Cross-shopping and alternatives to Corolla?

[Persimmon]

I am curious what other cars did you consider as an alternative to the Corolla, and why did you end up choosing the Corolla.

I had high hopes for the new Honda HR-V. I like Hondas, my first two cars were Jazz and CR-V, and this new upcoming hybrid HR-V looked interesting. The infotainment is great (I've test driven the new Jazz with the same system), but the hybrid power train was a concern. Unlike Toyota, Honda uses a different type of hybrid system: the engine is disconnected from the wheels, and acts as a generator for the Battery and motor. Only at high speeds the engine connects to the wheels via a single-speed transmission. This crates an even worse sound effect than CVTs and eCVTs. When you accelerate, the engine sounds like a hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner — a simple constant moan. 

Also, it seems like Honda gave up on Finland. Several dealerships closed, I can barely see new Hondas on the road, and the website feels abandoned. For example, if you go to Honda Finland website right now, and click on "New Civic Hybrid", you'll see "Page not found" 🙂 I mean, did anyone test it at all?

I also considered Kia Ceed. The hatchback version is a great size: not too small (in contrast to Corolla HB), not too big. I had a test drive of Ceed SW (estate), mild hybrid, and didn't quite love it. It's a great car, nice interior and good price. But I found three negatives: uncomfortable seats, noisy cabin at speeds over 50 mph, and slightly jerky automatic gearbox (double-clutch) in slow town driving. Coming from CVT/eCVT/hybrid world, Kia's DCT feels very unrefined in traffic. I had a similar experience with Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid. The dealer couldn't provide a hatchback for a test drive, and said "it's basically the same as this station wagon, so do you want to buy it?" 🙂

Both me and my wife liked the idea of CH-R, but the styling, especially the rear end... oof.. So busy, so much style over function, and I don't like that style 😄 Similar thoughts on Lexus UX: I find it unpleasantly styled, but there is nothing to compensate for it. While the interior seems lovely, the user experience (Ha-ha, UX! 🙂) is weirdly subpar. No Apple Carplay, no media controls on the dashboard (only on the middle console), that weird trackpad thingy.

We even considered a fully electric VW ID.3, but its UX is even worse. I detest touch interfaces, and VW went full on with it. At this point, I hope to keep the Corolla until a really good, non-gimmicky EV is available. 

Other cars I considered:

• Subaru XV. Turned out too fuel inefficient. Also, like Honda, very poor dealer coverage in Finland.
• VW Golf and Seat Leon: touch interfaces everywhere.
• Mazda 3: too cramped, bad visibility, and endless rattles and creaks. Confirmed by lots of owners on web forums.
• Hyundai i30: after test driving the Ceed, I didn't bother with i30, pretty sure it wouldn't have been quieter or less jerky.
• Honda Civic: very low passenger seat without height adjustment, last-gen infotainment, firm ride. Also, the rear end of the hatchback is pretty ugly.

Cars I did not consider:

• Skoda Octavia: don't know why, but I simply ignored Skoda all my life, even though I have nothing against it. On paper, I think the Octavia is an excellent vehicle, although I hear a lot of complaints due to road noise and overall refinement. 
• Citroens, Peugeots, Renaults, and other French cars: after having a PSA-based Opel, I think I developed an allergy to PSA/Stellantis cars, and, by extension, to all French cars. It's irrational, I know...
• BMW/Audi/Mercedes: never had any experience with these, and frankly not sure what to think about them. Styling wise, I love Audis, and hope to get one some day, perhaps an EV.

[Roy124]

Simple answers:

Kia eNiro - dismissive when we went onto the showroom. 

Volvo - totally ignored 

Nissan - no hybrid

Hyundai - demo car flat Battery so unable to power up

Mazda - bland 

Toyota - smart attentive salesman, matched our present car spec to best fit Toyota which was a Corolla Design. 

The normal test drive was a round the block. He sensed we wanted more than that and we had the car for a day. 

We were well satisfied with our choice. 

[TonyHSD]

I am coming from the car trade and always been a car enthusiast, have experience with cars I would said good enough to reassure you that currently there are no better cars with combustion engines than Toyota/ Lexus, hybrids or non hybrids. Any other makes and models for me does not exist on my shopping list. If we are talking about Evs then Toyota does not exist on my list, they have simply only one car currently that is not to my like at all. If for some reason you don’t like Toyota hybrids, then buy whatever you like and you won’t go far different in between because they are all equally stupid motors. , unreliable and unrefined. , very few exceptions in a higher class autos and particularly luxury ones, that’s it. 

[forkingabout]

FWIW - The 2023 model year Lexus UX has got rid of the track pad in centre console & now features a touch screen with the latest Lexus / Toyota smart connectivity system - they also have wireless Apple Car Play / wired Android Auto.

[50p]

coming from a diesel and used to getting high MPG, but not wanting another diesel, hybrid was the only way to go. Idealy I wanted something physically smaller than the outgoing Volvo V40 as there are only the two of us. Surprisingly difficult to find these days as most cars seem to be getting bigger. The Toyota Yaris was too small, the Corolla was about the same size as the Volvo. My heart said Lexus UX, booked a test drive, sat inside and felt an overwealming feeling of claustrophobia! Everything inside was black, black headlining black everywhere. You only get a lighter headlining with brown or cream seats apparently, neither of which appealed. Didn't even drive it! So I ended up with the Corolla, still has a black headlining but most of it is hidden by the pan roof!

[Bozz]

Must admit I was going to buy a Skoda Octavia but the lead time even in August 21 was silly. I was a bit nervous about the Hybrid thing and the ECVT but apart from the flair of revs when you 'boot it' its great.

The luggage space is not as big as the Octavia but its big enough for us. 

Got a good deal using Carwow, great fixed part ex valuation and a 6 week delivery and the rest as they say is Toyota hybrid powered.... (history) 

 

[Kental]

I had a lease Skoda Kamiq on order, but with no sign of a build date 4 months after ordering and a gradual decrease in the standard spec, I cancelled the order.

Two features I was insistent on were automatic & adaptive cruise, the Corolla had them both.  An enjoyable test drive and an excellent price from a very attentive dealer later and just under 5 months later a proud owner of a white Corolla.  Again I was surprised at the dark headlining, I thought that was GR Sport & Excel trims, but I may be confusing that with the Yaris specifications.

[Persimmon]

2 hours ago, Roy124 said:

Toyota - smart attentive salesman, matched our present car spec to best fit Toyota which was a Corolla Design. 

BTW, from my limited experience with car dealers in Southern Finland, Toyota salesmen are by far the best. I've interacted with Honda, BMW, Opel (Vauxhall), Mazda and various used dealerships.

[Roy124]

2 hours ago, 50p said:

coming from a diesel and used to getting high MPG, but not wanting another diesel, hybrid was the only way to go. Idealy I wanted something physically smaller than the outgoing Volvo V40 as there are only the two of us. Surprisingly difficult to find these days as most cars seem to be getting bigger. The Toyota Yaris was too small, the Corolla was about the same size as the Volvo. My heart said Lexus UX, booked a test drive, sat inside and felt an overwealming feeling of claustrophobia! Everything inside was black, black headlining black everywhere. You only get a lighter headlining with brown or cream seats apparently, neither of which appealed. Didn't even drive it! So I ended up with the Corolla, still has a black headlining but most of it is hidden by the pan roof!

More or less the same, though to be honest the Corolla hatch is slightly too small which is why we are getting the Yaris Cross. 

As regards black headliner, that was a turn off but I don't even see it now. 

[Cyker]

5 hours ago, Persimmon said:

I am curious what other cars did you consider as an alternative to the Corolla, and why did you end up choosing the Corolla.

I had high hopes for the new Honda HR-V. I like Hondas, my first two cars were Jazz and CR-V, and this new upcoming hybrid HR-V looked interesting. The infotainment is great (I've test driven the new Jazz with the same system), but the hybrid power train was a concern. Unlike Toyota, Honda uses a different type of hybrid system: the engine is disconnected from the wheels, and acts as a generator for the battery and motor. Only at high speeds the engine connects to the wheels via a single-speed transmission. This crates an even worse sound effect than CVTs and eCVTs. When you accelerate, the engine sounds like a hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner — a simple constant moan. 

Also, it seems like Honda gave up on Finland. Several dealerships closed, I can barely see new Hondas on the road, and the website feels abandoned. For example, if you go to Honda Finland website right now, and click on "New Civic Hybrid", you'll see "Page not found" 🙂 I mean, did anyone test it at all?

I also considered Kia Ceed. The hatchback version is a great size: not too small (in contrast to Corolla HB), not too big. I had a test drive of Ceed SW (estate), mild hybrid, and didn't quite love it. It's a great car, nice interior and good price. But I found three negatives: uncomfortable seats, noisy cabin at speeds over 50 mph, and slightly jerky automatic gearbox (double-clutch) in slow town driving. Coming from CVT/eCVT/hybrid world, Kia's DCT feels very unrefined in traffic. I had a similar experience with Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid. The dealer couldn't provide a hatchback for a test drive, and said "it's basically the same as this station wagon, so do you want to buy it?" 🙂

Both me and my wife liked the idea of CH-R, but the styling, especially the rear end... oof.. So busy, so much style over function, and I don't like that style 😄 Similar thoughts on Lexus UX: I find it unpleasantly styled, but there is nothing to compensate for it. While the interior seems lovely, the user experience (Ha-ha, UX! 🙂) is weirdly subpar. No Apple Carplay, no media controls on the dashboard (only on the middle console), that weird trackpad thingy.

We even considered a fully electric VW ID.3, but its UX is even worse. I detest touch interfaces, and VW went full on with it. At this point, I hope to keep the Corolla until a really good, non-gimmicky EV is available. 

Other cars I considered:

• Subaru XV. Turned out too fuel inefficient. Also, like Honda, very poor dealer coverage in Finland.
• VW Golf and Seat Leon: touch interfaces everywhere.
• Mazda 3: too cramped, bad visibility, and endless rattles and creaks. Confirmed by lots of owners on web forums.
• Hyundai i30: after test driving the Ceed, I didn't bother with i30, pretty sure it wouldn't have been quieter or less jerky.
• Honda Civic: very low passenger seat without height adjustment, last-gen infotainment, firm ride. Also, the rear end of the hatchback is pretty ugly.

Cars I did not consider:

• Skoda Octavia: don't know why, but I simply ignored Skoda all my life, even though I have nothing against it. On paper, I think the Octavia is an excellent vehicle, although I hear a lot of complaints due to road noise and overall refinement. 
• Citroens, Peugeots, Renaults, and other French cars: after having a PSA-based Opel, I think I developed an allergy to PSA/Stellantis cars, and, by extension, to all French cars. It's irrational, I know...
• BMW/Audi/Mercedes: never had any experience with these, and frankly not sure what to think about them. Styling wise, I love Audis, and hope to get one some day, perhaps an EV.

From what you've written I think you are very wise!  

 

It's funny so many of you don't like the black headliner - That was one of the things that annoyed me about my Yaris (Want a HUD? Have to have the cream interior  ), although I've gotten used to it now, and I must admit it has kept the seats less lava-like when I get in on a hot day  

 

I had no intention of buying another car until an EV that could *really* do 300+ miles on a charge and not be the size of a houseboat came out (I gave them 10 years and they still haven't managed it!). However, I got screwed by KHAAAAN! and my Mk2 getting the award for The World's Least Reliable Toyota, and the Mk4 Yaris was literally the only car on the market, apart from maybe the new Honda Jazz, that is objectively better than my Mk1 Yaris D4D - Every single other car I've looked at has worse realworld mpg, worse reliability, is less fun to drive, is too big and/or has worse interior space and are more expensive to run. (It's a bit sad when you think about it - Only 2 modern cars are objectively better than a 15+? year old diesel lump??  )

The other problem is I'm slightly trapped with Toyotas - Every time I talk to friends and colleagues who own other marques, I'm weirded out by how normal they find it to spend loads of money every service on repairs! Bearing, arms, suspension, shafts, head gaskets, pipes, cables etc., and I'm like... I don't want any of that! I've never had to do any of these things since I had the Ford Fiesta! Just oil and filter changes and that's it!!

I'd love to NOT be driving a Toyota, as I really really hate dealing with any of the dealerships down here in London, but I'm willing to put up with the godawful customer service just because the car just so smegging good (I'm half-tempted to part-ex it for the Mazda version, but the only Mazda dealership is faaar away and for all I know they could be even worse!  )

 

[50p]

4 hours ago, Roy124 said:

As regards black headliner, that was a turn off but I don't even see it now. 

Someone in the Lexus forum said the same, although I would have thought you would see it each time you looked in the rear view mirror?

I was tempted by the Yaris Cross but that had not been released when I needed to change cars and I was buying second hand so would have been too expensive. Does look very nice though but no opening pan roof.

[Dylanfan]

I’d been with Citroens since 1984 & got a 10 percent discount on new cars as a Citroen Car Club member. In 2019 I bought a Corolla, why, because I couldn’t find a Citroen model I liked and the Which magazine put Lexus & Toyota top of the reliability tree. I’ve moved from a diesel giving 55mpg to a petrol hybrid giving 65+.. A much smaller car but it does everything I need.

 I can’t knock Citroen for reliability, they have been excellent over the years but I wanted to move on from diesel. Also their range has changed and there was nothing I fancied. 
People originally bought diesels mainly because the fuel was cheaper and you got more the the gallon, petrol 35, diesel 65. Now Petrol cars are more efficient and the price of diesel has gone up so there is a much leveller playing field. Also since the VW scandal diesel has become the bad boy in town.