2009 Toyota Corolla Unveiled
Meet the all-new, long overdue 2009 Toyota Corolla. Anyone besides me completely underwhelmed? In fact, it doesn’t appear to look all that different from the current Corolla. That’s not to say that it’s ugly, because it’s not. It’s just that when compared to the Mazda3 or Honda Civic, it fades into the background very quickly.
If you were thinking that Toyota made up for the ho-hum looks with some outstanding hardware, you would be wrong. The 2009 Corolla is motivated by a 132 HP 1.8 liter 4 banger, which is 8 HP short of the class standard these days. Not a wide margin, but still surprising for Toyota to fall short at all. The “sporty” XRS trim gets a 154 HP 2.4 liter 4 banger, which is equally unimpressive.
Toyota didn’t complete fail with the 09 Corolla though. There is some cool optional equipment available, such as Bluetooth and navigation. This is the first time that either of those features are available on the Corolla. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll pass along the info when we hear it.
And calling the 154 HP version the “sporty” Corolla doesn’t work for me. The Sentra SE-R has 177 HP, while the Spec-V sports 200. And of course the Civic SI has 197 HP too. Trying to put a 154 HP car against this competition is just sad.