Model/Year:

Toyota Corolla 2009 base model

General experience:

We are using this car together with my wife and it’s easy to adjust for a tall and a short driver. It’s got a telescoping wheel and a comfortable seat with a good visibility. The only thing about visibility – have to use the side mirrors more often, because of the high trunk. But I got used to this very quickly. Besides the side mirrors are large and set in the right spot. Our 5-speed MT performs well. We never had any inconvenience or nothing broken since we got the car with my wife (9 month). The basic model includes enough important features, much more than most of the competitors. For sure one of the important features is an electronic and hydro steering. However the hydro steering seems to perform better so they need to make the electronic one better. The 1.8 engine (132 h. power) works almost as quite as if it would be a premium class car and performs better than I thought it would. It accelerates the car even on the mountain roads well enough. The consumption of gas is about 31 mpg on the mountain road, which is totally perfect for me. But sometimes it can get as much as 40 mpg on highways.

Pros and cons:

+ Price, gas consumption, adjustments for a driver, big mirrors, pretty quite for a budget car, easy to accelerate, large trunk.

-  Restricted rear vision.