Hi,
Original Query dated Jan, 2006 Am a prospective Corolla buyer. Based on the feedback on 2003 corolla and some feedback from auto magazines, I see the following negatives:(there are a lot of positives but I want to see if the negatives are serious or not)
Auto magazines claim that the build quality is flimsy and suspension is not great. Not sure what it means and not sure if this is fixed in the 2005 version.
Somewhere I read in the reviews that breaks squeak. Has this been a serious problem and has this been fixed in 2005 version?
Everybody focuses on high end performance - agreed that is required, but what about the daily commute? How does the corolla behave in a 5Kmph stop-go traffic ?
Bangalore has real horrible truck speed breakers, so need to discard Honda city, Octavia etc that really scrape the bottom. Trust corolla is better and does not scrape.
Revision dated March 2, 2006 Here is an update after 25 odd km of test drive.
I went around narrow roads of Bangalore, potholed roads (omnipresent), and good roads like outer ring road.
- I cannot comment at this stage on the build quality as you need to drive for a while to gauge that. The Toyota sales team would claim it too be good but then that’s a party with vested interest commenting. Let me not comment on this aspect as I not qualified to. I would leave comments on this to be filled in by veteran Corolla owners.
Suspension, ride & handling: My observations are that the car has moved towards the direction of appropriate optimization between handling and ride quality in the 2005 model after the tweaks on the 2003 model. I am not a 180 kmph kind of a guy, so maybe the auto magazines should comment as well on the handling aspects.
With regards to ride quality, I found it ok in the back seat as well as the front seat. My observation was that the irregularities on the road did filter in to some degree (you feel it but it’s very minor) but whether it was a minor bump on the road or a hugely bumpy road; the bump appeared all the same, a minor transfer of the bump for all cases but always comfortable. That seemed good to me. We were 4 of us and all through, it never scraped any speed breaker and I attempted to make it scrape by going through large bumps and at higher speed than normally would - satisfied with the ride.
To me the breaks seemed sharp. In fact, a couple of times, it stopped faster than I anticipated. So new owners beware - get used to the car and its breaks. They are sharp. No cause for complaint during the test drive.
Attempted to drive at 5-10 Kmph to simulate the choked Bangalore traffic. Seemed ok to do so. No issues.
Went through smoothly over all terrain that Bangalore offers especially the untarred roads and roads where they lay crushed stones to make it look like a road but no tar (a Bangalore speciality!) or the truck speed breakers on outer ring road.
What I liked most was the controls. It all seemed in place with no problems to grope/search or drive the car. You will appreciate the fact if you consider the fact that I have been driving a Santro for 6.5 years and felt that a new large car will require a lot of getting used to. The controls are crisp and clearly visible. This was a big negative on the Optra. I couldn’t see the blinking indicator without moving my head down. I then realized that it’s got nothing to do with my seating height. In the Corolla you can see the whole console clearly with multiple height adjustments. In the Optra, I could see different parts of the console by moving my head in different directions - not good. This is because in the Optra, the center part of the steering is round (the horn area) and that leaves a non-semicircle shape at the top half of the steering wheel thus blocking your view. At-least in Santro and Corolla, you will not have this problem but in Optra you will have the problem. Try this test yourselves and you can understand what I mean.
It is plush - no doubts on that and very roomy. On both of these factors, it is will score more than any of the competing cars from the C or C+ segment.
Dislikes: The bumper should have an inbuilt rubber protector like many of the cars have nowadays including Octavia. The bumper area could look ugly in a Corolla if it gets scratched (can we avoid that in India especially with we being at the mercy of Valets at many places?)
Overall I liked the car with no seeming cause for complaint except its price. I think each of the models is priced about a lakh more than they should. I guess the 1 lakh is for Toyota brand but do people care so much about the brand? I don’t. An H2 should cost no more than 11.5 in Bangalore on road based on what it offers. As I said earlier, the car is good but seeks a premium, so that’s your call.
An H1 at a tad lower than 11 on road definitely (based on the current schemes) seems a good option over the Optra 1.6 middle version or the Optra-Royale. The question is should H2 be 1.2L costlier than H1. To me a 60k premium is what it should have been.
subbarp