1.8 or 2.0 corolla

[Catlover]

On 10/22/2020 at 7:28 PM, bigblock said:

Test drive both if you can but drive the 1.8 litre first. Why? Because I tried the 2.0 litre first and was totally blown away with it's effortless power and very quiet engine. The 1.8 litre just felt flat on accelaration and a very revvy engine on hill climbs. It just didn't rock my boat. My 2.0 litre was returning good mid 60's mpg in the warm summer weather. Cooler weather is still returning 52 to 55 mpg. The worst has beeni 46 mpg in a very cold spell of weather. It seems mpg is very ambient temperature dependant with hybrids  Even more so with a full electric vehicle I would suggest. (batteries love heat to work well). I have done 3500 miles so far and don't stretch the engine at all. A light right foot is all you need to get the 2.0 litre moving briskly..

Steady on with the heat. Too much can kill a Battery - that’s why Toyota hybrids have a fan to cool it, and that’s why the Nissan Leaf gets critical reviews... because it doesn’t have a fan at all!

[HybridLover]

You should certainly be slowing down for hill climbs not accelerating up them...

Getting up hills isnt a problem in the 1.8 that I've noticed, especially with cruise control on, it just gets on with it. The steep climb east bound just before J18 of the M4 for instance. Just drop the cruise one notch (5mph) to help out MPG.

I rarely go into the POWER zone at all in all driving sitations, but it's there if i need a burst of acceleration to pull out when changing lanes from a stop, instead using gentle acceleration within the ECO zone which has plenty enough to get up to motorway speeds.

The sweet spot in the 1.8 is an indicated 55mph (or 52MPH actual), there you can be crusing in EV mode on cruise control with ICE coming on when necessary to go up slopes or to idle at 1000rpm and recharge the Battery. Unfortuantely 55mph is a bit slow on the motorway (HGVs up your ****) and indicated 60 or 65mph doesn't seem to cruise on EV except on down hill streches.

I also bought the IconTech deliberatly for the smaller wheels (pity no front fogs though). I'm getting mid 65 mpg on average (see below) and some journeys in the 80s. Only done 800 miles so this will improve. I also test drove the 2L Excell only but still bought the 1.8 (this was because the dealer only had the 2L (yeah right, huh).

The factory Bridgestones (all weather) are a bit noisy but that doesn't actually bother me and they were excellent on Saturday night coming back on the M4 when we had the terrential rain downpour.

Engine is a bit loud when it comes on (and off) by it's self when Hybrid system switched on.

Over all though a joy to drive (easy, comfortable, "boring" in a good way) when driving conservatively, there is no reward for flooring it but you get rewarded witht the comfort and MPG figures. The steering is a touch light for my tastes and almost imperceptable feedback of what's going on between road and tyres. I can reserve a manual transmission zipcar focus or golf anytime I want to have a bit of fun (in the traditional motoring sense).

 

Typical journeys telematics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HybridLover]

HB looks good to me...:)

 

 

[Catlover]

Actually in that photo, in that red the HB does look good. I had only seen white ones in the “flesh”.

[AndrueC]

1 hour ago, Catlover said:

Actually in that photo, in that red the HB does look good. I had only seen white ones in the “flesh”.

Would look even better with chrome door handles like mine :D

[YarisHybrid2016]

Hill-climbing is definitely better done at slower speeds. My Yaris prefers 30 MPH or slower, and I have yet to find a hill where I HAD to use max power to get up it (and I've taken it up some steep hills).

If I'm already going fairly fast (40-50 MPH) I just hold the power at the point between ECO and POWER, let the car bleed speed, and eventually it will sit at a constant speed climbing the hill.

I'm assuming due to the battery/system voltage/engine RPM in this state the Battery gains some charge, as I find that I can actually lift off gradually and still maintain speed up the hill.

How are the batteries different between the 1.8 and 2.0 Corolla?

[TonyHSD]

Climbing hills are very different in different scenarios, most of the time I am doing so on motorways at higher speeds and the worst of all is when you have to join the motorway obviously you need acceleration not slowing down and so if you keep your RPM just between eco and power the car will not gain enough speed to merge safely plus will burn more fuel and irritate anyone behind for the last one I don’t care about,  who drives behind  should take into account who is on the front and not otherwise. Now in situations like this best way to get your Car up to the speed is to push it harder than what you will do in a standard car so you can get most of its potential. ( it’s also in the manual as tip when to use power mode). The difference between Toyota hybrids and the rest is in the power train and how the power is transferred to the wheels, it’s not because 1.8 is underpowered, I can tell you that 2.0 is very similar because it’s pretty much same technology, even 6 cylinder Lexus hybrids are the same and trust me people who are about hard acceleration does NOT like either of those no matter how powerful they are. The Corolla 2.0 been more powerful engine deliver faster acceleration obviously, but they also suffer from the same characteristics. There are so many discussions about that even here on the forum. , especially from owners that comes from vag cars with manual or dsg. eCVT it’s basically an open differential, the power from two sources comes into one (power split device) and goes to the wheels via another open differential, therefore to get the most out of it you have to push, here comes power mode handy, just makes it easier and so you don’t feel like you are pushing it hard and the car delivers its promise. Same principle as when you drive effectively in town, push and glide technique but at higher speeds and rpm 👍

[dannyboy413]

From TonyHSD - "The only issue in England with the saloon is that they are not as well equipped as eu or Irish variety, but I can always buy from Ireland. Irish top ranger are as good as Mercedes or Audi inside. "

I bought my top of the range Toyota 1.8 saloon in March of this year and have to agree with TonyHSD in that the equipment on my car, ('Sol' in Ireland), has just about every aid I could require - apart from heated steering wheel! I have driven Opel Astra's for the last 14 years or so and in nearly 50 years of driving, this is the first Toyota I have owned.  It is extremely comfortable and is a pleasure to drive. I do a 20 mile journey twice a day five days a week, (on what are not much better than 'B' roads in the UK), but not much more because of the restrictions, and have done about 7K miles since purchase. Using my own figures, I am getting just over 60 mpg. My last Astra, a 1.8 Diesel, was nice, but was not as nice as the Corolla, with a slightly worse MPG figure. I would encourage any one to go for the Irish version if possible, although I have no experience of the UK or EU versions, apart from what I have read.

[Timmon]

On 10/23/2020 at 12:12 PM, Sonic_D said:

This may or may not be a factor in your decision, but probably the main reason I went for the 1.8l is that the Carbon Monoxide emissions of the 2.0l are significantly higher.  I know you can't put full faith in Which's emissions tests where the 2.0l engine was flagged up as having high CO emissions, but a look at the engine specs published by Toyota show CO (mg/km) of 104.8 for the 1.8l and 188.2 for the 2.0l.

 

Edit:  Talking about TS here.

I'm not sure where you got the CO2 Emissions from, maybe the USA Toyota site, non Hybrid?  I don't have the TS, I have the HB, but I doubt there is much difference.

The CO2 Emissions for my car are 89 mg / KM.  The 1.8 is lower still, of course. 89mg/KM is pretty good, bearing in mind my last car was a 2ltr non Hybrid and was listed as 225mg/KM. And I paid the appropriate road tax of course! Saving quite a bit with the Corolla.

[Sonic_D]

On 10/30/2020 at 8:42 PM, Timmon said:

I'm not sure where you got the CO2 Emissions from, maybe the USA Toyota site, non Hybrid?  I don't have the TS, I have the HB, but I doubt there is much difference.

The CO2 Emissions for my car are 89 mg / KM.  The 1.8 is lower still, of course. 89mg/KM is pretty good, bearing in mind my last car was a 2ltr non Hybrid and was listed as 225mg/KM. And I paid the appropriate road tax of course! Saving quite a bit with the Corolla.

It was the Carbon Monoxide figures I was referring to, not the Carbon Dioxide which I agree are decent on the 2.0l too and wouldn't have prevented me from choosing one.

I got the figures from the main Toyota website by comparing a Corolla Hybrid TS with a 1.8l & 2.0l engine.

[Hitman77]

Hi, 

I tend to disagree somehow on the power capacity of the 1.8 vs 2.0. It would be nice to know the grade of the "hills" people drive on. Indeed, every morning I have to climb up a hill (grade = 4.2%), currently with an outdoor temperature of 5°C, engine cold, for about 17 km. I can tell you that even with the 2.0l I struggle between mpg (33-36) and rpm necessary to maintain speed. So with a 1.8l it would be a nightmare to climb up with SUV and other more powerful cars piling up behind you. Therefore focusing only on mpg might not be always wise, as usage of the car is also important. 

[AndrueC]

Can't say I've noticed any problem with the 1.8. There aren't many hills where I live but I visit North Wales and the car has no problem pulling away from Rhuallt on the A55 (you won't find me needing to use the crawler lane) and it happily kept up with vehicles climbing the A5 out of the Conwy valley. Never had any problems with the inland areas of Dumfries and Galloway either.

I mean lets put this in perspective. With the Battery helping the 1.8l has 120bhp. It might be a bit heavier than a conventional car but it's hardly an HGV. If you happened to arrive at the bottom of a hill with no electricity you might struggle a bit but that's a pretty unlikely scenario.

Anyway in my experience most people just don't accelerate very hard. If people are 'piling up behind me' then they'll just have to wait. Most likely they are only being 'blocked' because they are trying to drive like Lewis Hamilton.

[yossarian247]

I've never really noticed any lack of power on hills with our 1.8 C-HR, it will leave plenty of 'ordinary' cars behind if you need it to. I think what some people find disconcerting with the 1.8 hybrid engine is that it can get quite 'revvy' when you put your foot down, but revving an engine occasionally doesn't do them any harm at all. I actually find that the 1.8 hybrid feels faster than our 2.0 diesel Avensis and 1.6 Valvematic Auris, even though on paper it's slower than both of them!

[Luke717]

Similar view here - my 1.8 HB does just fine on an uphill road. There's a stretch of the A339 between Newbury and Basingstoke coming out of a 50 limit into a 60 where the lane splits into two that go straight uphill for a mile or so (and is a notorious segment for would-be racers doing 70+ wanting to quickly get past slower HGVs). I suppose I'm on that road once every few weeks or so and usually take the uphill section in my stride, car in D and a relaxed foot on the pedal. Occasionally, though, I'll plan ahead and slip the drive into S and give it some welly going past a couple of HGVs. I tell you, the car just flies up this road.

I think the Corolla is as good as any similarly spec'd car whether petrol, diesel or hybrid. I also think it's usually more about how you drive the car than how many horses it has. It's a terrific drive!

[Hitman77]

I'm bringing back the car to the garage as I feel the 2.0 will be a consumption ogre. In the morning, just starting the engine and 1km is already gone on the display (no A/C, internal temp = 18°C). Getting out of the garage to the end of yard (about 80 m far) and an additional 2km is gone ! I know the temperature and engine is cold but... Then, the usual morning 17km hill, on arrival the car display a consumption of 50km (MyT app display 8liters while the car display 5.6liters) ... Worst of it: I am systematically 10-20kmh below the speed limit and accelerations are not sustained (pressing mildly then release, a few time stronger in order to keep up the pace). Given these numbers, a full tank is max 500km (my old 1.3l car does 100km better !), very far from the initial 1050km displayed. PS: does not seem there is an issue with the electric engine, on the way down >75% EV (2.2l consumption, still about 10-15km down on the display). 

[Red_Corolla]

The range estimate is always based on the assumption that you drive continuously until it's empty. Like any combustion engine, there is a heavy price to pay in fuel every time the engine has to be warmed up and of course that is exacerbated by low ambient temperatures. These cars are actually very good at minimising that warm-up penalty compared to most, including diesels. The trip computer has no way of knowing how many journeys you're going to make or how much time will be spent cooling down in-between, therefore the estimate is based on a best case scenario and every extra heat cycle will take a bite out of it.

Mine has been very good for a 2.0 petrol, consistently well over 50mpg in all scenarios except prolonged high speed driving. I don't know of any non-hybrid petrol with equivalent performance that would compete.

I agree that the actual range is poor. It's about 400 miles on mine. That's the tank capacity rather than the economy. With recent prices, it's easy to look at the bill for filling up and assume that we've bought enough fuel to cover a great distance but, sadly, that's not the case.

 

[TonyHSD]

The 2.0 hybrid in worst case scenario should be 40+mpg where 1.8 around 50+mpg, 10mpg difference seems just fine in real world. 

[Cyker]

Yeah, I still find it weird the fillups for my Yaris are normally 26-28L when I'm used to putting in 36-38L!

Annoyingly the cost is about the same to my older cars because the price/L has risen so dramatically!

Can't complain about range tho' - 10L bigger tank in the Mk2 1.33 gave me 100 miles less range, and although the Mk1 D4D still wins easily (with over 600 miles out of a tank!), can't really complain about 500 miles out of a 10L smaller tank in the Mk4 - That's still pretty damned good!

I think the Mk4 is the most genuinely efficient car in existence right now!  

[Hitman77]

I may have forgotten to mention that there are several stop and go on the way up due to trafic jam or red lights which makes the ascension a worst case scenario. An alternative path is the motorway, but it is not ideal either, even though the grade is a (bit) less steep, you climb it up quicker. Consumption can be reduced to around 7.3l but struggling to maintain a 100kmh and keeping mpg low (which I find rather pitiful). I dont trust the arguments of the seller stating that its the driving and the conditions that account for the poor mpg and that with practice will get better (when you need torque you need torque and it does not explain the lost km upon start). WLTP should account for hilly areas. 

[Auris James]

A few months ago I took my 2015 Auris Hybrid up the Bewdley bypass. A nice long uphill road. Certainly didn't feel strained and was doing around 80mph when I looked down, so just over 70mph actual. 

We Lived out near Leominster in the early 90's and my Dad used to drive cars like he had nicked them.  Golf MK1. Renault 18 and several old Subaru 1800, legacy and an XT, Fiat 131 mirafiori. He blew the engine on his Subaru BRAT 1600cc and fitted an 1800cc replacement.

We lived at a Cottage where you needed a 4WD and the Subaru's were perfect.

James👍

[AndrueC]

Driving style can certainly be a factor. Hybrid technology compensates up to a point (especially with brake energy recovery) but it's not a perfect system. It is more fuel efficient to not use the brakes at all than to use them and recover a percentage of the energy.

No-one who accelerates toward stationary traffic and floors the accelerator to get to speed limit+20 mph as quickly as possible is going to get great fuel consumption.

The people who get lowest fuel consumption are those who look ahead and adjust their speed to avoid any use of brakes. That doesn't mean moving slowly(*) - it means trying to maintain their speed and avoid heavy acceleration or braking. An added bonus of this kind of driving (known as having good 'acceleration sense') is that it makes you safer. You have to be more aware of your surroundings to do it and not being reliant on brakes all the time means that if things do go wrong you have more additional stopping capacity.

And driving above 60mph has a big impact on fuel consumption. The faster you go the worse it gets.

(*)And despite what the blue bar on the ECO gauge often thinks 'brisk' acceleration is more fuel efficient than slow acceleration - as long as you don't have to use your brakes afterwards.

[TonyHSD]

7 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

Driving style can certainly be a factor. Hybrid technology compensates up to a point (especially with brake energy recovery) but it's not a perfect system. It is more fuel efficient to not use the brakes at all than to use them and recover a percentage of the energy.

No-one who accelerates toward stationary traffic and floors the accelerator to get to speed limit+20 mph as quickly as possible is going to get great fuel consumption.

The people who get lowest fuel consumption are those who look ahead and adjust their speed to avoid any use of brakes. That doesn't mean moving slowly(*) - it means trying to maintain their speed and avoid heavy acceleration or braking. And driving above 60mph has a big impact on fuel consumption. The faster you go the worse it gets. An added bonus of this kind of driving (known as having good 'acceleration sense') is that it makes you safer. You have to be more aware of your surroundings to do it and not being reliant on brakes all the time means that if things do go wrong you have more additional stopping ability.

(*)And despite what the blue bar on the ECO gauge often thinks 'brisk' acceleration is more fuel efficient than slow acceleration - as long as you don't have to use your brakes afterwards.

Absolutely!
Unfortunately these days that type of driving has been very uncommon and if you drive like a pro driver you will get often abused by other drivers( cars, vans, lorries) who are ready to run you over or push you out of the road if it happens they drive behind you., not that I care I even enjoy driving past them while they are waiting at the next traffic light which seems make them even more aggressive and they often start with a wheel spins., 🤣👌, well nobody race with them or taking a *****, common sense, look ahead and they will see the same what I see and perhaps drive safer and more relaxed, but no, aggression and disrespect towards other users at its best. 

[Stopeter44]

15 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

... and if you drive like a pro driver you will get often abused by other drivers( cars, vans, lorries) who are ready to run you over or push you out of the road if it happens they drive behind you.

I mostly drive on rural roads, the speed limit around here for them is 80 kph, it used to be 90 kph, and in the next county it's still 90 kph (sometimes and sometimes not). Many have it in their heads that 90 kph is dramatically much faster than 80 kph, and on a 15 km run it will save them 30 mins! (OK, so that's an exaggeration, but I know of some who think that leap frogging on twisty mountain roads will gain them 30 mins on a 65 km run).

I so hate those who stick on my bumper at what seems like 2 metres (it's probably more like 4 metres), because I'm right on the limit and not over it - I use the GPS speed as reference. The number of times I pull over to let them pass, well I've lost count ! I certainly do not want them up my "UBIK"* !

* UBIK is the usual replacement for a combination of letters that means rear end.

[AndrueC]

15 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Absolutely!
Unfortunately these days that type of driving has been very uncommon and if you drive like a pro driver you will get often abused by other drivers( cars, vans, lorries) who are ready to run you over or push you out of the road if it happens they drive behind you., not that I care I even enjoy driving past them while they are waiting at the next traffic light which seems make them even more aggressive and they often start with a wheel spins., 🤣👌

Oh yes. I often like to think that they notice how I've kept up with them throughout an urban crawl. Unfortunately I suspect most are just not paying attention and have no idea that they keep overtaking the same red Toyota Corolla over and over again 🙂

And back when I had to commute so many people wanted to go faster than the 50mph limit. Apparently unaware that even if the road was clear and they managed to get up to 60mph the difference in journey time between the two towns would amount to a minute at best. And they'd just as likely lose that as soon as they reached the built up area.

You have to be travelling for a long time before overtaking becomes genuinely worth it. At least an hour's driving.

[Gray86]

23 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

The 2.0 hybrid in worst case scenario should be 40+mpg where 1.8 around 50+mpg, 10mpg difference seems just fine in real world. 

Even as the temps have dropped, my tank average is 54.6mpg, down from between 56-60mpg over the summer. The 2.0 is still very economical. My worst tank was it’s first tank about 12 months ago (and lockdowns limiting mileage - that was 48mpg). 
 

I’d say the 2.0 TS can match my old 1.8 Auris 2010 HB for fuel economy.