Test drive: 2007 Toyota Corolla
I've spent this weekend doing lots of last-minute holiday errands (in other words, I put off buying my wife's present until the last minute). Judging from the traffic, I'm not the only one who waited so long. This week's ride, a 2007 Nissan Sentra, is turning out to be a great car for battling last-minute-holiday-shopper traffic. My test drive won't go live for a couple of weeks, but rest assured I have no shortage of pleasant things to say about this car.
Recently I drove the Toyota Corolla, and with so many of its competitors getting re-dos over the last 18 months - most notably the Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, and Dodge Caliber, as well as the aforementioned Sentra -- and with the Corolla due for it's own redesign next year, I expected the '07 to be way behind the times. How did the Corolla hold up? A heck of a lot better than I expected, that's for sure. Check out my test drive for the details. -- Aaron Gold
Photo © Toyota
I believed you missed the fact the 4 speed autpo has an overdirve which is why it gets so good mileage.
Mine, also an LE gets 30 mpg while driving constantly at 20 above the limit…
All this car needs is atelescopic steering wheel to be absolutely great.
I agree with your comments on the optional safety equipment. I irdered the ABS, but failed to order the side airbags… I am switching to the new one as soon as possible.
I test drove one and agree with your complaints about the steering wheel being too far away from the driver. I found it really, really annoying.
At 6 feet tall, when sitting in the rear seat, my head brushed the ceiling.
Also, I felt the 4-cylinder engine sounded just a bit rough when revved into the upper range. Finally, I could not locate any CE or lightly equipped LE models with ABS and the side air–bags in my area.
I ended up with a Civic, but if the Toyota dealers in my area had offered a significantly better deal I could have been persueded to have gotten a Corolla.
No question the strongest selling point about this car is the great gas mileage. Plus it’s reliability rating. However I found the interior to be very bland, the engine to be noisy (especially from starting off), and the handling/tires ho-hum. It did not put a smile on my face the way the Mazda 3 or Ford Focus did.