Gadgetory

if you think the Prius owns the hybrid category what about the Corolla this thing owns the compact econo car category way before we ever heard of a sitting let's see if Toyota still has it as we drive the 2014 Corolla LE eco and check the tech now spot a 14 Corolla easily just open your eyes and look at it it doesn't look at all like the outgoing generation every panel every details heavily revised here's a spotters trick though look for led low beam headlamps they're standard on all the four teens which I believe is a first for any affordable car now if you want to tell an eco from a non eco forget it there's no real clear visual cue little difference in the chin but not much let's get inside inside Twitter has done something at least different this dash really harkens back to be honest to the late 70s in the early eighties in a tasteful way I think but this whole eyebrow and kind of flat face thing is at least a refreshing change from the kind of dohyo voids that seem to populate every other car's dashboard these days now what's in it here's the star of the show you have an LCD touch head unit in either a standard or premium configuration we'll get to in a minute six inches of touchscreen is not a lot and when you're here on the home screen like I have and you've split it three ways one two three everything gets real small upper left corner in this case I've got my entertainment settings going lower left those are phone settings and on the right there's the map peeking through now of course these will come full screen as you go to any one of the actual functions I like this about the Toyota interface they put all the audio together under audio if I go to my navigation system I get there via apps perfectly functional a tad slow on the uptake but not bad and as you can see it's microSD based voice command on this car is also standard I think on every trim level as is at least some version of this head unit what would you like to do start a new route to 35 second Street San Francisco California one I heard two 35-second streets and cases go California is that correct as you can see the voice system is very good at comprehension dogs slow at doing it so it's a mixed bag but it's nice to have it when you get into these apps here that are part of the Entune suite it's a mixed bag of whether and how well voice command works with them and the array has not changed we've seen these before and they're still in there but it's nice to have them base on every corolla now if you get the Premium Package and upgrades to have HD radio satellite radio Gracenote database for your sources and a couple of interesting features I haven't seen before check this out when I go to a.m. or FM radio and I pull open this little slide over tray on the right this is a 20-minute buffer so if you press live you're in real time or if you want to skip back you can skip back to various marks using these buttons here's another one under traffic so here's a traffic map but if I hit this slider down here I can get predicted traffic over the next 45 minutes you've also got a weather overlay on the map if you'd like and you've got the option for some pretty rich text messaging support up to including a vehicle sig for outgoing messages rear camera on all these Corollas I understand to be standard that's also a nice feature given the price point of these cars it doesn't have any predictive direction technology it merely shows you zones and it comes on and that's about all it does also nice automatic temperature control single zone is standard on all these cars as well and to go along with climate thank you we've got mechanical seat heater buttons I like those because when they're on they stay on in terms of drive controls this is our one choice automatic it's a CVT a continuously variable transmission with three positions regular drive sport and B which from the Prius is a additional regenerative braking mode I'm not quite sure what it does on a car without a regeneration cycle there's no shiftable gate no matter where you are no paddles because it's a CVT but it does have synthetic shift points programmed into it and here's your eco mode button this is part of the eco trim model we have this will put the car into a particularly fuel saving mode although it's confusing because you've also got an eco light over here that tells you when you are driving economically and then you've got another light that tells you when you've got the button to press to make you drive economically it's a little odd now one of the most interesting innovations on the new Corolla is kind of a magic trick they extended the car 2.6 inches over the outgoing model within that they found almost 6 inches of additional legroom that's packaging so if I set up my seat here in the front as I have so it's comfortable for me to be driving and I come to the back row can I actually sit behind myself there are very few cars where I can but in this one I certainly could they've added five inches of legroom to the backseat over last year's model that's like going from a Lexus LS to an LS L or an Audi eight to an eight L that's like big car legroom and they've got it here that's really nice now front on the new Corolla you've got a 1.8 litre inline-four sitting sidesaddle driving the front wheels here's where things get different this one has what's called valve Matic technology on the Eco which allows it to ring another five percent MP out of what is otherwise the same basic engine as the other Corollas here the numbers 140 horse 126 foot-pounds of torque this adequate 0-60 about nine point seven seconds at least for the S trim should be about the same for this car but they don't have a number published yet now the MDGs the key 30 City 42 highway if you get the real stripper model that has the steel wheels we have an upgraded car with bigger alloys and that drops at the 30 city 40 highway still really good numbers and this car weighs about 2,800 pounds not a whole lot on the hoof that certainly helps the efficiency let's go for a ride see how it all works together now underway the Corolla is exactly what you probably thought it would be it's a driving appliance but it's not sloppy or numb it's just sort of uninspired in the drive mode this powerplant and CVT combined form kind of laggard Li response but once it gets revving its a pretty satisfying powertrain we're over in sport mode and you get not so much more that was as you get more alertness in the power train and there's this nonsensical lead position which puts you into a heavy break sort of a deceleration mode by gearing down I don't understand that doesn't make sense on a car that doesn't have brake region I can do that myself except there's nowhere to shift on this car so I guess that's why you have to have deep ride qualities pretty good on this vehicle I don't have a harshness coming through it's it's firm enough I don't feel at all like I'm wall like nothing about the car feels cheap that's a that's a key thing you got to get done in a car and it is now pricing this guy's interesting we have an le plus there is a lower trim level but not available here in my part of California anyway so check by region because if you go one lower I believe it's where you get the extra two mpg with the lower trim package and apparently skinnier tires that are key to that twenty one three four the le plus the second one in the line on top of that I'm going to add one option for twenty three sixty the convenience package to get you the power moonroof the enhanced Entune system with navigation satellite radio HD radio whole bunch of niceties little improved audio I believe as well and that's definitely worth the money so all in your under twenty four grand for a car that has no significant downsides as nice transportation not a driver's car but it's a nice car for everyday living because of what they've done by stretching that floor pan putting it to use in the back seats and doing a very credible job on a small but packed central head units