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Could a Corolla Be the Answer?

We spend a week putting the little econocar through its paces

By James R. Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 13, 2008
Almost exactly two years ago, with gas well under $3, we had the opportunity to test drive a Toyota Prius and a Camry but Toyota turned aside our request for a Corolla, insisting that the Camry was the car most comparable to the Prius.

Well, maybe so but we've always thought that many families who need to save big bucks on their transportation costs -- as opposed to those who just want to be the first on their block to drive around on top of a battery -- should take a close look at the Corolla and similar cars before plopping down big bucks on the Prius.

Today, with gas climbing towards $5 and the price of other essentials going straight up, it's more important than ever to find efficient, economical transportation. The Prius is a technological gem but we're not convinced it's the best answer for families who need to pinch every penny and we've always wanted to put the Corolla through its paces.

So, when we found ourselves with three visitors who needed to tour college compuses and also do some sightseeing in the L.A. area, it presented just the excuse we'd been looking for. My daily driver seats just two, making it completely out of the question, so we hot-footed it over to California Rent-A-Car in Venice and picked up a 2007 Corolla.

The visitors plus me made a perfect test group -- four adults, all average size if slightly on the tall side.

The Corolla passed the first acid test nicely: everyone fit, even the 6'2" guy who got stuck in the back. The trunk was surprisingly big and, although we didn't use it, it would have easily held everybody's luggage.

I picked the car up Monday morning and it bounced happily out into traffic on Lincoln Blvd. Though I prefer a stick shift, the rental's automatic was responsive and the acceleration from the little four-banger was more than sufficient to propel me into spaces Suburbans could only dream of squeezing into.

We had a busy week in the little car and covered just about every kind of traffic Southern California offers. We tooled around the surface streets in Venice and Santa Monica, then hopped on the I-10 for a couple of visits in Hollywood.

We had no trouble scooting briskly onto the 10, even with four adults on board and the air conditioning blasting. The Corolla is quite peppy up until about 70 or so, when it starts to run out of headroom. At no time, however, did I feel it wasn't up to the task. We even dashed up the 405 (the nation's busiest freeway) to the Getty Museum, mixing it up with the double-tandem tanker trucks and the fast-fading army of Hummers and Rams.

We did the next best thing though, shooting along Mulholland Drive, a much wider and less steep mountain road. Then we turned around and drove back the other way, taking the curves at speed and staying well ahead of the Audis and BMWs that occasionally came up behind us.

Kids, don't try this at home. The Corolla is not a sports car and shouldn't be driven like one. It's just not designed for it. However, for what it is, it did just fine -- far better than the Prius we drove a few years back. The first time we took a freeway exit in the Prius we nearly ended up in the woods. It handles like a pile of bricks on wheels and is about as much fun to drive as a wheelbarrow.

Our passengers had no complaints about the Corolla and neither did I. The brakes get a little mushy sometimes and when you listen to the engine, you're not misled into thinking you're driving a Maserati, but as a guy who likes cars and likes to push the envelope whenever possible, I thought the Corolla was just fine. With some decent tires and wheels, stiffer shocks and a stick shift, it would be a nifty little urban pocket rocket.

Right off the dealer's lot, it is all a thrifty family needs for most urban and suburban driving. The model we tested -- the basic CE -- is a well-equipped transportation appliance. It has the essentials but none of the geegaws that are guaranteed to break, malfunction or be stolen after a year or two.

OK, so let's do the numbers. In five days, we drove the car 224 miles, always carrying four people with the air-conditioning on and never taking fuel economy into consideration in our driving. We certainly did not "hyper-mile" it. Rather, we drove the hell out of it, trying to find defects and get the worst mileage we could.

On Friday afternoon, we pulled into a no-credit-card gas station and filled 'er up -- all 8.4 gallons worth. It cost us $38.72 for a week's worth of driving and if my math is correct that's 26.6 miles per gallon.

OK, this is not 40 mpg or whatever Prians claim they get but it's not bad. A CE with a stick shift driven sensibly would most likely get better than 30 mpg.

Perhaps more important is that I do believe a family could drive the wheels off a Corolla for years, spending next to nothing in maintenance. It's a simple, straightforward car and if you get the stripper with crank-up windows and no frippery, there's very little that can go wrong.

The "official" prices for these cars aren't that far apart -- $14,405 for the Corolla CE, $21,500 for the Prius "Standard." But in fact, dealers are loading up the Prius with every accessory they can think of, then charging a premium on top of that, so you'll probably pay around $30,000 for a Prius -- twice what a Corolla costs.

There are plenty of used Corollas around and it should be possible to get a recent vintage for $11,000 or less.

Speaking of cost, we've rented from California Rent-A-Car before and always had a good experience. They don't have an airport booth so you don't pay the outlandish airport fees, taxes, surcharges and other extortions. We paid $162 to drive the car for a week. You'll get cheaper rates on their Web site than if you walk in off the street.

Our time with the Corolla ended, we somewhat eagerly jumped back into our daily driver, a Porsche Boxster (which, by the way, normally gets about 22 mpg around town). Having gotten accustomed to the surprisingly roomy Corolla, we banged head and knee simultaneously while lurching into the Boxster's cozy (OK, cramped) interior.

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