T Sport

[robbie black]

I am looking at a number of different cars with a view to purchasing fairly soon.

On the shortlist - Celica, Civic Type R, Leon Cupra (perhaps R), Octavia vRS.

(all s/hand)

At a Toyota dealership I noticed a s/hand Corolla T Sport and a pre registered one with only delivery mileage. I have subsequently found out that it is the pre facelifted model. I then went to a different dealer to see a new model T Sport. In my opinion, the newer one looks much better with its lower stance.

I hadn't considered a T Sport due to the negative reviews I have read.

"Best avoided" "peaky engine" "poor chassis". I think one of the mags gave it only 2 circles out of 5, which was lower than the other Corollas.

Could owners of T Sports or anyone who has driven one give me their opinion?

Is it as bad as the "experts" say or are they far too critcal.

[mircea]

hi,

I had mine for three months or so,6.5k on it clock.

My advice:go for a drive test and then we can talk!

Enjoi!

[Yarisboy]

test drive all the cars on your short list and buy the one you like most :)

[phil3345]

Robbie go and drive them as yarisboy says.

As an owner of the tsport i lowered mine asap but when your cornering at speed

it scares the :censor: out of me the !Removed! vsc bleeps (I was going round a series of bends very fast) it bleeped I had brown pants.I took the civic out as well

a better car in my opinion for driving properly the tsport is a nice cruising car as well so try them all

[Nick-Johnson]

Robbie,

It has to be said that the Toyota Corolla T-Sport did come under heavy attack when it was first launched, soft chassis, sits up to high, too much body roll and daft VSC system that is all to keen to cut in and spoil driver involvement were just some of remarks thrown at the car on its arrival to the UK market.

After owning its smaller sibling the Yaris T-Sport I was also thinking of upgrading to something more powerful I wanted to see what the motoring press were making all the fuss about, was the Corolla all that bad surly not! One thing that you will notice straight away is that the Corolla don’t feel any quicker than the Yaris up until you hit “LIFT” and then the car goes barmy, the second (high lift) cam comes in and hell don’t you know it. This power zone is between 6200RPM & 8250RPM meaning a sensational sound track is played by the engine while you are nailed into the back of the seat, 5th and 6th gears things slow down a fair bit but at the end of the day this is only a normally aspirated 1.8.

What I am trying to get at is yes there maybe better cars on sale in this sector but once lowered on TTE springs, a nice set of rims, and TRD bonnet strut you will be driving a reasonably priced totally underestimated Hot Hatch that will keep up with any stock Civic Type-R!

Nick

[accylad]

I had Celica for 14 months (140 bhp) from new and had nothing but problems with it. When the new facelift Corolla came out I went for a test drive in the T-Sport. Apart from the driving position feeling ludicrously high (remember what I had been driving for over a year !) I liked the car and ordered one.

One week on from delivery I am the proud owner of a new 'Alsace Granite' Corolla T-Sport. Its fabulous !

A brief summary :-

I've quickly got used to the driving position. The steering is light and responsive at low speeds, firms up nicely at higher speeds and has a good road feel through it. The chassis is superb, the cornering as good, if not better, than my old Celica. I haven't opened the engine up yet as I'm still being careful up to the magical 600 miles mark. Then all hell will break loose.

The ride is soft under normal driving conditions but firms up when pushed. It feels like the best of both worlds. Its comfortable yet feels sure footed. The engine feels urgent and wants to 'go'.

The interior is well put together. The sports seats extremely comfortable (I like the two tone red/black look), the ICE is very impressive and the optitronic instrument panel looks very cool when lit up ! There's lots of nice little touches too like a trip computer (only getting 29 mpg at the moment though !) and auto-darkening rear view mirror. It also has rain sensitive wipers.

The outer styling is very nice. It looks 'mean' to be honest. I love the rear spoiler and body kit and the fat exhaust and low profiles give it a very sporty look.

All in all I would say I'm more than happy with it. My only advice is test drive one, but make sure its the post face lift model. I was told by the dealership that all the demonstrators for the new model will be T-Sport's anyway so you should have no trouble tracking one down.

Compared to a Civic Type R, you may not get quite the acceleration but you get the full electrics pack as standard (traction control, climate control, air con, stability control, ABS and EBD) which the Type R has none of. The feel and build quality is better on the Corolla in my opinion too. The big plus is that the Corolla is only group 14 insurance compared to the Type R's group 17. You may loose a bit in torque and acceleration but thanks to the traction control if you race a Type R from a standing start in anything but bone dry conditions you'll beat it to 60mph because of the Corollas superior grip.

I dont know much about the Seat, other than a work colleague has one and he says its 'just ok'. Lets face it, its one up from a Skoda ! :D

If you want to know anything else e-mail me. Let us know how you get on with the test drive.

Accylad

[Yarisboy]

nice review accylad, glad you're enjoying the car :)

As for the Cupra R - this is pretty much an Audi S3 as it gives the same output; spend £500 on a remap and this will see you to 270bhp in the Seat

The Corolla will have a SC/Turbo available soon (apparently) but it will be considerably more than the £500 to tune the Cupra R

at the end of the day you makes your choices and spends your cash - just get the car you feel most at home with: 99% of people here will tell you to get the Corolla... Go and drive them all

[Antd4agze]

nice review accylad, glad you're enjoying the car

Yeah,makes me wanna go to Mr.Toyota tomorrow to get one myself .I've seen the new ad for the facelift CTS last night for the first time and yeah...it did look mean even more so on my widescreen telly

[spwolf]

nice review accylad, glad you're enjoying the car

Yeah,makes me wanna go to Mr.Toyota tomorrow to get one myself .I've seen the new ad for the facelift CTS last night for the first time and yeah...it did look mean even more so on my widescreen telly

yep, that was nice review... new CTS looks nice, although our "old" ones look nice as well, they just need TTE springs and tte spoiler at back and are set to go...

I cant believe mags say that Corolla is dull looking, it certainly isnt anymore... its just funny...