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"  On-Sale Date: September Base Price: $17,619 to 19,810 Competitors: Chevy Cruze, Honda Civic, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Nissan Sentra, Volkswagen Jetta Powertrain: 1.8-liter I-4, 132 hp, 126 lb-ft; 1.8-liter I-4, 140 hp, 128 lb-ft; four-speed automatic, six-speed manual, CVT, FWD EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 27/36 (four-speed L); 29/38 (CVT LE); 30/42 (LE Eco with 15-inch wheels) What&amp;#039;s New: The Toyota Corolla is the elder statesman in the compact car class. It&amp;#039;s been in production for an astonishing 47 years, and Toyota has sold 40 million of them. The current 10th generation Corolla is the oldest car in its segment, yet it&amp;#039;s one of the best sellers\u2014260,000 of them found garages last year and Toyota estimates that it will move 300,000 of them by the end of this year. Why the jump in sales? They&amp;#039;re confident this 11th-gen model will vault the Corolla ahead of its rivals. The new Corolla might look radical but there&amp;#039;s no revolution happening beneath that sheet metal. The chassis of the previous model is used here but has been reengineered, reinforced, and stretched by 4 inches to help provide a solid 5-inch boost in rear-seat legroom. The Corolla went from having one of the most cramped rear seats to perhaps the roomiest. The strut front suspension has been retuned and the rear beam axle has a new slanted bushing design that is said to improve handling grip and stability. Under the hood is a familiar sight. Most models, including the zippy-looking Sport, get the current 132-hp 1.8-liter four-cylinder paired to either a six-speed manual or a CVT. The base L model joins this motor with an old-school four-speed automatic and is bound to become a familiar sight at rental car lots. The LE Eco receives a new variable-valve-timing version of this motor that boosts efficiency and adds 8 hp for a total of 140. But both motors are at the lower end of the potency scale for the class. Each Corolla comes to a halt with front discs and rear drum brakes, with the exception of models with 17-inch wheels, which receive disc brakes at each corner. On the inside there&amp;#039;s a level of differentiation amongst the models that hasn&amp;#039;t been there before. The Sport, for example, gets its own gauge package, seats, and trim. One of the trouble spots of the old Corolla was the lack of storage around the cabin, but this new one has cubbies, cup holders, and a center console that rivals midsize sedans. Trunk space has improved from 12.3 to 13.0 cubic feet and could be expanded thanks to the 60/40 split folding seat.   Tech Tidbit: Two years ago, Entune was the name for Toyota&amp;#039;s suite of smartphone connectivity apps. Now Entune is officially the brand for all of Toyota&amp;#039;s audio systems and the company has made some major improvements to the system. Instead of speaking the city, then street name, and then number when using voice commands for the navigation, you can now speak the entire address in one sentence. The system also has improved traffic prediction, receiving data through the HD radio. And there&amp;#039;s a slick, customizable home screen that allows iPhone-like finger swipes. In addition, the app suite has been expanded to include Yelp and Facebook Places\u2014so you can check in from your car. Driving Character: In the seats of the Sport model, you&amp;#039;ll immediately appreciate the lateral support\u2014if your build is slim. The seats are very comfy. Those paddle shifters to control the CVT certainly promise fun on a back road. Now, this is no challenger to a Mazda3, but the Corolla S does corner flatly. And compared with the previous generation car, this one feels much more stable and planted with more precise steering. Just don&amp;#039;t expect a lot of information from the steering wheel of this one.  The problem with the S isn&amp;#039;t its handling\u2014it&amp;#039;s the rough ride of the optional 17-inch tires. Yes, they look great, but you&amp;#039;ll pay for it with a chassis that clomps loudly over rough roads. The 1.8-liter&amp;#039;s 132 hp doesn&amp;#039;t equate to rocket thrust and it doesn&amp;#039;t sound particularly good when you hammer it and near the 5000-to-6000-rpm threshold. But it is quicker than the old car, thanks to a curb weight below 2900 pounds and a smartly tuned CVT. And at highway speeds the engine is positively hushed. We saw a mere 1500-rpm on the tachometer at 60 mph.  The Corolla S is certainly the looker of the lineup. But if we&amp;#039;re honest, the one we&amp;#039;d pick is the more sedate LE Eco. Not only does it deliver better fuel economy, but it&amp;#039;s quicker, thanks to its 1.8-liter with variable valve timing. And it&amp;#039;s less expensive too. Because this is a model meant for fuel economy, the flashy 17-inch tires aren&amp;#039;t available and the 16-inchers provided a large improvement in ride. Both the Sport and Eco suffer from a braking system that feels nonlinear and perhaps a little wooden, making it difficult to make the car slow down as you intended. As one might expect, the Eco has a special Eco mode that dulls the throttle response and reduces the a/c&amp;#039;s output. There&amp;#039;s also a &amp;quot;B&amp;quot; mode for the CVT that provides quite a lot of engine braking if you are tackling lots of hilly terrain. The Eco&amp;#039;s seats aren&amp;#039;t quite as aggressively bolstered as the Sport, but the rest of the interior, which includes a Camry-like wide, flat-faced dash, is similar. Favorite Detail: The interior of the new Corolla makes it seem larger than it is and there are plenty of nice touches (on the more expensive models) that make it feel more modern and upscale than before. From the seat stitching on the Sport, to the softly-padded dash and roomy rear seat, the Corolla&amp;#039;s interior is now one of the better ones in the class.  Driver&amp;#039;s Grievance: If car companies are going to offer a &amp;quot;Sport&amp;quot; model, shouldn&amp;#039;t that car carry with it the more powerful engine? We think so. But that&amp;#039;s not the case here. And that&amp;#039;s frustrating. Okay, the 8-hp difference probably doesn&amp;#039;t make a huge difference in real-world acceleration, but still, the 132-hp version of the Corolla is one of the least powerful cars in the class. Bottom Line: It&amp;#039;s very clear where Toyota focused Corolla development. They&amp;#039;ve made it roomier, better looking, more connected, and they&amp;#039;ve delivered improved fuel economy too. And, taking a page perhaps from the Scion brand, created a sedan that&amp;#039;s more personalized. The Corolla is better to drive now too, though it probably hasn&amp;#039;t leapfrogged the pack leaders of the segment when it comes to back-road fun. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/reviews/a9411/2014-toyota-corolla-test-drive-15855343/>