Toyota Corolla 1.6 liftback

...then headed for my nearest Toyota dealer, that appearing to be the best of all possible worlds as far as a combination of my available budget and Parker’s available wisdom indicated. I found just what we both wanted: a Toyota Corolla (“the world’s favourite car”), a car renowned for its reliability, with a high quality stereo system and the right colour (a sort of metallic dark green / turquoise). It wasn’t brand new, but had only clocked up 32,000 ...
...guarantee and RAC membership.

They may as well have left out these perks: nothing went wrong during the first year (apart from me backing too hurriedly out of our garage one morning, clipping the wall and slightly redesigning one wing) and I was unable to find out how good either the guarantee or the RAC were.

As for the car itself, my wife took to it instantly, much to my dismay: she enjoys driving it as much as I do ... more

I freely admit that I am not one of Nature’s most gifted DIY experts. When it comes to cars, my expertise is even less trustworthy than my kitchen-shelf installations and whole teams of mechanics have made a good living trying to put right my incompetent tinkering.

So when it came to replacing our very basic Ford Escort, my first criterion had to be reliability on the grounds that I would not feel tempted to dive beneath the bonnet to tinker with, or otherwise impair, the smooth running of the engine. (Actually, if you want the exact truth, the first thing I checked on all the cars I looked at was the stereo system – music is important to me in remaining patient when confronted by traffic lights that deliberately turn red on seeing me.) My wife had two criteria: one was total reliability, the second was getting a “nice” colour.

So thus prepared I started to look round for advice: not as easy as it seems. Friends invariably recommend that you buy a clone of whatever they are currently driving – after all, it wouldn’t do to admit that they’d made anything other than the perfect choice, would it?

Going round the car “supermarkets” was equally unhelpful. Salesmen seem to recognise my “type” from fifty paces and try to offload on me whatever they’re having trouble shifting from their forecourt. “Brilliant car, this one, Squire… Real Bargain… Great stereo… and look at that colour… Missus would love it, Squire… Reliable, Squire? I thought everyone knew about Yugo reliability… Legendary… Real collector’s item, Squire… Tell you what, I’ll throw in a workshop manual for free, Squire…”

And as for the dealerships, well, what would you expect them to say? The best marque is always the one they’re selling. “Oh, yes, Sir, these are BY FAR the most reliable cars on the market. They outperform BMW by miles. Drive one of these, Sir, you’d never think of BMW or Mercedes again. Oh yes, sir, wonderful stereo system – and you wouldn’t believe the range of colours…”

So I ended up in Sainsbury’s, buying a copy of Parker’s Guide, which gives as objective a view of all available cars as I think you’ll find. Having read it from cover to cover I then headed for my nearest Toyota dealer, that appearing to be the best of all possible worlds as far as a combination of my available budget and Parker’s available wisdom indicated. I found just what we both wanted: a Toyota Corolla (“the world’s favourite car”), a car renowned for its reliability, with a high quality stereo system and the right colour (a sort of metallic dark green / turquoise). It wasn’t brand new, but had only clocked up 32,000 miles and was immaculate. It came with a year’s guarantee and RAC membership.

They may as well have left out these perks: nothing went wrong during the first year (apart from me backing too hurriedly out of our garage one morning, clipping the wall and slightly redesigning one wing) and I was unable to find out how good either the guarantee or the RAC were.

As for the car itself, my wife took to it instantly, much to my dismay: she enjoys driving it as much as I do so it’s 50:50 when we go anywhere. The road holding and cornering inspire confidence and fuel consumption is not excessive, costing about 10p per mile in town and about 7p on long journeys. The boot is roomy and holds three suitcases with ease while the split rear seat folds down to turn the car into a vary capacious cargo carrier.

The only criticism I have heard of the Corolla is that it’s boring to drive and not very stylish. Well, style may be of importance if you want to wear a car as a fashion accessory. As for being boring, I guess this depends how you drive it: if you want to overtake everything else on the motorway even when they’re doing seventy, you probably already drive a BMW. I admit the Corolla doesn’t fire missiles from its bumpers and isn’t too hot on wheelies either. I’ve never tried a handbrake turn in it and I suppose it would be more exciting if it had booster rockets for instant acceleration. But if you really want excitement I’m sure it’s possible to drive even a Corolla in such a way that you get a string of flashing blue lights behind you. What more do you want? It does have power steering and electric mirrors that you can fiddle with for ages if you want to, as well as a sunroof so you can stick your head through the roof and steer with your feet.

I’m told that parts for the Corolla are expensive (can they be even more expensive than Renault?) but having now run mine for eighteen months and 21,000 miles without needing any new parts (careful, don’t tempt fate!) I can only report this as hearsay, not experience.

Oh, and did I mention the great stereo sound? And the colour…?
 

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