My first Corolla drive

[TonyHSD]

Hello everyone, 

I had a chance to experience a Corolla for a first time yesterday. I know so much about these cars but never actually driven one more than car park move around and yesterday I went on a test drive. The car was an excel spec from 2021 with only 20k miles on the clock, full leather seats and 1.8 engine. My first impression were very good with only one big note, the tyre noise was the worst of all cars I had ever tried, and I a mean it. In comparison to my old Auris the Corolla is way better sound proofed, almost silent as a top premium brands larger models , no wind, no outside and no engine noises to intrude into the cabin, except  this tyre roaring. 
The car drives really good, acceleration was respectful and I really don’t understand in normal days to day use anyone would need more. I took the car on fast A roads and motorways around Watford area, plus some town drives and honestly the car did brilliantly. 
The steering is slightly heavier than my Auris but overall worth good feedback, the acceleration much better, however the ride quality is worse, actually a bit on the harder side. These 18” wheels with Falken tyres are simply no go. Another negative thing that I noticed immediately was a vibrations, when braking and when at speeds over 60mph with bad vibrations at 70+mph, omg was not good at all. Strongly enough my car at the moment has exactly the same thing going on but I know what it is and soon will be alright. 
The seats were comfortable, but the seating area slightly slippery feel, the gr sport or previous 2019:excel seats are better imo. Overall I liked the car a lot, unfortunately out of my budget as currently the cars are so expensive., other than that would go and buy it. Another thing to mention is the screen, in the latest models the larger screen stick out by an inch and recused visibility a bit especially if you seat low when driving. Another minus against the Auris is the interior space, Auris 1 is much roomier inside. 
One question to other Corolla owners and those who had tried icon, design, gr trims against the excel, is there any difference in interior noise levels between? I asked to test drive a gr sport originally, but the branch manager let me drive an excel, Hm I was ok but I am thinking was that a tactic or just this car was easier to take out for a drive? 

 

[sportse]

I chose an icon specifically because I wanted the smallest 16 inch wheels due to the road conditions locally.

The 18's really put me off some models unfortunately, as well as the poorer ride and problems with the cost of tyres and damage to the wheels you also lose up to 5mpg compared to the 16's. Noise can also be an issue with bigger tyres as well as the tyre compound. I've had Michelin Crossclimates on several cars and they can help.

Ideal spec for me would be a design with 16's but you can only have 17's. Not as bad as the 18's but you are still losing 3mpg and have more expensive tyres.

GR sport I believe also has the 18 inch wheels same as the excel.

[Paul john]

42 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Hello everyone, 

I had a chance to experience a Corolla for a first time yesterday. I know so much about these cars but never actually driven one more than car park move around and yesterday I went on a test drive. The car was an excel spec from 2021 with only 20k miles on the clock, full leather seats and 1.8 engine. My first impression were very good with only one big note, the tyre noise was the worst of all cars I had ever tried, and I a mean it. In comparison to my old Auris the Corolla is way better sound proofed, almost silent as a top premium brands larger models , no wind, no outside and no engine noises to intrude into the cabin, except  this tyre roaring. 
The car drives really good, acceleration was respectful and I really don’t understand in normal days to day use anyone would need more. I took the car on fast A roads and motorways around Watford area, plus some town drives and honestly the car did brilliantly. 
The steering is slightly heavier than my Auris but overall worth good feedback, the acceleration much better, however the ride quality is worse, actually a bit on the harder side. These 18” wheels with Falken tyres are simply no go. Another negative thing that I noticed immediately was a vibrations, when braking and when at speeds over 60mph with bad vibrations at 70+mph, omg was not good at all. Strongly enough my car at the moment has exactly the same thing going on but I know what it is and soon will be alright. 
The seats were comfortable, but the seating area slightly slippery feel, the gr sport or previous 2019:excel seats are better imo. Overall I liked the car a lot, unfortunately out of my budget as currently the cars are so expensive., other than that would go and buy it. Another thing to mention is the screen, in the latest models the larger screen stick out by an inch and recused visibility a bit especially if you seat low when driving. Another minus against the Auris is the interior space, Auris 1 is much roomier inside. 
One question to other Corolla owners and those who had tried icon, design, gr trims against the excel, is there any difference in interior noise levels between? I asked to test drive a gr sport originally, but the branch manager let me drive an excel, Hm I was ok but I am thinking was that a tactic or just this car was easier to take out for a drive? 

 

Throw decent tyres at it and that vibration and noise evaporate. 
 

if you swap out those Falkens for some Dunlop Sport you would drop the DB by 3

[sportse]

12 minutes ago, Paul john said:

Throw decent tyres at it and that vibration and noise evaporate. 
 

if you swap out those Falkens for some Dunlop Sport you would drop the DB by 3

I used to have Dunlop Sports on several Hondas I had, they were good in the warmer weather but despite not driving hard was only getting not much more than 10k out of the fronts.

In the freezing temperatures they had quite poor performance sadly, so seem to be more weighted towards the warmer weather.

I'm finding the standard fit Bridgestone Ecopia's on my icon to be quite a good all rounder so far. In the colder weather you can feel they have less grip but still ok. Wetter weather is also reasonable. Overall a good compromise and quite a quiet tyre.

I've had Yokohama BlueEarth tyres on a Mk4 Honda Jazz hybrid and they were also a good compromise tyre that was quiet too.

[Niky]

Mine is MY22 Icon Tech 1.8 ts

I've said it few times already the tyre noise originally made me not love my very first brand new car. It was very bad, I almost hated it. I think most of the noise is coming from the rear tyres - boot area. Same was with a 1.8 CHR I had for a day - very bad tyre noise coming from the back. 

Boot covered with Noico sound deadening sheets, 4 Good Year Egp2 tyres and the noise is not so bad anymore. Not great, but drove few different cars and it's not any worse than them. Love the Corolla 

 

[Chainbreaker]

20 minutes ago, Paul john said:

Throw decent tyres at it and that vibration and noise evaporate. 
 

if you swap out those Falkens for some Dunlop Sport you would drop the DB by 3

Exactly this. Speaking from experience tires make a huge difference to road noise. 

The falken tires are junk and don't actually seem to be good at anything a tire is meant to do. Since they're eco tires the rubber compound will be quite hard which will contribute a lot to tire noise.

One thing I'd say about my MY23 excel touring is it has very little wind noise and only the tire noise lets it down. Sort the tires out and I think it'd be a very quiet car.

One of the car magazines done a road test between the Corolla touring, golf 8 estate and the new astra estate. They commented on how much quieter the Corolla was compared to it's rivals, which says a lot.

[Mojo1010]

Have you rule out a 2019, as that would obviously be cheaper, design spec cheaper still. I was looking at the 2.0 excel 2019 a few years ago until the used market went crazy. 

[twintopp]

Michelin for me every time , good grip in all conditions and quiet, 

[Mojo1010]

[jcps001]

Yeah, again a confirmation that the newer generation of Toyotas can compete with the refinement of a german car. I agree with the suggestion that the tyre noise would cease or be severely diminished with better tyres. Those Falkens seem to be a bit noisy and more sporty.

Also, seems 17 inch wheels are installed. Maybe a standard 16 inches may do better.

[davidif]

Seems the best of all worlds is an Excel retrofitted with the Icon Wheels.

Oh and maybe not with Falken Tyres!

 

[Don Mac]

22 minutes ago, davidif said:

Seems the best of all worlds is an Excel retrofitted with the Icon Wheels.

Oh and maybe not with Falken Tyres!

 

Agreed, if only the Icon wheels were a bit prettier! 

I suppose that you could always get them finished in black like someone else on this forum did with their GR wheels...

If they'd offered me the option of the 16" wheels in black I think I'd have taken it.

[Chainbreaker]

2 minutes ago, Don Mac said:

Agreed, if only the Icon wheels were a bit prettier! 

I suppose that you could always get them finished in black like someone else on this forum did with their GR wheels...

Even better would be the 15 inch steel wheels from the Corolla commercial. Would love a set of these as winter wheels and keep the 18 inch excel wheels for the summer but don't have the space to store a spare set of wheels.

[bigblock]

On 2/8/2024 at 7:41 PM, TonyHSD said:

Hello everyone, 

I had a chance to experience a Corolla for a first time yesterday. I know so much about these cars but never actually driven one more than car park move around and yesterday I went on a test drive. The car was an excel spec from 2021 with only 20k miles on the clock, full leather seats and 1.8 engine. My first impression were very good with only one big note, the tyre noise was the worst of all cars I had ever tried, and I a mean it. In comparison to my old Auris the Corolla is way better sound proofed, almost silent as a top premium brands larger models , no wind, no outside and no engine noises to intrude into the cabin, except  this tyre roaring. 
The car drives really good, acceleration was respectful and I really don’t understand in normal days to day use anyone would need more. I took the car on fast A roads and motorways around Watford area, plus some town drives and honestly the car did brilliantly. 
The steering is slightly heavier than my Auris but overall worth good feedback, the acceleration much better, however the ride quality is worse, actually a bit on the harder side. These 18” wheels with Falken tyres are simply no go. Another negative thing that I noticed immediately was a vibrations, when braking and when at speeds over 60mph with bad vibrations at 70+mph, omg was not good at all. Strongly enough my car at the moment has exactly the same thing going on but I know what it is and soon will be alright. 
The seats were comfortable, but the seating area slightly slippery feel, the gr sport or previous 2019:excel seats are better imo. Overall I liked the car a lot, unfortunately out of my budget as currently the cars are so expensive., other than that would go and buy it. Another thing to mention is the screen, in the latest models the larger screen stick out by an inch and recused visibility a bit especially if you seat low when driving. Another minus against the Auris is the interior space, Auris 1 is much roomier inside. 
One question to other Corolla owners and those who had tried icon, design, gr trims against the excel, is there any difference in interior noise levels between? I asked to test drive a gr sport originally, but the branch manager let me drive an excel, Hm I was ok but I am thinking was that a tactic or just this car was easier to take out for a drive? 

 

I would say those 18" rims is what let you down more than anything else. 17" rims on say the Design spec may have pleased you more. I had a 2020 Design TS 17" rims which was very quiet with Falkens. I now have the 2023 Design TS with Falkens again, but this one is far superior in every way against the 2020 TS. A pity you couldn't compare different specs on this occasion. I think you would be pleasantly surprised with a 2.0 ltr engine as well. It's not overkill. Just a more refined effortless drive. I'm probably going to get shot down in flames by the Excel 1.8 brigade now 😁. I have tried a 1.8 Excel from 2019 but didn't like the power take up compared to my Auris 1.8 TS that I had at the time. The new 1.8 Corolla has a much stronger engine though but I stayed with a 2 ltr engine for the new Corolla I have now.

[Mojo1010]

I'm in the 2.0 brigade, though in fairness I have not driven the 1.8 nor the 2.0.  I had the 99bhp MK3 Yaris, so I know 122 will be lacking on the corolla for me probably. 138-140 gen5 is better I bet, but way too expensive. 

[sportse]

I have the gen5 140hp 1.8 and it’s a great improvement over the original gen3 1.8 I used to have in my auris. I also used to own the original Yaris hybrid, which was fine below 50mph but slow above that - the auris was a lot better even with the original 1.8 hybrid.  

there are some good deals around for pre-reg cars, you just have to watch out as some dealers are still selling pre-reg old 1.8’s with the lower power engine. 

[AndrueC]

I've never noticed any strange vibration and I'm still using Falkens. Overall noise doesn't bother me - I just turn the music up a bit more.

And yes, the power available is ample for day to day driving as long as the driver is sensible.

[TonyHSD]

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and experiences. 
I decided to save the Auris and skip on purchasing a Corolla for the moment. 
I had 4 new tyres fitted yesterday, my favourite again Goodyear efficient grip performance 2, this time made in Germany with fresh DOT, 38-50/23 . 
Well, what a transformation. All nasty vibrations has gone and the car drives as smooth as brand new one with only minimal wind and engine noise, typical for my model, but from the tyres noises side, well it’s silent even on rough asphalt. Highly recommended to any Toyota owner, buy these or all seasons top brands tyres and your car will transform significantly. 
I had experienced an Auris hybrid TS from 2014, that was fitted with all seasons Michelin I believe and there were no tyre noises at all, only nasty wind noise coming into cabin from the seat belt area, B pillars. , otherwise a quiet drive. And I fully agree with that that best Corolla will be an excel with retrofitted 16” wheels + 205/55  premium touring tyres. 

[Mojo1010]

Sensible when budget isn't quite there, perhaps another 2+ years when a used gen5 1.8 would be good to go for or even the 2021 which u test drove and found it to be fine. With my yaris at 116ps I find it adequate, so the older corolla 1.8 122ps isn't going to cut it for me I don't think. 

[TonyHSD]

5 hours ago, Mojo1010 said:

Sensible when budget isn't quite there, perhaps another 2+ years when a used gen5 1.8 would be good to go for or even the 2021 which u test drove and found it to be fine. With my yaris at 116ps I find it adequate, so the older corolla 1.8 122ps isn't going to cut it for me I don't think. 

Absolutely. 
The gen 4 1.8 hybrids with 122bhp deliver respectful performance in most applications.  After reading here some comments I was expecting to be totally unimpressed, but actually after the test I was pleasantly surprised.
In comparison to gen 3 1.8 with 136bhp as my Auris the newer generations engage the electric side of the system much more and provides better , quieter and quicker acceleration. The only time you may need extra power is when the car is fully loaded or you really push it to the floor and expect to fly.
Just before I started my test drive the Corolla was left in ready mode for a couple of minutes to warm up and the hybrid Battery had a good charge and the car was lovely to drive, no lack of power at all, no excess engine noise, just an ev hum, very responsive and nippy. After some town drive the Battery got low on charge and this was only the time when I felt a bit of engine noise similar to my Auris. When I push the Corolla to accelerate I see if I remember correctly the rpm rosed to above 3500-4000rpm, perhaps the sweet spot and there was plenty of acceleration without any excess engine whining. , every next gen of Toyota hybrids is a real improvement. 👌

[Cyker]

Don't just look at the headline power figure - That's only really meaningful if you're taking the car to a race track  

Look at the torque curve - Sometimes cars with lower peak HP have torque curves that are higher at the beginning which makes them much nicer; A good case in point is my old Mk1 D4D (74HP) vs my Mk2 VVTi (100HP) - On paper you'd think the Mk2 is more powerful, but all its power was at the top end, whereas the Mk1 had hit its maximum torque at 2000rpm and it didn't taper off until over 3000rpm, so in real world driving it'd blow the socks off the Mk2!

The 1.2T in the Auris is also a good example - Vs some other similar displacement turbo engines that I won't mention in case they explode, it's down on power, but it actually picks up faster and feels stronger low down because the torque curve is flatter and not peaky like the other one.