Toyota Corolla Hybrid’s, thoughts?

Potentially on the look out for a new car and am quite drawn to these as they seem to tick a few boxes.

Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on them? Bar the obviously flaw of making me look like a taxi driver?

Two others in the family have Yaris Cross hybrids and an old 59plate Prius. Been totally reliable all three.

I’m considering a Corrolla Touring on my short list for next year. You also get upto 10 year warranty if car is serviced through Toyota.

I have the earlier Auris estate, hybrid 1.8l engine.

It does about 55mpg, sometimes a bit more. I think newer ones might do a bit more.

The older ones (like mine) have expensive catalytic converters that are a magnet for thieves, so we have an annoying piece of steel welded to the underside – the newer ones are made without precious metals so I would be trying to get one of those if I could.

It’s a very dull place to be but it gets about without any fuss. The way the engine works is kind of spooky and weird – the revs stay more-or-less the same but it just goes faster, no gear change going on, but I quite like it.

Had it for something like 3 years, not yet had anything go wrong other than the annoying catalytic converter anti-theft thing occasionally smacking into speed bumps.

If you’re hoping to show up to a swanky place in Monte Carlo and impress all the supermodels, it’s not for you.

Very sensible choice, though I don’t like the fact that you should probably get locked into a long term main dealer servicing plan which means the hybrid drivetrain Inc battery is covered by a rolling warranty. But you’d have similar issues to square with any hybrid. So if it has to be a hybrid, and you don’t mind the cost of main dealers, why not.

My wife has the estate version and it’s everything you would expect from a Toyota – boringly reliable. I use it for biking duties which it is OK at. The back seat fold flat and there’s no boot lip so my bike slides in without any issue although I do have to remove the front wheel. Boot is big enough to sleep in which is also a bonus. We’ve had it from new for almost four years and apart from tyres and the usual service costs (£110 at our local garage) we haven’t had to spend any money on it. It averages 54.1mpg with the vast majority of our driving being around the mean streets of Bristol so mostly 30, 40 and 50mph speed limits. This compares to the 48mpg I get out of my crappy 1.0l Ford Puma. We’d get one again if we weren’t switching to something fully electric.

We have one, its excellent. Does exactly what you expect with no fuss, quite nice to drive too.

I have an old Lexus saloon, 16 years old, I have had it for 9 years.

It has been faultless, neglected and missed a few services but it has never missed a beat.

We also had a Yaris, old and high mileage but again just kept going. We only got rid because we didn’t need 2 cars.

My next car will be a Toyota or a Honda.

I was looking at these when I considered my current car. At the time I was coming from a Mini Clubman Cooper Sd so was looking at the 2.0 litre rather than the 1.8 as I didn’t want to sacrifice too much performance .

The 2 litre has a smaller boot than the 1.8 so that was a negative ,and I didn’t really want the estate , I  wasn’t sure about the CVT , and the infotainment (sat nav, radio, Bluetooth integration ) wasn’t great. Important to me as I spend a lot of time in the car.

I ended up going with a Mazda3 2.0 Skyactiv X instead , as it was a more involving drive ,had more comprehensive kit , was a fair bit cheaper for the one year old cars I was looking at and I still love a manual gearbox, even more so when it’s as good as the Mazda’s.

The Corolla was revised last year and the new 1.8 lite is meant to be much improved with more power and I believe the clunky infotainment has been improved so these may no longer be valid.

The new Honda Civic is meant to be very good but they are now quite expensive.

I did consider one a couple of years ago and had a test drive and found them to be comfy, with a decent spec but was also quite expensive and I really didn’t like the CVT autobox. If you’re just looking for a motorway family car loadlugger, and can get one at a good price then they are a decent option.

There’s a reason so my many taxi drivers have them…

My dad just got the CHR with the same engine/drivetrain. It’s a bit reverse TARDIS and not the quickest, but seems really well specced/made and is very economical.

“The new Honda Civic is meant to be very good but they are now quite expensive.”

I have one and I would say that’s a good summary!

The 2 litre has a smaller boot than the 1.8 so that was a negative

This is an intriguing statement about a front engine, front wheel drive car. Why would a engine equal a smaller boot?

The Suzuki Swace is the same car with a different badge…

The 2 litre has a smaller boot than the 1.8 so that was a negative

This is an intriguing statement about a front engine, front wheel drive car. Why would a engine equal a smaller boot?

I would guess the battery is bigger and under the boot.

If you have tall passengers, the glove box has a sharp edge perfectly designed to cut off all blood flow from the knees downwards.

Have you seen the new PHEV Prius? This is the car I’d be considering over the Corolla.

I’ve had mine, a 1.8 touring (company car – I wanted a hybrid with factory fit tow bar and there weren’t too many options in 2019) since March 2020, it’ll tick over 60k sometime next week, I’ve only had one issue and that was the tow bar getting stuck in place (my fault, I’d left it on after a bike trip, ended up in hospital for a month after appendicitis went a bit wrong, couldn’t get it to budge when I tried, the tech gave it a genie tap with the persuading stick and greased it up for me). Computer shows c50mpg in winter and closer to 60 in the summer, mix of town driving and motorways. I’ve had a full set of brakes in March this year at around 52k, reds weren’t too bad but the lease company authorised the full set so that’s what went on. I’ve had a pair of fronts and then a full set of tyres replaced plus a couple of one offs (punctures), will have another full set before the end of the year.

Mine is the icon tech (Not sure if the new models use the same model variant names or not), so pretty basic as Corollas go. Stereo is okay, CarPlay works well (wired) but the speakers are a little lacking. Interior seems solid and is holding up to being the family wagon pretty well, my youngest had a habit of brushing her feet against the back of the passenger seat and has frayed the sticking there a little but that’s it.

Seats are very comfortable though, and heated as standard (this is important to me, I have back issues after a motorbike crash 12 years ago) and I’m happy to drive 7 or more hours in them (in a day – quite often drive Lincoln to South Essex and back for work).

Can fit my XL 29er in the back with the front wheel off.

The cons,

It’s a bit noisy, even with the smaller 16″ wheels there’s a fair bit of road noise at motorway speed (standard fit tyres (conti ecocontact I seem remember) may have been marginally quieter than the Michelin Primacy on there now, but not by a great deal)

The engine isn’t the most refined, it always sounds a bit tappety, most noticeable when crawling in traffic, the engine holds around 2k rpm and the gearbox modulates for road speed.

The CVT gearbox works well, it quickly became a non issue and the car switches between petrol/hybrid/EV seamlessly.

Mine was originally due to go back in March, but my company has extended all company car leases until next financial year, I wasn’t disappointed to be hanging on to it. I ordered this pre-covid when I was driving around 25-30k per year most of which was for work. back down to around 9-10k of work mileage now, borderline as to wether I’ll get a new company car when this one does go back. Part of our contract is that we get first refusal on the car at the end of the lease, I am very tempted to buy mine, the only thing putting me off is some that there are some small rust bubbles on the roof where it’s had stone chips – will hopefully get these sorted on the body warranty though.

The Suzuki Swace is the same car with a different badge…

Which is why we bought a Swace… Helped by the fact that the lad who runs the local Suzuki dealership used to be my Saturday lad when I had my bike shop, the fact he’d got a very low mileage 18 month old car in ready to go for £8k less than an equivalent age and mileage Toyota Corolla (£22k vs £30k) helped a lot too…

My GF loves it! I love it… It’s absolutely not petrolhead heaven, but it is a very comfortable, very relaxing drive indeed and it steers and rides surprisingly sweetly with quite a lot of feedback from its modest 16″ tyres, yet remains very comfortable. Its got enough toys (Apple Carplay, heated seats, full climate control, wireless charging, lane assist etc), it’s just about quick enough for usual A and B road overtakes, it does 56mpg avg over a variety of driving (actually goes up slightly in urban environment, down slightly on longer motorway trips!)… Oh and they hold their money really well as well!

Put it this way, taxi drivers aren’t stupid…

Only downside is that it does feel slightly less premium than your typical German family vehicles, with not quite as much sound deadening (if you munch miles on the motorway at 70+mph all day, a 2L diesel car is probably going to suit you better anyway) and a slightly tinnier closure to the doors/bonnet/boot than I’m used to. But Toyota are famous for their quality and I’d argue many German cars are over engineered in many ways whilst under engineered in others myself.

Would buy another for sure…

Another swace owner (well, motability leaser) and it’s great.  We’re supposed to give it back next April, and will be extending for as long as we can.  Very smooth, comfortable and capable car.  All the extras you could need – only issue I’ve ever noticed is that the “basic” spec only has a reverse camera, not beepers.

Even when ridiculously laden (roof box, 2 bikes and a tandem up top, full to the ceiling in the boot) it’s comfy and does about 45mpg with the Air-conditioning on full driving across France in midsummer.

We bought a used 1.8 Icon Tech with 60k on it a few months back after looking at both a Nissan Leaf and MG EV5.

We all love it & its currently on 66 MPG. Excellent around town & great on motorways and swallows loads of kit in the boot. Coming from a 57 Golf its a step up in many ways apart from the build quality – its not got the reassuring thunk of the Golf.

Momo pretty much has it. A few extra quirks/annoyances –

• the infotainment system & screen, whilst usable, isn’t excellent. Its defo not HD & reminds me of my old Megadrive
• it doesn’t have auto washers
• when you stop in traffic it won’t always stop the engine as it wants to charge the battery
• it seems to prioritise battery health rather than wanting to use an extra bar or 2 thats left
• you have to manually select the parking brake every time you start the car

We’d happily have another after this but hoping to go full EV estate

Looked hard at the estate, but the boot floor is raised to accommodate the battery. That makes a dog cage too much of a challenge so we didn’t buy one. I liked the Swace.

The boot floor is raised on the 2litre due to the battery, with the 1.8 the battery remains in the engine bay. Might be worth looking for a 1.8 estate

Got the 1st generation Auris hybrid estate. Had it 9 years from 18 months old and put 100,000 on it. Cost me nothing but tyres and servicing. oh and bulbs, for some reason it eats headlight bulbs.

“If you’re just looking for a motorway family car loadlugger, and can get one at a good price then they are a decent option.”

I would dispute both these points:

Firstly, my only criticism is the rear suspension is crashy and it doesn’t like being heavily loaded which is a shame as that’s what I do so if I were to buy another midsize toyota i’d be checking this first.

Secondly the hybrid engine in mine is far more efficient on cross country 30,40 and 50 mph roads where it can easily get 55-60 mpg – on motorways it struggles to get more than 45 mpg at best.

Mmm, previous Auris hybrid experience here..

the CVT gearbox is pretty awful in modern terms

No footrest  space

The build is cheap and noisy

Suspension is poor

Infotainment was crap all round

A cheap feeling crappy car with good mpg and reliability is how I would describe it.

Definitely test drive some comparisons.

Corolla touring owner here. I’ve had my 2.0 touring for a year now and it’s definitely the best car I’ve ever had. Averages 60mpg in mixed driving (commuting to work in town and longer motorways drives up north). It is also quicker than you’d expect with 193hp. I’m personally a big fan of the interior, mines is the facelift model so has the digital display and larger screen. Also tons of standard equipment, adaptive cruise, matrix headlights, heads up display, power boot etc…

eCVT gearbox is a fantastic piece of engineering, contrary to what most people think its not a rubber belt like the old DAF cvts, rather it is basically, a planetary gearset in an oil bath. Means there is nothing to go wrong, no clutches to wear out etc.

All my previous cars were volkswagen group cars (Vw, Seat, Skoda), eventually got fed up with the poor reliability and build quality. I was going to get an Octavia VRS estate, but was so disappointed with the new model I went for the Corolla instead.

The Corolla isn’t perfect though. As some people have already said, it is a bit noisy at motorway speeds. Mines is on 18″ wheels with the stock falkens which are notoriously noisy, a few people have reported changing tires makes a big difference to noise levels.

It isn’t the biggest estate car out there, definitely smaller than something like an Octavia estate. Can still comfortably fit a 29 FS mtb in the back.

Some of the interior plastics are on the cheaper side but I would say it’s on par with Vw/Skoda. Most importantly, the Toyota’s interior doesn’t creak and rattle like all my previous vw/skodas have done!

The boot floor is raised on the 2litre due to the battery, with the 1.8 the battery remains in the engine bay. Might be worth looking for a 1.8 estate

This only applies to the hatchback, with the estate boot is the same size regardless of engine size as battery is in space behind the wheel arch.