Dual Corollas -original post date 4/11/2013
Because
yesterday's car post was plural, I thought I ought to throw these twins into the
mix. Spotted parked side by side at Target were these two late model
Toyota Corollas. The are pretty much the same car, but slightly
different iterations of it.
Both cars feature a 1.8L 4 cylinder engine that's good for high 20's in city driving and low 30's for highway mpg. They'll both start out with sticker prices of just a little over $18,000 and the difference between the two trim packages is just a couple hundred dollars before you start adding options. So, what are some of the differences?
The Toyota Corolla is offered with 3 trim levels: L, LE, and S. Pictured here is the LE (on the right), and the S (on the left). The LE is the mid range package that comes standard with a 4 speed automatic transmission, and the one here is rather basic. It features very little in the way of exterior styling, including 16" steel wheels and plastic hub caps. On the left is the S package, which comes with a 5 speed manual transmission, 16" alloy wheels, a spoiler, and that little red "S" badge on the back. The spoiler is, of course, completely superfluous. Any down force it might provide is pointless because the drive wheels that force should be holding to the road are at the front of this vehicle... well, it kinda looks sporty, anyway.
But why bother plunking a spoiler on a Corolla? These things are good cars, but they're the kind of cars you buy when you want an appliance to convey you from point A to point B with good fuel economy and no breakdowns in between. Even tuners (think those kids who bolt on giant spoilers, body kits, carbon fiber hoods, loud exhausts -and if they actually want to back up those aggressive looks with some performance, a supercharger or even nitrous) don't often mess about with the Corolla. Think of how many more Honda Civics, Accords, and old Preludes you've seen with these type of modifications compared to how many Corollas. Look at these two cars. They're owned by people who selected white as their color of choice. White is the color of fleet vehicles, it's innocuous and even more boring than plain old silver. White is the color of an ipod -it's a device. White is the color of a refrigerator or a dishwasher -an appliance. Even with the spoiler, these cars are devoid of personality.
Which brings us to the next photo. I took this picture at the Detroit auto show -though this is one of the very few concept cars that made its way to Minneapolis for the Twin Cities Auto Show this year. This is the Toyota Furia concept -a precursor to the next Corolla. It's painfully overwrought; straining to cultivate a personality via dramatic cut ins and angles and dripping with carbon fiber that makes it look like the automotive embodiment of the characters from that old Saturday Night Live skit turned into the movie, A Night at the Roxbury. Can't you just hear the thump-thump of the obnoxious and tacky club music when you look a this thing. I can picture its driver donning one of those shiny colored suits while nodding his head from side to side as he prepares to take it out for a spin.
At the Detroit show, the ladies on the panel with me talked to a Toyota exec about this very thing and got a response that went something like "..so what I'm getting from this is that you find the car too masculine." Well, no. This is the type of car that if it was a man, would be the type who dowses himself in cologne and stands too close to you while he yaks about inane crap you don't care about... and this is what is being offered to the folks who deliberately purchase cars like the vanilla twins from the first picture? Well, perhaps alienating their buying demographic is part of some new strategy. I'm not sure why they'd mess it up so much because the Corolla as it stands -boring though it may be- is a good selling car. In fact, in the late 90's, the Corolla was the best selling name plate in the entire world.
Both cars feature a 1.8L 4 cylinder engine that's good for high 20's in city driving and low 30's for highway mpg. They'll both start out with sticker prices of just a little over $18,000 and the difference between the two trim packages is just a couple hundred dollars before you start adding options. So, what are some of the differences?
The Toyota Corolla is offered with 3 trim levels: L, LE, and S. Pictured here is the LE (on the right), and the S (on the left). The LE is the mid range package that comes standard with a 4 speed automatic transmission, and the one here is rather basic. It features very little in the way of exterior styling, including 16" steel wheels and plastic hub caps. On the left is the S package, which comes with a 5 speed manual transmission, 16" alloy wheels, a spoiler, and that little red "S" badge on the back. The spoiler is, of course, completely superfluous. Any down force it might provide is pointless because the drive wheels that force should be holding to the road are at the front of this vehicle... well, it kinda looks sporty, anyway.
But why bother plunking a spoiler on a Corolla? These things are good cars, but they're the kind of cars you buy when you want an appliance to convey you from point A to point B with good fuel economy and no breakdowns in between. Even tuners (think those kids who bolt on giant spoilers, body kits, carbon fiber hoods, loud exhausts -and if they actually want to back up those aggressive looks with some performance, a supercharger or even nitrous) don't often mess about with the Corolla. Think of how many more Honda Civics, Accords, and old Preludes you've seen with these type of modifications compared to how many Corollas. Look at these two cars. They're owned by people who selected white as their color of choice. White is the color of fleet vehicles, it's innocuous and even more boring than plain old silver. White is the color of an ipod -it's a device. White is the color of a refrigerator or a dishwasher -an appliance. Even with the spoiler, these cars are devoid of personality.
Which brings us to the next photo. I took this picture at the Detroit auto show -though this is one of the very few concept cars that made its way to Minneapolis for the Twin Cities Auto Show this year. This is the Toyota Furia concept -a precursor to the next Corolla. It's painfully overwrought; straining to cultivate a personality via dramatic cut ins and angles and dripping with carbon fiber that makes it look like the automotive embodiment of the characters from that old Saturday Night Live skit turned into the movie, A Night at the Roxbury. Can't you just hear the thump-thump of the obnoxious and tacky club music when you look a this thing. I can picture its driver donning one of those shiny colored suits while nodding his head from side to side as he prepares to take it out for a spin.
At the Detroit show, the ladies on the panel with me talked to a Toyota exec about this very thing and got a response that went something like "..so what I'm getting from this is that you find the car too masculine." Well, no. This is the type of car that if it was a man, would be the type who dowses himself in cologne and stands too close to you while he yaks about inane crap you don't care about... and this is what is being offered to the folks who deliberately purchase cars like the vanilla twins from the first picture? Well, perhaps alienating their buying demographic is part of some new strategy. I'm not sure why they'd mess it up so much because the Corolla as it stands -boring though it may be- is a good selling car. In fact, in the late 90's, the Corolla was the best selling name plate in the entire world.
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