ROAD TEST: The Toyota Corolla has been round in various forms for 30 years. The new version, the Verso, continues to press all the right European buttons. Andrew Hamilton finds a very worthy addition to a superb Japanese line
The top bosses of Toyota talk about little else these days - that is designing a car with the sort of style and flair that gives it European appeal. The company's Yaris supermini is the prime example of how a host of Toyotas launched over the past couple of years have been specifically designed to unseat the European continent's finest. Include in this charge the new Corolla which is very much claiming a European flavour to a line-up that takes in three and five-door hatchbacks, an estate, a saloon and a five-seater MPV which has the Toyota nomenclature of Verso.
Corolla, for the uninitiated, is one of the world's great automotive best-sellers: Toyota would say the best-seller. Unlike the VW Beetle, it has come in a variety of shapes and styles and only the Corolla badge has been common to all in 30 years.
In that time, sales of 29 million have been notched up. In past times, Corolla was the epitome of Japanese engineering: utterly reliable, easy to drive, but lacking in style and emotion. It's no surprise then to find that the latest badge-holder ignores its Oriental ancestry and concentrates purely on pressing Europe's buttons. It was designed in France and most of the best-selling members of the range are built in Britain.
It's the five-seater Verso or MPV that we have been testing: it comes with a 1.6 litre VVTi engine developing 110 bhp. But first some comments that are applicable to the whole range. There have been huge improvements over the old model in interior space, driving dynamics and safety. Toyota's loudest bragging, however, is over the much-improved quality of the bits that you, the driver, see and touch. The company used the Volkswagen Golf as its build benchmark, and the Corolla's cabin is now almost reminiscent of a German car. Most of the interior plastics are of the soft-to-the-touch variety: indicator stalks, switches and buttons operate with a reassuring solidity, and there's a plethora of rubber-lined recesses.
AS for the Verso itself, it's a five-seater in the style of the Renault Scenic or Citroën Xsara Picasso and it follows the usual family MPV configurations. Each of the three rear seats can slide forward, tilt or come out, according to requirements.
Most of all, it is a fantastic load-lugger, even with the seats in use. It shares the five-door hatch's wheelbase and seat layout, and with nearly enough headroom to stand up, is comfortable and airy.
The fascia differs slightly from the hatchback cars, with an unusual backlit interior panel and a large pop-up cubbyhole on the top of the dash, plus a higher console-mounted gearchange.
As with the other models, the Verso handles safely and predictably. We found that it was more prone to wind buffeting on the open road: the tall sides also make body roll a bit more pronounced in the corners. Although the 1.6 litre engine is no quicker than its rivals, the refined variable valve timing arrangement provides eager behaviour throughout the rev range. In-gear acceleration was stimulating and enthusiastic. Top speed, according to Toyota, is 112 mph while getting from 0 to 60 mph should take just over 11 seconds.
The Corolla in Verso form actually manges to look stylish and to create a commanding presence. Its junior sibling, the Yaris and the bigger Avensis, don't make the same aesthetic impression.
Because it is tall-sided, Toyota has given the Corolla Verso a stronger safety emphasis. Disc brakes all round, side impact bars, side airbags, a brake pedal with retraction reduction, a collapsible steering column and an electronic fuel cut out system are but some of the features in the safety inventory.
The VVTi engine, as well as being flexible, does a good job for fuel economy. On a country run with much open road road driving, the return was 42 mpg. In a more trying stop-start urban scenario, we still got 34 mpg. The car on both occasions was lightly loaded. It might have been different with the family and all their paraphernalia on board.
At €24,360 ex-works, the Corolla Verso is well-priced to meet its opposition, the aforementioned Scenic and Xsara Picasso as well as a whole clutch of other family MPVs like the Hyundai Matrix that is very high on price appeal. What are the Verso's drawbacks? Like most of the opposition, it doesn't have the flexibility of the seven-seat Opel Zafira or even the six-seat Fiat Multipla. It's still commodious though and immensely spacious and comfortable.
The Verso is an important addition to the ninth generation of the Corolla family where the design team say they concentrated on details that were once deemed unimportant , like the feel of a door handle or the sound of a closing door. As well as looks, they point out that buyers are very much influenced by the touch and feel factor these days.
Corolla, more than any other model in the Toyota range, symbolises the strength of the brand. It is sold in 140 markets across the world, and built in 15 countries spread over five continents. It accounts for nearly 20 per cent of total Toyota sales. The ninth generation Corolla with its new and worthy Verso addition, is motoring confidently and unassailably onwards.
FACTFILE: Toyota Corolla Verso 1.6 VVT-i
ENGINE/TRANSMISSION: 1,598 cc twin cam 16-valve unit with variable valve timing, developing 110 bhp at 6,000 rpm. 5-speed manual transmission
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 112 mph - 0 to 62 mph (100 kph) in 11.4 seconds.
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 34 mpg as tested
SPECIFICATION: Disc brakes all round, side airbags, electronic, fuel cut out system
PRICE: €24,360 ex-works
THE OPPOSITION
Renault Scenic 1.6 16v Dynamique...............€25,950
Opel Zafira 1.6 XE Club.................................€23,696
Hyundai Matrix 1.6GLS................................€20,050
Citroen Xsara Picasso 1.6..............................€22,050