Toyota Dropping the Corolla?

kaBOOMn

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2006
Messages
849
Location
Adelaide, South Australia
Toyota threw open the doors of the hi-tech design studio behind its most important forthcoming car ? the crucial Corolla-replacement Auris ? underlying its ambition to makes cars that are stylish and good-looking as well as reliable and environmentally-conscious.

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/secret_new_ca...=228&page=1

I see its not a bad looker, and lets face facts the Corolla has a image problem. Its plain, boreing and you can get a Korean car with the same attributes for less money, so why buy a Corolla?

I ran accross this quote on another website (The Telegraph.co.uk)....very interesting....

What really scares European car makers is the reliability and quality of the Korean vehicles and the wage-cost benefits of their factories. It's the sort of attack from below that really concerns non-premium manufacturers such as Renault, Peugeot-Citro?n, Ford and Vauxhall/Opel (although the GM brand has Korean-built Chevrolets to ease the pain), but most of all Japanese marques such as Honda, Mazda and, particularly, Toyota. The Corolla survived for years on its dull and bomb-proof image, but now the Koreans have parked their tanks on Toyota's lawn and its response, the Auris (Motoring, January 27), doesn't seem to have all the answers.

In turn, the Koreans are terrified of the Chinese, who are likely to come along within five years and steal all their clothes. And little fleas have bigger fleas upon their backs to bite 'em and bigger fleas have greater fleas, and so on, ad infinitum.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2007/03/10/nosplit/mfhyu10.xml

Hrm, so I do question the logic of Toyota trying to move upmarket, maybe they should undercut all the Koreans and kill them off? I mean sort of like Microsoft releaseing Win2k opensourse would kill Linux off (except for a few "hardcore" geeks) Toyota should have the money saved away or will we see them go the way of GM/Ford etc?
 
looks like an enlarged yaris/echo
 
Not going to be doing that in Australia, the Corolla nameplate is too valuable and respected to change it.
 
Well the Auris is already on sale here in the UK, the new name supposed to banish memories of the dull Corolla...
 
The Auris will be a replacement for the hatchback Corolla, which has been killed off.
The Corolla name however will live on as a whole new 4-door sedan. The idea behind this is that the Auris has been made young, hiphop and posh to attract young drivers behind the wheel of the new Toyota hot hatch.

Also realising that the Corolla has too much of a value to older people, Toyota continues making the Corolla but only as a 4-door sedan, which doesn't look nearly as good as the Auris. And that's on purpose so it won't scare away the old folks. Toyota are therefore trying to conquer twop markets with one car. Well technically two cars, but the Corolla name had to go, because it just echoed "OLD PEOPLE".
 
I think they are doing about half of this right. The Corolla is boring, I know that's why I chose a Civic instead (the Scion Tc was not available yet). The Corolla is a solid car, but soporific at best.
 
Just to clear things up

The 2007 Toyota Auris - Only as a hatchback, at least for now. An estate version has been rumoured to come along at some point.

15-toyota-auris.jpg


The 2007 Toyota Corolla - Only as 4-door sedan

TOYOTA%5CCOROLLA%5C2007%5C4SA040.jpg
 
I wonder if they will restyle the Corolla front end to more closely match the current Toyota look.
 
I wonder if they will restyle the Corolla front end to more closely match the current Toyota look.

They won't since that is the final prodcut and will be hitting the markets sometime this year and it has already been tested by several car magazines. That's the situation here in Europe, I have no clue what the schedule will be with the american market.
 
Not going to be doing that in Australia, the Corolla nameplate is too valuable and respected to change it.

Exactly, even the hatch will get the Corolla name.

(to non-Aussies, the Corolla is the best selling in its class here, in fact, for a few months last year, it was the highest seller in the country, it'd be stupid to kill it off)

The styling of the Auris is a bit of a step in the right direction, but like most other Toyotas, it'll be dreary to drive, have a fairly average interior, but be invincible.

IMO, Japanese cars are at their best at 15+ years old, because they'll still keep on running, and will probably have some character by then.
 
Well if I was after a boreing A to B box, I'd get a Hyundai Getz. Its cheaper than a Corolla/Auris, and with the price diffrence I don't belive I'm getting that much better value with a Corolla. Plus the price saved I could spend on the "real" car(s) ;)

Nothing Japanese and 15 Years old has character. Sorry. All you get is a nasty, cheap snotbox after that many years....sorry I'm an Alfa Romeo owner and we get upset when people say their Japanese car has character....

Maybe the new Auris is another Avalon? lol (A big Toyota flop, at least in Australia)

I think they are doing about half of this right. The Corolla is boring, I know that's why I chose a Civic instead (the Scion Tc was not available yet). The Corolla is a solid car, but soporific at best.

Why would you bother? Its still a A-B appliance, I'd just get a Korean car and save the money. The warranty on Korean cars makes it a no brainer. And please, before you go on about how Honda is a established brand etc and why would you buy a "new brand", they are extactly the same words Honda used to sell cars in overseas markets to start with....
 
Last edited:
The thing is, people buying the Corolla don't care about character. They care about reliability, resale, reputation, things that a Corolla has.
 
Well if I was after a boreing A to B box, I'd get a Hyundai Getz. Its cheaper than a Corolla/Auris, and with the price diffrence I don't belive I'm getting that much better value with a Corolla. Plus the price saved I could spend on the "real" car(s) ;)

Nothing Japanese and 15 Years old has character. Sorry. All you get is a nasty, cheap snotbox after that many years....sorry I'm an Alfa Romeo owner and we get upset when people say their Japanese car has character....

Why would you bother? Its still a A-B appliance, I'd just get a Korean car and save the money. The warranty on Korean cars makes it a no brainer. And please, before you go on about how Honda is a established brand etc and why would you buy a "new brand", they are extactly the same words Honda used to sell cars in overseas markets to start with....

If I wanted a boring A to B, I wouldn't buy new, that's for sure. Plenty of decent secondhand cars that do the A to B thing just nicely.
 
But they've got Scion for people who want a Corolla that doesn't have a granny image. So I'm guessing things are to remain the same in NA.

I think they are doing about half of this right. The Corolla is boring, I know that's why I chose a Civic instead (the Scion Tc was not available yet). The Corolla is a solid car, but soporific at best.
 
But they've got Scion for people who want a Corolla that doesn't have a granny image. So I'm guessing things are to remain the same in NA.

More like an Echo, since the xA and xB share the same engine/drivetrain. The Corolla is actually more powerful :lol:
 
Well I suppose with the AE86 its more of a movie/Anime image over substance. Just like Herbie the Volkswagon. I remember the price of old RWD AE86 Sprinters increasing by a factor of 4 around here when InitialD hit Australia.

I know they are fun to drive, but its still a Corolla......I can't understand how they got one model so right and everything else so wrong.....actually we'll change that around, inside the AE86 isn't too crash hot and echos all the other cheap and nasty whitegoods Toyota sells --> at least in australian delivered form, I do know about the upspec'd Jap versions, people import them here alot! Its almost like the Designers and Engineers at Toyota managed to sneak this one under the CEO :p All we got here was the nasty, 8 valve non crossflow carbie engine.

But then again I suppose RWD scares the typical old owner of a Corolla, and it made sales, economic and insurance sence to make it FWD and boreing etc etc.
 
Any news as to whether we're getting the toyota blade here in aus? looks much better than the auris
 
Top