Thoughts on 1.2 turbo Corolla

[Edgie70]

Ok team , Ive spotted a 1.2 turbo Corolla online and I'm wondering if any owners on here can tell me what it's like , slow ? Struggles on a motor way ?? Acceleration from a junction ?? Many thanks 

[TonyHSD]

Hi Dave, 

There are very few owners of 1.2t Corolla and rarely coming here for a chat. Few more Auris 1.2t owners here but both not as high numbers as hybrids. The good news is that both Auris and Corolla 1.2t owners doesn’t report any serious issues with these cars and they do like their motors. If you ask me test this car and see if you like it or not and take it from there. I really consider Corolla 1.2t manual as option if I need a manual car in the future. In other countries in Europe Toyota offers Yaris and Corolla as manual options and they sell very well, between than hybrids too. 👍

[davidif]

I've had this engine in an Auris and had no issues whatsoever. It accelerated reasonably briskly and was economical.

My commute involves a short stretch of M5 Motorway and it dealt with everything perfectly well.

[Bper]

I agree with what  @TonyHSD says, I own a Auris 1.2T auto and it certainly isn't slow and surprisingly quick when pulling away and overtaking , it's even faster when switching to sports mode.You really should test drive the corolla and take it for a run so you can judge yourself. You won't be disappointed.

[Edgie70]

Thanks everyone, I'm going to see it tomorrow! 

[beeblebrox]

This topic is similar to one I answered a while ago and still valid which is ...

There shouldn't be hardly any difference between your current car versus a 1.2 T regarding actual performance. It is nippy. check you're not concerned about more possible road noise over different road surfaces. check multimedia is upgraded to android auto. Check estate rear door hinges are free from possible rust. 33-39 MPG.(for me) It's a fine car, and no mechanical problems yet.

[Edgie70]

1 minute ago, beeblebrox said:

This topic is similar to one I answered a while ago and still valid which is ...

There shouldn't be hardly any difference between your current car versus a 1.2 T regarding actual performance. It is nippy. check you're not concerned about more possible road noise over different road surfaces. check multimedia is upgraded to android auto. Check estate rear door hinges are free from possible rust. 33-39 MPG.(for me) It's a fine car, and no mechanical problems yet.

Ah so you have one ? The one I'm looking at is the " Design " spec in Scarlett flame ( I think it's called ) I expect it to not be as quick as my 2008 Punto petrol 1.4 turbo but looking on specs the Toyota is ½ a second slower to 60mph , the dealer asked if I use android and said they'll update it . Hatchback btw 🥳

[Cyker]

It's one of the few small turbo engines that don't have loads of reliability problems. The turbo is fairly small so it gets on-boost very quickly, giving a nice chunk of low-down torque.

The mpg is okay, better than the 1.6L NA it effectively replaced, although not up to hybrid levels (But you'd expect that)

The one issue I'm aware of with them is they can suffer from carbon buildup on the intake valves as they are direct injection.

[Edgie70]

Thanks , as I don't do a lot of milage I'll have to put some fuel treatment through it to try help that issue 

[AndrueC]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

The mpg is okay, better than the 1.6L NA it effectively replaced, although not up to hybrid levels (But you'd expect that)

I'm curious about it though. I've read several posts implying it gets around 40mpg. My initial reaction to a 1.2l getting 40mpg is disgust. I've never owned a car that couldn't average 45mpg and that includes things like a 1.6l Nissan Sunny. Even my first car which was a 1l Austin Mini that leaked oil like it was going out of fashion and needed the revs kept up when stationary to avoid a stall managed around 45 mpg.

So - is it some kind of boy racer's car?

Another more recent example: My previous car was a a Honda Jazz. It had a 1.3l (marketed as 1.4l) engine and CVT box. It's performance was on par with my current Corolla (slower to get going but better at the top end) and over the year I averaged 50 mpg.

[Cyker]

Haha, you have the same problem I do with gauging mpg  

I'm so used to being able to do 60+mpg without even trying, thanks to my old Mk1 D4D, I always smirk when car reviewers talk about the car they're reviewing getting good mpg, where they consider 'good' to be around 40mpg  

The 1.2T is usually rated 40-50, and given the size and mass of the Auris that's not too bad for a petrol engine - Even my old 1.33 Mk2 Yaris struggled to get into the 50's, and usually got a lot less when I wasn't driving frustratingly economically.

It was why I prized my Mk1 D4D, and now my Mk4 hybrid so much - I can drive... "enthusiastically"... and still get higher mpg than someone driving optimally-efficiently in even the most efficient normal petrol car could hope to get anywhere near  .

It's why I could never own a GR Yaris - As much as I love the idea of what it is, it's rated around 40mpg, but you'd struggle to keep it in the 30s if you drove it like it was designed to   (Plus I'd have to service it 3-4 times a year with the mileage I do!  )

 

[Mojo1010]

When I read 33-39 mpg I cringed! For the last 11 years had 6 years of diesel manual and 5+ years of hybrid; all can achieved at least 60mpg+ in summer. Anyhow they are different fuel, tech and cost so cannot compared. For low mileage runaround then its ok. I cannot go much lower than 50mpg even when I get an SUV. 

 

[Willss]

Re mpg depends how you drive it/any other car. My 1.6 auris is more efficient than the 1.2 I had for a while (same journeys). Honest John realmpg says 1.6 tourer is more efficient than 1.2. But in the h/b 1.2 is more efficient than the 1.6 suggesting again it depends how they were driven.

I was very glad to get my 1.6 back didn't like the 1.2 - may have got used to it but turbo wasn't smooth and ran on meaning braking was different.

[Cyker]

Yeah, one of the downsides with newer cars is they tend to have increasing amount of stupid stuff added in the name of Saving The Environment; One of those is the 'rev hang' you experience on some newer petrol engines. You get used to it, but the change in behaviour can be irritating, esp. when every car you've driven previously didn't do it.

One of the strengths of the 1.2t is you can almost drive it like a diesel (i.e. be in higher gears than you'd normally try in a petrol) and the low-end torque and 6th gear give it a boost with e.g. motorway cruising, but around town it can be thirstier than the 1.6 because the turbo allows it to burn loads more fuel for added oomph where the 1.6 is limited by its fixed displacement, and it's tricky to resist all that extra torque on tap!

It's something I have to be careful with in my Mk4, because it's so easy and tempting to push into the very tasty 'power' zone, where the engine switches from the economic planet friendly Atkinson/Miller-cycle mode, to the POWERRRR!!11!1!1 Otto-cycle mode, but this makes it burn prodigious amounts of fuel; I can drop 5 mpg off my tank average in as many seconds doing that!  (But if I'm smart about it I can usually claw most of that back thanks to the gift of momentum!  )

 

[AndrueC]

Interesting. One rule of thumb I've long driven by is when filling up I should never need more litres than the number of miles since last fill divided by 10. That's because there are 4.54 litres in a gallon 😉

45mpg = 10mpl 😀

But returning to the topic having had time to research the 1.2t does offer more performance than most cars I've owned and quite a bit more than a Jazz.

On the other hand a Jazz has far more storage space and I found the performance to be perfectly adequate as I do my Corolla.

So it just seems like 1.2t probably is reasonably efficient for what it is. It's just (in my view) more power than is needed to get the job done.

[Cyker]

HP is all bull hock anyway, it's all about the torque curve IMHO. I still haven't gotten over how disappointing going from the 74HP 1ND-TV turbo diesel to the 100HP 1NR-FE petrol engine was!! You'd think 20+ HP would be a noticeable performance improvement, but the 74HP car was so much more powerful!

 

[Willss]

I'd agree in terms of the acceleration. The 1.2 is not a race car but it was plenty quick enough. I find the 1.6 easier to get acceptable mpg than the 1.2 where I had to think more about how I used my right foot to get good consumption.  My 1.6 will get 55-58mpg (brim to brim a few times on long journeys) if kept at a steady 60-62mph I couldn't get that from the 1.2. The 1.6 is nothing special in any way and exceedingly boring in most but I love it for ease of driving, economy (considering it's a standard petrol) and reliability.

There's nothing wrong with the 1.2 but if I was getting a corolla, and was keeping it a few years, I'd get a hybrid every day. Smoother, probably more reliable, more efficient.... just unfortunately more expensive!

[Cyker]

Yeah, the hybrids are a no-brainer now that Toyota have evolved them so much; I wasn't so keen on the earlier ones as they weren't that much better than a good diesel but the new ones are just magic, and with the U-turn and demonization of diesels, the hybrids are the obvious alternative.

The fact that the new ones are so responsive and genuinely nice to drive mean there's few downsides to them over conventional cars. Even the complaints about CVT-esque rubber-banding aren't really a thing in the newer ones (They do still rev up, but now you get that big torque boost too, so really it's no different than flooring it in any automatic or dropping 2 gears in a manual) 

The only real downsides I can think of is the higher costs, or if you really really want a manual.

 

I think the closest thing to a sporty Auris was the SR180, which was an odd duck as it was a diesel yet somehow had worse real world mpg than some of the petrol models  It really hauled donkey tho' from what I remember!  

 

[Bper]

Wow a boy racers car, that's made me feel 40 years younger. I am now getting go fast stripes down the side of my Auris 1.2T and a rear spoiler.

Also just ordered a pair of jeans that look like that are weighted down with a couple of bricks on the backside.

Going racing round the car park at Morrisons with me other bro's later.

Wicked