10th Generation Corolla Launch
WORDS Niky Tamayo  | 30 January 2008

Pictures by Carlo Sapera On January 28, 2008, Toyota officially unveiled the new Corolla Altis to a select group of media personalities at Sofitel Hotel (formerly Westin) with much pomp and festivity. It was a surprise to some, though others were half-expecting it. Unfortunately, a lot of us were caught without our digital cameras and notebooks. Still, the long program gave us a lot of time to examine and reflect upon what might be the most important new product for Toyota in the past five years. It's been a good year for Toyota Motors Philippines, celebrating their sixth triple crown and their highest sales to date. With sales of 45,000 units for 2007, Toyota has finally surpassed its 1996 record of 41,000 units, with four vehicles at the top of the sales charts. TMP President Hiroshi Ito attributes this remarkable growth to the favorable political and economic climate, and claims that Toyota will “continue to challenge the industry and itself by targetting a higher growth rate” (for 2008). Instrumental in achieving this sales target will be public acceptance of the new Corolla Altis, a vehicle whose development took many years, as Toyota went to great pains to perfect it. Yasuo Kamata, Assistant Chief Engineer of Toyota Motor Corporation, calls this 10th Generation Corolla a “Higher Class Sedan”, which will serve as a “Global Standard Vehicle for the 21st Century”. No pressure on the new boy, then, right? In pictures, the new Corolla Altis comes off as little more than an upgraded 9th generation model. There are detail changes, yes, but it's not as dramatic as with the new Civic. But pictures don't do it justice. In person, the wider hips and sleeker roofline give it a more muscular... dare we say... aggressive presence than the old Altis. It's bigger than pictures suggest, nearly as big as the Corona of a decade ago. The Mini-Camry nose looks good up-close, with character lines and shapes that don't translate well to photos. The rear tail-lights are still too conservative for my tastes, but the deep sills and raked window-line are nice. It's not the fashionista's choice that the new Civic, Mazda3 and Lancer are, but it's better than the Vios, and compares favorably with the competition. The headline for the under-the-hood hardware is that it's all still the same. The 3ZZFE and 1ZZFE carry over mostly unchanged, though the 1.8 liter 1ZZFE gets a 5 hp boost this year, up to 131 hp. Notable mechanical changes are the shift to electric power steering, the addition of manual over-ride for the 4-speed automatic transmission and a supposedly stiffer suspension. I say supposedly because the show cars still exhibited visible squat with passengers in the back, as 9th gen Corollas are wont to do. Only a full test drive will validate this claim, as well as the effects of the other changes. The new dashboard has a smoother center console, an all-new Optitron instrument cluster and a double-glovebox. The Corolla, thankfully, bucks the new-car trend of using cheap plastic to save costs, and is covered in all-new soft-touch plastics from stem to stern. Hallelujah! Fit and finish is good, glovebox and cupholder lids have a satisfyingly substantial feel. Sound insulation seems good, and engine noise is negligible, even with a few exploratory prods of the pedal (oops, did we leave the engine running?) while the car was on-stage. The driver's seat is deeply contoured, with firm side and hip bolsters. It's too early to draw conclusions, but for now, I'd rate it as above the Civic in comfort and probably at par with the Mazda3... though with better thigh support. The new tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel is finger-twirl light... while the shifter action is a bit notchy. Pedal spacing is proper and unobjectionable. As this is a family-friendly car, even the center rear passenger gets a three-point seatbelt, and the flat rear floor gives him decent legroom, too. Niggles? The grainy leather on the 1.8 V variant seems chosen more for utility than luxury, and is sub-par versus the competiton's... the glossy wood trim also seems out of place amongst the subdued grays and beige surfaces. The 1.6 G's fabric interior and silver-gray-dark scheme actually works better, and the fabric's tight weave feels pretty good. Also, seating space seems a bit tight for such a large car. It's not quite as snug as a Mazda3, but the difference isn't all that big, either. And there's a drawback to the improvements in body integrity: weight. The 9th generation Corolla Altis was one of the last truly lightweight compacts, which gave it peppy acceleration and excellent fuel economy compared to the competition. The 10th generation weighs about 100 kilograms more. It's still lighter than most other modern designs, bar the Civic, but what this means for the Corolla's fuel economy and performance has yet to be seen.. Overall, the new Altis is not a futuristic showpiece like most of the competition, but it seems to have kept enough of the Corolla DNA to satisfy long-time Toyota customers. And it looks and feels good enough to sway a few customers who may not have considered it in the first place. The fully-loaded 1.8 V (1,035,000 pesos, AT only) and 1.6 V (910,000 pesos, AT only) models are in the same range as more powerful, feature-packed competitors, but the lower-tier 1.6 models are competitively priced. The 1.6 G (comparable the the Civic 1.8 S), starts at 818,000 pesos for the manual variant, while the poverty-spec 1.6 E MT is priced at 774,000 pesos. The big issue is that Honda's 1.8 V Civic is nearly the same price as the lower Corolla variants, and it comes with a more sophisticated 5-speed automatic. The base Civic, though, lacks airbags and ABS, which are standard on all Corollas. Only time will tell which way the buyers will go. It's going to be a tough battle for sales supremacy in the compact segment this year, but the Corolla is back, and spoiling for a fight. From initial impressions, this is a much better Corolla, the question is: Is it better enough? For more pictures and further discussion on the new Corolla, please visit the related thread at the Bigbigcar Forums.

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