Man you guys seem harsh on the corolla. when I bought mine in 05 I had a set budget, a limit to how far I was willing to drive to a dealer and a daily hour drive to and from work so fuel economy was important. Where I live, in this size of car it was a choice of focus , cobalt, neon, the corolla or the civic.
the Honda dealer acted like I had the Plague, so that's a lossed sale for them, can't say what it drives like. The neon failed to impress me, the focus I test drove had a rattle that was annoying, the cobalt actually seemed pretty decent and I seriously considered it but for the same level of equipment a Corolla CE C package was just over 2 grand cheaper and seemed to have better fit and finish then the others. It is only the fact that I'm able to pay more and my willingness to drive farther has changed which has let me start to look for something more interesting. In the same situation I was in then I would still be one of the "idiots buying one".
Are there better options out there? depending on where you live and what the dealers are like not necessarily. Is it kind of boring to drive daily? Yeppers. But it is the only vehicle I have ever owned that hasn't Had a single thing go wrong in over two years or almost 70000 KM and I still have to say it has been great value.
