Review: Toyota Corolla Altis 2.0V

Late to the game, the new top-dog Corolla now has 10% more engine... but is it 10% better than the regluar car?

WORDS Niky Tamayo PHOTOS Carlo Sapera | 27 December 2009

There was once a time when you could call the Corolla an exciting car. Small, sporty, practical and reliable, it hit the right buttons for almost everybody. While there were always other cars that were sportier and more capable, and others that were more luxurious or had more value for the money... none hit the mark as well as the Corolla, which has served as the benchmark of the compact class for the past three decades. Taking this as a sign that the middle-road was the way to go, Toyota stuck to the Corolla formula. Over the past decade, the Toyota Corolla has gotten progressively more practical than the competition, and in doing so, has entrenched itself in the mind of the buying public as the ultimate driving appliance. Of course, something has gone missing in the transformation of the Corolla into the automotive equivalent of white bread. You feel it in the way the seats tread the middle ground between supportive and soft. In how the driving experience sits at some muddled tangent between secure and sporty. Nowadays, aside from the nameplate, there really isn’t much that separates the Corolla from the rest of the competition. And unfortunately for the Corolla, the rest of the competition is getting pretty good. Yes, the Corolla sells on its strengths, but to attract a new generation of drivers, it needs to capture their imagination. And a new, sportier, more luxurious variant is a sure way to catch people’s attention. Though it’s late to the party, the Corolla finally gets a 2.0. The new 2.0V doesn’t have the same visual impact, as say, a Lancer GTA, but I personally like the current Corolla’s looks. Sleek and understated, and quite handsome, much like the Camry. Unlike the 1.6 variants, the 2.0V rides on 205/55R16 Dunlop Sports tires, and is all the better for it. While the tires on our car weren’t the last word in terms of grip (they’re too prone to piggish squealing and understeer at quite low speeds), the stiffer sidewalls and higher-grip compound compared to the balloony 15” tires on the 1.6 give it better directional stability and slightly more positive steering feedback. This elevates the Corolla’s steering from darty and loose to light and unevenly assisted (the level of power-assist needs some fine-tuning). It’s a better compromise than the thumpy 17 and 18 inch wheels on many cars nowadays. This newfound stability makes the Corolla a more confident drive... more adept at lane changes and maintaining highway speeds with less minor course corrections required. The suspension is slightly stiffer, too, to cope with the weight of the big 2AZ-FE engine slotted under the hood. It’s still softer than the competition, though, and still supremely comfortable. The only compromise versus the exceptional ride comfort of the 1.6 is some low-speed juddering due to the extra weight of the bigger wheels and tires. Hopefully Toyota will upgrade the shock damping on the Corolla for the next facelift. THE GOOD Plush interior Cosseting ride Good torque Lots of toys THE BAD Still some bland plastics Suspension and brake upgrade necessary Four speed transmission Could use more “bling” THE LOWDOWN A cruiser, not a bruiser. New toys are nice, but the 1.8 liter engine should've stayed. While the 2.0V may handle better than the 1.6, it’s still no sports sedan. The heavy engine and soft suspension lead to loads of understeer on corner-entry followed by a snippet of snap-oversteer on corner-exit, as the weight of the engine dominates the car. This isn’t a car that suffers fools lightly. But such antics are not part of the Corolla’s mission brief, anyway. Instead, the high level of kit pushes this new Corolla as a mini-Camry, a plush mini-cruiser in the style of the old Nissan Exalta. Yes, I said it. The Exalta. The micro-Cefiro. I drove one for three years, and I loved it. Sure, the handling was woeful and there wasn't any poke under the hood, but it was excellent for covering great distances in great comfort. And the Corolla does the same thing, too. It wafts very well down the road, and is easy to live with. The seats are quite nice, the radio is acceptable, as OEM radios go, and the push-button start, keyless entry and steering wheel radio controls make life very good indeed for the driver. And with rain-sensing wipers and speed-sensitive locks, you don’t have to lift a finger to do anything except drive. And on that drive, the one thing that sticks out is the torque. The new dual VVTi 2-liter has lots of it. This engine makes for easy overtaking in traffic, and a mere tickle of the throttle is enough to get going. Acceleration was always going to be a strong point for one of the lightest 2-liter cars in the compact class, and a 10.4 second 0-100 km/h time doesn’t disappoint. The engine generates overtaking shove from as low as 2000 rpm, though it gets breathless near the rev-limiter, which comes at a lowly 6000 rpm. That performance comes with a price. With a simple four-speed automatic, we didn’t expect economy to be this car’s strong suit... and it wasn’t. Highway driving net a decent 9-11 km/l, but city traffic dragged economy into the 6’s. At least the Corolla’s fat torque curve allows you to drive it with light touches of the pedal... which is how we got 11’s. About the only thing I could wish for from this package (aside from a rear anti-roll bar upgrade) is better brakes, and the ones on our tester have probably seen better days. They get the job done, but they’re not up to the task of repeatedly reining in the speed and weight of that engine. For those looking for a rebirth of the TOMS Corolla to compete with the Mitsubishi Lancer GTA, the 2.0V isn’t it. Much like the original big-engined Corolla, the 1.8 SE.G Altis, it’s more of a luxury option than anything else. Not that the 1.8V Altis was actually lacking in anything, but at the exclusive end of the compact range, numbers are everything, and numbers like 2.0 matter to people who are willing to spend over 1 million pesos on a compact car. Of course, the big reason to actually buy this Corolla, or any Corolla, for that matter, isn’t under the hood. It’s on the road. The 2.0V gives you the great ride comfort of the 1.6, more grip, more power and better interior appointments. It's an excellent car to munch away the miles with... but then, so is the 1.6. And it's more economical, too.

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