Toyota Corolla is the perfect kind of car you want your teenagers to drive. Keeping them unenthusiastic, passive and subdued.
This.
Add low maintenance costs, great reliability and very competitive real world fuel economy and the world beats a path to your door.
My dad has a 2010...not a single problem with it. That's more than I can say about my MIL's 2012 Mazda3 Skyactiv - had the power steering replaced already, battery wouldn't last a week without being driven in the winter on a brand new car, and poor headlights that barely cover the road - oh wait, Mazda3 has projector-beam vs the multi-reflector in the Corolla...that means that they are better, right? In practice, I see far more of the country roads at night in the Corolla.
This segment (C) is not about the enthusiast. Yes, the Corolla is an appliance - A to B without drama or fuss. It's a commuter car. It's a good starter-family car. It's good at what it does, and just because it's slightly feature-poor compared to its competitors does not mean that it is worse. We're averaging 6.4L/100km consistently and never feel the car is too slow...so the 4-speed is doing its job fine.
We have rear-facing and front-facing child seats in the back, yet the front seats are both more than spacious (much more than can be said for my Brother's Mazda3), and the price we paid was far less than the Mazda3. Skip the crap in the LE trim, and the Corolla's a stellar purchase decision. Try saying the same for the Mazda3 GX.
