I just painted the 2 passenger door handles with the proper colour matched paint and they look good. The CE comes with black as stock and now I'm not sure which looks better. I guess it depends on the colour of the car and I don't mind spending the $200 to replace all handles with the LE version, but not sure how much of a task it is to replace them. Anyone have experience with changing them?
I believe Muzak lives in Canada and therefore has a Canadian spec Corolla. Look carefully at the post, you will notice that Muzak uses the spelling COLOUR. If Muzak was in the USA, he would not use that spelling. (Unless he had a Canadian english teacher in freshman year of high school like I did, then you sometimes spell color and mold with a u like colour or mould, and sometimes spell gray like grey.)
Anyway,
In the USA the '03 and on Corolla CE has body colored door handles but black bodyside molding. In Canada the '03 and on Corolla CE has black door handles and body colored bodyside molding. In both countries the '03 and on CE model has black sideview mirrors.
There are numerous content differences between the US Corolla and the Canadian model. For instance:
Canada 'S' has variable intermittant wipers, US 'S' does not.
Alloy wheels are standard on Canada 'S' and 'LE', but are not standard on any US Corolla execpt the XRS
Canada 'S' and up have chrome interior door handles, only 'LE' with leather get chrome handles in the US
Canada Corollas have the all weather gaurd package as standard, optional on all US Corollas
Floor mats are standard on all Canadian Corollas, optional on all US Corollas
Cruise is standard on Canadian Corolla 'LE', optional on US 'CE' 'LE' and 'S'
Foglamps standard on all Canadian Corolla execpt 'CE', not available on 'CE', 'LE' in US and optional on 'S'
All Canadian Corollas have low washer fluid warning lamp, not available on US models
All Canadian Corolla 'LE' have standard ABS, EBD and TPMS. Optional on US LE and hard to find at that.
There are other differences, but in general the Canadian Corollas are nicer cars with more standard features than their US equivalents. However, they cost more in USD than our cars do, and they pay a lot more tax on their cars than we do.