Fresh wine
Elsewhere in this issue you will read how an engine done well powering a car done even better can fend off rivals for a scarcely believable 13 years â" even if the engine in question is a petrol while the competition all have diesels. But there's another equally impressive success story and it's this â" the largest selling nameplate in the automotive universe â" the Toyota Corolla. For eight years since it was launched in India the Corolla has dominated its segment for all but two years. And it did it with a petrol engine, further emphasising the fact that Indian customers are more interested in overall product integrity, not which fuel goes into the tank. It was only late last year that a diesel found its way into the Corolla Altis, in the process lighting the fuse under the sales rocket and putting it in a frankly unbeatable position. And now to extend its stranglehold on the D-segment comes this face-lift.
Toyota face-lifts are typically of the blink-and-you-will-miss-it variety and this one stays true to form. The changes centre mainly around the nose; the headlamps are pinched and stretched out at either extremity to become even more shapely and then sunk in further into the re-worked bumper. The grille too seems larger and even though changes are really quite minimal, it all contrives to give the Corolla an even more upmarket air bringing it, visually, much closer to the much bigger Camry.
The profile remains unchanged while the rear gets new tail lamps with LEDs that look rather aftermarket in my opinion - like what the Thais would slap on to their Corolla taxis. Obligatory chrome strips on the grille and a big slab on top of the rear license plate round off the exterior face-lift while inside there is keyless entry and ignition, (very welcome) parking sensors, perforated leather upholstery, darker (fake) wood and a new stereo which is a 6.1-inch touch screen affair that also plays DVDs and has Bluetooth connectivity.
And usually that, as they say, is that as far as face-lifts go. Except the Corolla also gets an engine upgrade. The old ZZ series engine (which was phased out internationally in 2007 when this tenth generation Corolla was launched) makes way for the modern ZR engine family and though you will still see a 1.8 badge on the boot, the displacement has changed marginally from 1794cc to 1797cc courtesy wider bore and shorter stroke dimensions of 80.5mm x 88.3mm (from 79mm x 91.5mm). This allows it to rev with evidently more eagerness and it gets variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust side (ZZ had it only on the exhaust) to improve overall efficiency. The power figure goes up by 8PS to 140PS while torque is up by 3Nm to 173Nm.
The old five-speed manual makes way for a 6-speeder with altered ratios, particularly a long-legged sixth gear, to allow the engine to spin at lower revs while cruising on the highway, making it more relaxed at speed while improving fuel efficiency. Theoretically the top speed should also go up but we can only confirm that after a proper road test. It has become quicker off the line with 0-100kmph taking 11.8 seconds, quicker by half a second.
The bigger change on the transmission front is the deletion of the four-speed automatic in favour of a new 7-speed CVT transmission. Now I'm not a big fan of CVT gearboxes though if that's any consolation it's that things really can't get any worse than the old, slow-witted auto. However the new CVT quite frankly turned out to be far better than I expected.
Stick it in drive and like all CVTs the Corolla builds speeds absolutely seamlessly and without a jerk or stutter in sight. Mash it hard and the engine doesn't get raucous (the inherent engine refinement has definitely improved) and with a slight rubber band effect the Corolla gathers speed quickly. Get in the mood of things, move the lever into sport mode, and the transmission does a very passable impression of a sophisticated BMW auto box. The shift points are well defined and instead of revs lingering at the rev limiter and grating your nerves when the throttle is mashed (the irritating CVT rubber band effect, similar to what you'd experience on an Activa), here the revs clearly drop by around 2000rpm at every shift point. And the shifts are effected with a speed you normally only associate with very expensive cars. When you ask for a downshift it gives you one without having to be told twice, and if you're being unreasonable it will also beep a protest. It's the highlight of the new Corolla, if you ask me.
Weirdly though on our acceleration runs we got the quickest time with the CVT gearbox in drive mode, not sport. 0-100kmph in 12.4 seconds is a big improvement over the old auto and this is even quicker than the old manual. However buyers will be more excited to hear that the fuel efficiency has improved and by a big margin at that, the ARAI claimed figures moving up to 15.22kmpl from 14.36kmpl. Strangely the converse is true for the manual with the ARAI figures dropping by 0.5kmpl to 14.08kmpl.
The recently introduced diesel engine remains unchanged (visually there's a different grille to mark it out from the petrol) making 88.4PS from 1.4 litres which remains the lowest output diesel in this class. It also delivers the least impressive performance with 0-100kmph taking 14.68 seconds. Some ECU tweaking has increased its ARAI claimed fuel efficiency by 0.02kmpl to 21.45kmpl which is just shy of the new Renault Fluence's 21.8kmpl which now takes over bragging rights.
The rest of the Corolla Altis remains unchanged and it rides as comfortably as before, soaking up all but the nastiest of potholes and doing a very good job of isolating passengers. The seats are supportive and very comfortable, space at the rear is pretty good, ergonomics are excellent and it's a nice cabin to spend the hours in. The ground clearance also remains very good and there's never any danger of scraping the underbelly over speed-breakers. Handling was never one of her strongest suits. It grips decently enough but the steering is light and not especially communicative, body roll is generous and understeer quick to come into the picture.
But for the 35 million Corolla customers worldwide (and over 71,000 in India) that never really mattered. What mattered were the Corolla's faultless build, impeccable quality, refined powerplant and luxurious ride and the new Altis continues in a similarly strong vein while adding a significantly superior transmission in the CVT and a fair dose of style.
