Pictures Of My Cars

The 7th generation was the classic Corolla look. Modest and functional. The current generation has tried hard to become more sporty and appealling. The big change was from 8 to 9. They decided that they needed big changes so the car got a lot bigger and sporty. Mazda did the same thing by moving from the Protege to the Mazda 3.

I like the look of the current models over the old one (I just got a ninth gen in December). I just wish it was a little shorter, by having a lower roof. That's one area where they've really expanded cars in the last decade. I'm 5'7" or so and have lots of headroom I don't use.

Gotta make them as one-size fits all though, I guess. I suppose if you want a tiny niche car, that's where something like the Miata comes in.

One that always strikes me is the similarity between the Protege and the Generation 7 / 8 Corolla. I mean its unbelievable. It looks like one company deliberately copied the other - I don't know which one is first. I would seriously consider a claim for copyright infringement.

I challenge anyone to name two cars from different companies as similar to each other as the Corolla and the Protege.

The trouble with the Corolla 9 and the Mazda 3 is that they aren't "real" compacts. "Real" compacts are modest cars meant for single mothers / school teachers / social workers. They aren't supposed to be sports cars or to have any such pretensions.

The new Civic goes even farther down this road. The styling is far too extreme. Have you noticed the angle of the front windshield. Radical! Too radical for the people who buy the cars.

Car enthusiasts and designers may have troble understanding this, but not everyone wants a sports car. Many people don't really like cars and just buy them because they need one. That is the Corolla market by and large. Basic transportation.

The most egregious example of the current trend towards overstyling is the Dodge Caliber. The front end is outrageous! If I wanted a pick up truck I would buy one. Chrysler now no longer makes a compact car. The Caliber is a station wagon / sports car / pick up truck meld. How many social workers will buy one. Chrylser apparently is under the impression that fourteen year old boys are a large section of the car buying market.

Personally I think the early 8th gen is the best (before the front end redesign in 2001). The 8th gen is basically the younger sibling to the 7th gen. The two are nearly identical in overall dimensions, chassis, and many interior components, but the 8th gen has a more clean, modern look. The 2 main aspects I hold the 8th gen over the 7th:

1) The taillights - I just don't like those boxy looking taillights for the 7th gen. Toyota really should have moved away from that awful style. Most cars of the mid-90s had finally gotten away from the retro-80s squares.

2) The Dash panel - I especially like the dash of my 8th gen over my sister's old 7th gen.

http://www.freewebs.com/brendonbosy/97corolla-fullfront.jpg

http://www.freewebs.com/brendonbosy/my-98c...a-fullfront.JPG

The dash on my 98' is very smooth and clean looking. What really stands out on my sister's 97' was the annoying a/c levers. For my 98', Toyota really cleaned up the look by switching to illuminated knobs as you can see in the pictures.

Here's my 2 cents on Corollas in the last 25 years:

--The 4th, 5th, and 6th gen Corollas were your typical boxy, uninteresting 1980s cars. The 6th gen was basically just a bigger version of the 4th and 5th gen.

--The 7th gen was the first attempt at Toyota to break Corolla away from the boxy 80s. Toyota's first break was the Lexus SC400, with a phenominally revolutionary design. After that, the GS300 and the new 92' Camry came out which also took Toyota's first steps away from the box cars. The 7th gen was a mix of modern and classic.

--The 8th gen was (in my opinion) the height of Corolla design. It further built on the 7th gen's style by adding a more modern and clean look. It didn't try to go to the extreme in design, or it would have gone down the tube like that pathetic looking 3rd gen Ford Taurus. The 8th gen was the furthest extent of both classical and modern design

--The 9th gen is (again, in my opinion) overdesigned in every way. Its too tall and too bulky looking. Toyota has tried too hard to make the Corolla into something its not. Yes there are alot of awful designs out there for Toyota to compete with like the Honda Civic, but that doesn't mean Toyota has to follow them!

One that always strikes me is the similarity between the Protege and the Generation 7 / 8 Corolla. I mean its unbelievable. It looks like one company deliberately copied the other - I don't know which one is first. I would seriously consider a claim for copyright infringement.

I challenge anyone to name two cars from different companies as similar to each other as the Corolla and the Protege.

The trouble with the Corolla 9 and the Mazda 3 is that they aren't "real" compacts. "Real" compacts are modest cars meant for single mothers / school teachers / social workers. They aren't supposed to be sports cars or to have any such pretensions.

The new Civic goes even farther down this road. The styling is far too extreme. Have you noticed the angle of the front windshield. Radical! Too radical for the people who buy the cars.

Car enthusiasts and designers may have troble understanding this, but not everyone wants a sports car. Many people don't really like cars and just buy them because they need one. That is the Corolla market by and large. Basic transportation.

The most egregious example of the current trend towards overstyling is the Dodge Caliber. The front end is outrageous! If I wanted a pick up truck I would buy one. Chrysler now no longer makes a compact car. The Caliber is a station wagon / sports car / pick up truck meld. How many social workers will buy one. Chrylser apparently is under the impression that fourteen year old boys are a large section of the car buying market.

I had a Dodge Omni and a Plymouth Horizon once. They were identical except for the names.

 

 

Everyone buys a car for different reasons. I wanted a Corolla for price and dependability, but the current style made it easier to buy for me. I would have bought a different car if Toyota stuck to the same old boxy boring flat styling. For me the 9th gen is the first FWD Corolla that is pleasing to my eyes.

You guys are posting nothing but opinions and they are way off what I am I'm sure others think.

Everyone buys a car for different reasons. I wanted a Corolla for price and dependability, but the current style made it easier to buy for me. I would have bought a different car if Toyota stuck to the same old boxy boring flat styling. For me the 9th gen is the first FWD Corolla that is pleasing to my eyes.

You guys are posting nothing but opinions and they are way off what I am I'm sure others think.

Everyone has an opinion, but most people here drive a Corolla.

 

 

I'm going to agree with Brendon. IMO the 8th gen corolla does look the best in terms of exterior styling. It had a BMW like profile with a narrow profile in the front half and a taller profile at the rear. I'm 5-9 and the head clearance is fine for me and any of my other friends. However, I think where the corolla 8 lacks its good looks is the front bumper. The front bumper looks too much like a granny's car. Secondly, IMO, the wheel base is a little too narrow for my taste; if the front wheels were adjusted a few inches to the front and the rear wheels was adjusted 3"-5" to the rear, the car would look a little more sporty as well as the looks. IMO, the corolla 8 has tooooooooooooooooo much wheel travel and thus it sways like a boat under fast cornering. (I thought my car was going to flip over making a right turn at 25mph from entering the right lane and exiting on the right lane). I think that might have to do with Toyota's stupid thinking that the 98's don't need front sway bars. The corolla 8's just look more hunkered down and appears to be better performing than the corolla 9's. In terms of which gen I'd pick, I'd pick 8th gens because they have same hp as the 9's , lighter than 9's, same drag coefficient, non orange numbers (I changed my 98 gauge from the nasty puke green to blue).

The corolla 9's have a much higher profile and thus in my opinion, the wheels and tires look too small for the car. The 9th gen looks like an egg or a jelly bean with wheels at the side view; the hood angle is almost one with the windshield angle. That's the reason that I don't like the yaris; space pod looking that marvin the marsian would fly in. Lastly, I don't like the 9's ride height, feels like riding in a small truck, i like to be lower.

The civics looks odd - the whole back truncated slant and because of that, the car looks like a cross section of an air foil - pseudo g35 look. However, from what I hear, the civics handle muuuuuch better than a corolla but I wonder.....my corolla's 0-60 is 8.5s and I haven't "accidentally" lost grip at the rear or front in cornering so I really wonder about that claim.

The Mazda 3's are fun - follows the ford slogan much better than ford can do. "more fun per gallon" right? the mustang sucked balls except 1st gear, and I say that with a straight face, so pathetic its not funny...period...sob sob. The handling in the Mazda 3s are palpable for the average person to purchase. Like contour said a BMW like ride and I like that.

In all, my corolla is definitely loyal to me, except the oil consumption but oil treatment/additive takes care of that completely. At over 200k miles, majority of which is freeway and still getting 35-40mpg is in my book awesome. The block is stock, no overhauls, and nothing needing replacement under the hood with the exception of my tranny - my dad didn't care about the corolla, viewed as a disposable camera, if it didn't work, slam it in palm of your hand until it does. On the other hand, I care about my 98, and to think that its almost a decade old, the car is definitely growing old on me....unfortunately. At the time of graduation from CSUF, I'm going to try as hard as I can to get a 2005 lotus elise. Selling on craigs list for as low as 26g's it uses toyotas notoriously robust, reliable, dependable reputation of engine and drivetrain engineering - 2zzge. A 0-freeway in a nonexistent 4.7s and drips gas into its engine at a forever rate of 29mpg coupled with an eternal life-like engine life supplied from toyota, its a steal.

It didn't try to go to the extreme in design, or it would have gone down the tube like that pathetic looking 3rd gen Ford Taurus. The 8th gen was the furthest extent of both classical and modern design

You're right about the 3rd gen Taurus. Ugly! Windows shaped like green beans. Whoever designed it must have been smoking tobacco. Along with the Pontiac Aztec, one of the ugliest cars ever. It's too bad because the original Taurus was a very nice design.

--The 9th gen is (again, in my opinion) overdesigned in every way. Its too tall and too bulky looking. Toyota has tried too hard to make the Corolla into something its not. Yes there are alot of awful designs out there for Toyota to compete with like the Honda Civic, but that doesn't mean Toyota has to follow them!

Exactly my view. Overdesigned is the word. Too big. I mean it is not a small car. When I see a Corolla I often think its a Camry. I don't see how you can call it a small car. Its not. It's almost as big as the Camry was fifteen years ago. And the new Camry - practically a truck.

I think the 7th generation Corollas are by far the best looking of all the generations (I may be slightly biased).

The only thing it is lacking is more performance (at least for the 1.6L engines) and some greater stability (like anti-sway bars, etc.).

They can be sportier by adding some nice wheels and also a good looking spoiler. They are fairly low to the ground, have a good wheel base and functional contour. Folding rear seats in the back is a big plus. Good fuel economy is great and the reliability and dependability is it's reputation. No wonder it is so popular.

Everyone has an opinion, but most people here drive a Corolla.

You are quite right Bikeman; still this topic is a bit about our opinions. I know my personal bias is short cars. The shorter the car is the more I like it for some reason.

 

A few quick replies:

1) The sway bar was only non-existent in the 98' year in the CE and VE models. By 99', it was in all trims. If you need to, just install a sway bar yourself. I don't think they are alot of money, less than $200. That's pretty bad if you are experiencing sway at just 25 MPH. Lowering your springs an inch and installing a strut bar will more than correct that problem.

2) There is a difference in HP between the 8th and the 9th. Under the old standards, from 98'-99', it made 120 HP, from 00'-02' it made 125 HP, and 03'-present makes 130 HP. Under the new SAE standards, its dropped about 4 HP all around to 116, 121, and 126 approximately. I've been reading up on the acceleration (for automatic versions) between the 9th gen and the 8th gen. The 98'-99' is rated at 0-60 MPH in 10.3 seconds, the 00'-02' about 10 seconds flat, and the new Corollas about 9.8 seconds. With simple weight reductions, its pretty easy to get a 98' to beat an 07'.

3) It depends how you define "boat" and "truck". I see boats as meaning "too wide" and trucks as meaning "too tall". In which case, its more than true in my opinion that a Towncar is a boat and a 9th gen Corolla is a truck. Historically most American cars have been boats. Today, even foreign cars like the new Camry are becoming boats at over 72" wide. I'm looking to become a police officer, but the Crown Vic is over 77 inches wide! The problem is that most "boat drivers" are terrible, and are more likely to side-swipe someone. When I was getting my last oil change a couple weeks ago, I waited in the lobby of the shop. There was a woman sitting across from me on her cell phone telling her husband about how she scrapped the right side of her Toyota Sienna against a telephone pole trying to pass someone. It was just too funny to listen to.

Exactly.....and now my opinion:

The only Toyota that ever turned my head is the new Camry and then only with the SE package.

I didn't buy my Corolla because it's cool looking because it 's not. Honda, Mazda and Nissan all have more innovative body designers.

I didn't buy it for the high performance because it's not. I had 1982 and 1984 Plymouth Horizons for company cars that would run circles around my Corolla.

I didn't buy it because it's comfortable because it's not. The road noise and plastic vibrations can be extreme.

I did buy it for it's dependability, fuel economy and non-interference engine design...nothing more.....come on it's a Corolla.

I know this is sacreligious so I have donned my flame suit in preparation......

Jay in MA

Everyone buys a car for different reasons. I wanted a Corolla for price and dependability, but the current style made it easier to buy for me. I would have bought a different car if Toyota stuck to the same old boxy boring flat styling. For me the 9th gen is the first FWD Corolla that is pleasing to my eyes.

You guys are posting nothing but opinions and they are way off what I am I'm sure others think.

My 98 CE was swaying while hugging the curb on a typical right hand turn in an intersection. I think that the automatic transmissions in corollas are pretty weak. I mean, I've clocked my 5-speed at 8.5s by tape recording my acceleration. I just looked up the new corolla and it looks a lot like a Toyota Camry. I don't really like it. the front end is too round like a Toyota Yaris, the tail lights are big like last gen of the Toyota Camry. The upcoming corolla is bland and banal hmmm...I was crossing my fingers that the new corolla was going to look something like the Mazda 3. The current Mazda 3 looks really similar to the current Corolla from the side profile of the Mazda to the tail lights of the Mazda. The tail lights looks more sharp than a corolla yet keeping the same shape as a corolla. The headlights of the Mazda looks similar to the upcoming corolla but again the headlights of the mazda 3 look more sharp and streamlined. In fact, in my opinion, the Mazda 3 looks like a sharper, more nimble, more streamlined corolla. 8th gen still looks the best - nothing is over sized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4nn_TdDH4

I think the current generation of the Toyota Camry looks sweet and somewhat sexy yet keeping it conservative. I have no idea how it performs but my friend's 02 Toyota Camry was nothing to get excited about when driving it. Its heavy body and low hp (160) makes for a gradual acceleration and swaying turns. Yet its really comfortable to drive it terms of everything just runs smooth. Almost no rough spots while driving. The automatic shifting and road noise (bumpy roads doesn't rattle the car and wind noise is minimal) is quite enjoyable.

The Toyota Corolla on the other hand, well, its really rough around the edges. The 1ZZ-FE just naturally sounds like its running rough. Same goes for my gf's 1NZ-FE in her new 07 yaris. The shifting in the corolla is smooth but when acceleration is needed in the 5 speed, its like flooring it, pushing the brake, and flooring it again. I cant say anything about 9th gen corollas but the 8th's are rough. Like a miniature Mr. Hyde under the hood. It's loud, plastic creaks and rattles driving on rough roads, and my model sways too much. There is one thing that I do like about the car is its acceleration (8.5s maybe 9s for me), going 200k miles and nothing in the engine needing replacement. Durable trustworthy car - end of story.

Can we get a Toyota Corolla Axio??

In my opinion Corollas and 4-cylinder Camrys are far underpowered. Last year my Dad traded in his 96' Lexus ES300 after about 260k miles. At the Toyota dealership, he test drove a 4 cylinder 06' LE Camry and an SE V6 one (both auto trans). The 4 cylinder felt even more sluggish than my Corolla, with about 155 HP on a 3100 lbs car. The 6 cylinder MZ engine put out about 225 HP on a 3300 lbs car and felt far superior. Obviously coming from the Lexus class, my Dad bought the SE V6. The new Camrys that just came out add about 150 lbs to the last gen while still using the same 4 cylinder engine. I'm willing to bet the new 4 cyl Camrys feel like a Hummer.

Isn't the Axio only designed for right-side drivers?

IMO 4 cylinder cars are all underpowered. They are intended for better fuel economy and not for performance. The EFI came about to help with fuel consumption problems and the 4 cylinder uses less fuel than a 6 cylinder. I would rather be a little slower, than have to pay more for gas at every fill-up. Most economy cars are designed for optimum fuel consumption at around 55 MPH. Anything more and you were exeeding the old Federally mandated national speed limit. Today, of course, cars go a lot faster,

Im reppin the 7th gen!!!

Really though, out of all the gens, I like the 93-97s the best. Somethin about them, kind of a smooth look.

All Corollas to me are great cars. Reliable, gas efficient, easy to maintain. Ive had mine for a couple months, and I like it. I thought it would be boring, seeing as though I had a turbo Probe, but I like it.

IMO 4 cylinder cars are all underpowered. They are intended for better fuel economy and not for performance. The EFI came about to help with fuel consumption problems and the 4 cylinder uses less fuel than a 6 cylinder. I would rather be a little slower, than have to pay more for gas at every fill-up. Most economy cars are designed for optimum fuel consumption at around 55 MPH. Anything more and you were exeeding the old Federally mandated national speed limit. Today, of course, cars go a lot faster,

 

All 4cyl cars, or just 4cyl economy cars? To be fair, I'll just add a few NA 4cyl cars that are not slow. A sentra spec v, new Honda civic Si. integra type R. Even the new MX-5 does the 1/4 mile in 15.3 seconds. That's not blistering fast, but it's just as fast as my turbo 4cyl was rated stock.

More normal 4cyl production cars could be faster today, but all the air bags, GPS, ABS, traction control, larger size cars add too much weight. Years ago, I was told that the cars in the future would be lighter. Guess not. I don't have the cash to throw at a Lotus Elise, or it would be in our garage for sure.

I'd also have to disagree with your 55MPH optimum speed. If a car was built around the time of the 55 speed limit, then gearing on top gear is going to match that. Newer cars have taller top gears now. I have personally tried driving my 05 Corolla close to 55MPH (it's hard not to be run over doing that) and I didn't get any better fuel economy. I did this back when regular unleaded was getting well over $3 a gallon. Our fuel economy doesn't really start to go down unless we go over 70MPH. This is for a 5sp, so RPMs on a auto might be higher, but our RPMs are low, and the car goes down the road without any effort. If RPMs are too low, it can actually be a drag on the engine.

If your car has that annoying 55 spot on your speedo, then 55 might be better, but for newer cars, I'd at least go the freaken speed limit.

Im reppin the 7th gen!!!

Really though, out of all the gens, I like the 93-97s the best. Somethin about them, kind of a smooth look.

All Corollas to me are great cars. Reliable, gas efficient, easy to maintain. Ive had mine for a couple months, and I like it. I thought it would be boring, seeing as though I had a turbo Probe, but I like it.

Evan,

 

It probably looks like the car I just sold, except the one I sold had a 1.6L engine.

I have to agree - the 93-97's are fine looking.

I'm repping the 7th Gen also... I liked it because the interior is more spacious than the newer ones (IMO)..

I'm repping the 7th Gen also... I liked it because the interior is more spacious than the newer ones (IMO)..

I like the fold-down rear seats - I can put my hockey sticks in the back!!