The 2014 Toyota Corolla: What the critics say

Road & Track

The world’s best-selling car has managed “an ascent back to likability.” The 11th-generation Toyota Corolla, which replaces a 6-year-old model that showed “a knack for sucking the fun out of driving,” is “improved on almost every front,” handling included. Last year’s “somewhat anemic” four--cylinder engine is back, but more--responsive transmissions are now available above the base model, and a revised suspension makes this compact “much better over the road than the car it replaces.”

Jalopnik.com

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Still, that’s not good enough. Sure, this slightly stretched Corolla is bigger than its rivals inside and out, and “has every chance of maintaining Toyota’s reputation for unbeatable reliability.” What’s more, the interior is “miles ahead of the old car in terms of materials.” But the engine, suspension, transmission, and styling are obsolete already. Toyota is asking for trouble when every customer has to be “the kind of person who doesn’t mind bottom-of-the-range performance.”

Autoblog.com

But for folks who just demand ease of use, the 2014 Corolla “checks all the right boxes”—“the car goes, it stops, it turns.” This year it even looks “rather handsome.” Like my kitchen toaster, it’ll get the job done—even if driving it remains “no more exciting than turning bread into toast.”