seat and lower back.
