What have they done with the Corolla? I went with my mom to see about trading her car in...a 2007 Yaris sedan. I looked at the new Corolla's while I was in there and the damn things are huge now...sitting on the lot it's hard to tell them from the Camrys and Avalons. They've put it right up there with all the other sedans, 4 door only (which it's been forever now) and weighing in at almost 2 tons loaded. It is no longer affordable or compact...not much difference from the 4cyl version of the Camry.

 

After a nice fight with the sales people (that's what I was there for, I took the classes, I was a car salesman, got a license to sell cars but you don't tell them that until after you see how much bullshit they are going to try to feed you...lol)...Mom ended up with a Waveline Pearl (light blue metallic) 2014 Yaris SE 5 door.

 

I really like it a lot more than the Corolla...It's compact, better visibility than her sedan...almost as small as my 68 KE. It's a lot heavier but 106hp 1.5ltr VVTI, 4whl discs, sport tuned suspension with all the VSC, TRAC,EBA bells and whistles...she's 75 so she really needs a car that will handle a slalom course.

 

Actually, she was tired of having hubcaps and wanted real rims...the SE was the only model without steelies and hubcaps.

I've driven it to work a couple of times (to help get it broke in, otherwise it will sit in the driveway) and it drives really nice, very tight steering with electric assist so it's easy to turn one handed even sitting still, doesn't feel heavy like a lot of front wheel drives, corners like crazy and the 4 disc brakes with all the electronic helper gizmos stop quicker than you might expect...hang on to your coffee. It could definitely use a little more pep...but even as it is I might consider a 3 door (5spd) myself in the future since the Rolla's have gone land yacht.

To her it's just blue and looks nice...to me, it has all the goodies to help keep her on the road and if she gets hit, there's 9 airbags.

Corollas started getting "big" a good 10 years ago, it has hardly been an overnight transformation (the ZRE152 sedan from 2007 is bigger in just about every dimension than an SV21 Camry).

 

Not limited to Corollas though, "small" cars in general have been growing for years, as more and more safety features are added and expectations for room/comfort have grown.

Edited January 30, 201412 yr by Hiro Protagonist

yeah same as any small car really. Can you even buy a car with 14" wheels anymore? Even the corolla is 17" i think?

 

Maybe a switft or a Micra has 14".

 

Yarris is almost the new corolla if you're going on size, but even they arent that big.

 

I parked my 2000 wrx next to a 2013 wrx the other day at the shops. My car looks like a match box car against that monstrosity.

I parked my ke70 next to a suzuki swift and the missus asked me what kind of SUV we were parked next to.

Yeah well, people expect their cars to do everything for them now...we are just in that awkward phase where the cars are not automated enough yet but the people have already quit learning how to drive..I know so many people in their 20's who don't know how to drive. That was our goal from about 5 years old, by the time I was 12, I was drifting the 68 ford wagon around the back roads (390ci V8)...I'm still a believer in avoiding wrecks and death by being alert to my surroundings and understanding the physics of motion... not sitting in some mobile den watching movies and sipping cappuccino on the way to work. It's like they get so comfortable now that they don't realize the scenes they see through the windshield are not a movie and that they are actually hurtling down the road in 2-3 tons of metal.

And it is also a shame that there will never be collectible cars any more...I just can't see any of these new mostly plastic cars holding up well enough...I don't think in 2064 some guy will be saying "dude, check out my sweet antique 2014 rolla!".( my daughter will probably still be driving my KE though...lol)..then again, the 3D printers are coming along, maybe you'll just have to print new parts.