Research and Development – it is something that companies invest hugely in, to be a part of the dogfight that corporate world finds itself absorbed in. There’s a lot of science, mathematics, economics and sense involved in R&D. So we obviously do not understand what it really is. However, we do know that the products belonging to the automotive circus that come out as a result of such intense development are quite overwhelming and tech heavy.
Ferrari, for example, throws a lot of Formula One R&D into its road cars, and the result is in front of the world to see. The 599, 612 and Enzo are just a few shouting examples. No, I am not expecting Toyota to give us the aero package of TF109 racing machine, neither am I asking for the orgy of carbon fibre and magnesium that they use in F1 activities. But they do know how to do a Lexus LFA – a machine (it's more of a gadget with all the jazzy stuff thrown in) that, the world says, is a proper supercar! So now that they know how to make a properly good performance car, it really flummoxes me that all we get still is this tenth-gen Corolla, with a fancy ‘Altis’ tag added to it.
However, it cannot be without reason that Toyota has produced the Altis, and surely it is not. The marketing bosses wanted a product that would sell in great numbers, hence the machine that you see in pictures here.
Globally, this tenth-gen Toyota Corolla sells with the same skin and looks as the Corolla Altis in India. Corolla designers were sent to Italy for four months to get inspired and answer the question “What would stand out, even on the streets of Turin?” (Toyota’s own statement, incidentally). A Lamborghini Reventon perhaps, I say. Their answer, however, was not as vivid. If truth be told, on the heaving roads of Mumbai, you’d be hard-pressed to identify the Corolla Altis from the sea of older Corollas, especially from the rear.
The Camry was an example of styling departure for the segment, all for good reason, and it still looks quite hot. So the Corolla Altis having a front-end resembling that of Camry’s is a good thing. But whatever happened to the back side? Damn, that grin of mine condensed into a mild frown when I walked from the front end of the Altis to the rear. Compared to the older version, the A-pillar sits a little forward while the C-pillar has been moved further back but the entire treatment is so faint that you would never notice.
Remember the fourth-generation Honda City, the pre-facelift one? When launched, it looked like a desperate and radical effort by Honda’s design team. It wasn’t balanced somehow, I always thought, yet it caught the fancy of everyone. The Toyota Corolla Altis looks balanced alright, but fails to capture the eyeball, that’s what the problem really is.
There are two ends to a spectrum, and the Honda Civic sits at the opposite end to the Toyota Corolla Altis. There is nothing wrong with the layout and presentation of the interior of Corolla Altis. The entire cabin is packaged really well and Altis is roomier of the two. There is enough space to allow two six-feet sleepy-heads to stretch in comfort, one behind the other, and three on the rear bench will not really be what we folks call a squeeze. The cabin is offered with segment-bettering optional extras to take comfort to even higher levels. A family day out then, anyone?
One thing that I abhorred though was the fake-wood treatment (given to the centre console and the steering wheel). Don’t start with me on this, please, saying that it exists to exude a rich and flamboyant feel to the brilliantly comfortable interior. It looks fake, that’s it. It looks worse than the fake smile plastered on an airhostess’s face. I am quite fond of things conventional and I like the dash of Chevy Optra, to sell as a case in point. But if asked to pick between the Civic and Corolla Altis, I would prefer the youthful look of the Civic everytime.
Honda Civic’s fascia manages to look quite ahead of its time. It has all the right curves and ergonomics do not suffer too. The driver-focussed approach is much longed-for and that digital speedo looks like it came out directly from the pages of a science fiction. It’s much like comparing Godfather to The Matrix, both hugely appealing in their own right, but you would just not get enough of the sci-fi flick.
The older Corolla was quite a performer, save for the handling. The nifty ride quality was its forte while the engine was a delightful thing to occupy the space under the bonnet. An entire generation-leap later (this being the tenth-gen Corolla, after all) things are, sadly, much the same. The 1.8-litre, twin cam, VVT-i engine is essentially the same with a reworked chip that enables the pistons to thrust out 130 bhp peaking out at 6000 revs while 170 Nm of turning force is churned out at 4200 rpm. These numbers are impressive, no doubt, but it’s not the numbers though that would please your senses, it’s the sheer refinement of the motor.
The Civic’s engine takes on an I’ll-growl-mad-if-you-press-any-harder note (which, I confess, I like rather a lot) when the rev needle goes past 3500 revs. The Corolla Altis’ motor on the other hand remains peaceful, as if it were being run at idle. It’s only at the mad-end of the rev range that the Corolla starts to send a few audible annotations. The Corolla Altis becomes even more enjoyable when you throw that gear stick from one cog to the other. The manual transmission is so positive and precise that I was looking for desperate reasons to downshift, just for the heck of enjoying working the gear lever yet another time!
But as it were to be, my elated state of mind was ephemeral, the kill-joy being the steering. My mother would love the lightness of the steering in Bandra’s ‘suicidal-tendency-inducing’ parking spaces, but for me, it’s a moral no-no. I prefer cars that offer good feel to the palms, and the Corolla does not float my boat. It’s perfect till you drive around in city confines and drive sedately at that, but the moment you take a corner with a mental inclination of, er, a mental, the numbness of the steering kills the joy of expectation.
Steering aside, go round a bend whistling your boy-racer tune and I assure you, your throat will experience a lump being formed, which you will gulp down with an eyes-popping-out expression on your face. I literally mumbled “Ooh aah aah!” (not the sexually-moaning type, you dirty mind) on one occasion as the car understeered much more than what I was prepared for. Trust you me, it was quite hair-raising. Secretly inside, I sort of enjoyed it though. Don’t know why, but I did. It’s just like the feeling of wetting your trousers in an at-the-end-of-your-tether situation. Although you don’t like the idea of the hideous act, you feel good and relaxed after relieving yourself.
I made the Corolla dance around the same bend that I took the Civic round when I last drove it. I remember that the entry speed in the Civic around that corner was nudging 65 kmph on the speedo, but with me sitting high up on that lovely captain’s chair of Corolla, the entry speed that I could manage (with all my courage, I must add) was in the vicinity of 55 kmph. It’s a difference of somewhere around ten kilometres per hour, and that’s quite a lot. The Toyota Corolla Altis is not set up for dismissing handling runs with a laugh. This vehicle is more inclined towards giving you a comfy ride quality and your secretary is going to much appreciate that, for certain.
My ‘I-still-think-I-can-like-it’ mind frame was kept alive by the inspirational brakes though. No lock-up, no drama. You stand on the pedal and the Corolla Altis comes to a halt with complete composure in short span of time, covering very less ground. Another factor that swings the pendulum in Toyota’s favour is the mileage, which at 10.7 kmpl overall is quite satisfying, especially when keeping in mind the sub 12-second sprint to a speed of hundred clicks (that’s grasping Civic straight by its collar...) and a top whack maxing out at the better side of 190 kmph (... and that’s choking it breathless!).
The Toyota Corolla Altis then, it is a car for the well-dressed, well-mannered, high-ranking, I-want-a-clinically-perfect-car corporate folks. Such blokes fall in what we call as the decorous category of motoring and Corolla Altis is the perfect new face of this category. Don’t make that face, you, it’s a compliment, I swear!
So, now that we are here, nearing the end, let me tell u something interesting.
Nothing of whatever I have written against the Corolla Altis is really going to matter because it is ‘expected’ to sell in good numbers, no matter what. Why? It’s all because of it being supremely reliable. We know from learning from the past that it can be so reliable infact that it tends to become boring for blokes who like to be called piston-heads! Even the universe will hide in shame on Corolla’s dependability. Oh, lest I forget, that badge has quite a snob value to flaunt in our market. To wrap up, I’d give you a bottom-line, to lay to rest any notion of negativity in mind – Toyota Corolla has been the highest selling car in the world. Period.
Ferrari, for example, throws a lot of Formula One R&D into its road cars, and the result is in front of the world to see. The 599, 612 and Enzo are just a few shouting examples. No, I am not expecting Toyota to give us the aero package of TF109 racing machine, neither am I asking for the orgy of carbon fibre and magnesium that they use in F1 activities. But they do know how to do a Lexus LFA – a machine (it's more of a gadget with all the jazzy stuff thrown in) that, the world says, is a proper supercar! So now that they know how to make a properly good performance car, it really flummoxes me that all we get still is this tenth-gen Corolla, with a fancy ‘Altis’ tag added to it.
However, it cannot be without reason that Toyota has produced the Altis, and surely it is not. The marketing bosses wanted a product that would sell in great numbers, hence the machine that you see in pictures here.
The Camry was an example of styling departure for the segment, all for good reason, and it still looks quite hot. So the Corolla Altis having a front-end resembling that of Camry’s is a good thing. But whatever happened to the back side? Damn, that grin of mine condensed into a mild frown when I walked from the front end of the Altis to the rear. Compared to the older version, the A-pillar sits a little forward while the C-pillar has been moved further back but the entire treatment is so faint that you would never notice.
Remember the fourth-generation Honda City, the pre-facelift one? When launched, it looked like a desperate and radical effort by Honda’s design team. It wasn’t balanced somehow, I always thought, yet it caught the fancy of everyone. The Toyota Corolla Altis looks balanced alright, but fails to capture the eyeball, that’s what the problem really is.
There are two ends to a spectrum, and the Honda Civic sits at the opposite end to the Toyota Corolla Altis. There is nothing wrong with the layout and presentation of the interior of Corolla Altis. The entire cabin is packaged really well and Altis is roomier of the two. There is enough space to allow two six-feet sleepy-heads to stretch in comfort, one behind the other, and three on the rear bench will not really be what we folks call a squeeze. The cabin is offered with segment-bettering optional extras to take comfort to even higher levels. A family day out then, anyone?
Honda Civic’s fascia manages to look quite ahead of its time. It has all the right curves and ergonomics do not suffer too. The driver-focussed approach is much longed-for and that digital speedo looks like it came out directly from the pages of a science fiction. It’s much like comparing Godfather to The Matrix, both hugely appealing in their own right, but you would just not get enough of the sci-fi flick.
The older Corolla was quite a performer, save for the handling. The nifty ride quality was its forte while the engine was a delightful thing to occupy the space under the bonnet. An entire generation-leap later (this being the tenth-gen Corolla, after all) things are, sadly, much the same. The 1.8-litre, twin cam, VVT-i engine is essentially the same with a reworked chip that enables the pistons to thrust out 130 bhp peaking out at 6000 revs while 170 Nm of turning force is churned out at 4200 rpm. These numbers are impressive, no doubt, but it’s not the numbers though that would please your senses, it’s the sheer refinement of the motor.
But as it were to be, my elated state of mind was ephemeral, the kill-joy being the steering. My mother would love the lightness of the steering in Bandra’s ‘suicidal-tendency-inducing’ parking spaces, but for me, it’s a moral no-no. I prefer cars that offer good feel to the palms, and the Corolla does not float my boat. It’s perfect till you drive around in city confines and drive sedately at that, but the moment you take a corner with a mental inclination of, er, a mental, the numbness of the steering kills the joy of expectation.
Steering aside, go round a bend whistling your boy-racer tune and I assure you, your throat will experience a lump being formed, which you will gulp down with an eyes-popping-out expression on your face. I literally mumbled “Ooh aah aah!” (not the sexually-moaning type, you dirty mind) on one occasion as the car understeered much more than what I was prepared for. Trust you me, it was quite hair-raising. Secretly inside, I sort of enjoyed it though. Don’t know why, but I did. It’s just like the feeling of wetting your trousers in an at-the-end-of-your-tether situation. Although you don’t like the idea of the hideous act, you feel good and relaxed after relieving yourself.
My ‘I-still-think-I-can-like-it’ mind frame was kept alive by the inspirational brakes though. No lock-up, no drama. You stand on the pedal and the Corolla Altis comes to a halt with complete composure in short span of time, covering very less ground. Another factor that swings the pendulum in Toyota’s favour is the mileage, which at 10.7 kmpl overall is quite satisfying, especially when keeping in mind the sub 12-second sprint to a speed of hundred clicks (that’s grasping Civic straight by its collar...) and a top whack maxing out at the better side of 190 kmph (... and that’s choking it breathless!).
The Toyota Corolla Altis then, it is a car for the well-dressed, well-mannered, high-ranking, I-want-a-clinically-perfect-car corporate folks. Such blokes fall in what we call as the decorous category of motoring and Corolla Altis is the perfect new face of this category. Don’t make that face, you, it’s a compliment, I swear!
So, now that we are here, nearing the end, let me tell u something interesting.
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