Toyota Corolla

The brilliant Toyota Corolla has long been renowned as a great practical car with outstanding reliability.  After overcoming rust problems with the very earliest cars, Toyota completely over-engineered the car in the early to mid 90s, resulting in a vehicle that withstand the test of time better than any other.  

There are rumours that aircraft technology such as gold electrical contacts was employed to keep it running year in, year out.  Reliability is so good that the Corolla has been very near the top of the important JD Power Survey reliability table for the last five years.  Indeed the Corolla's success in this league paved the way for other models to follow in its footsteps.  Toyota, and its sister brand Lexus, are now always near the top of JD Power and similar surveys.

Whilst the original Toyota Corolla success was forged by cars made in Japan, the more recent cars built near Derby are proving just as reliable.  In addition, the latest vehicles are shaking off the slightly boring image of the earlier cars.  This is in part due to Toyota's decision to use the Corolla as the basis for their rally cars since their return to motor sport; previous rally cars had been based on the more sporty Celica.  

More importantly, Toyota have now given the new Corolla some spice by offering the awesome 1.8VVTLi previously available only in the Celica 190s and Celica T-Sports.  For the first time the standard Corolla is a hot-hatch capable of rivaling the competition from Ford, BMW, Seat, Alfa Romeo, Vauxhall and of course Volkswagen.