To celebrate 50 years of heritage, Toyota starts 2017 with a sleeker model.
Brian Joss – Glenn Crompton, Toyota SA Motors Vice President of Marketing, says: “One of many reasons South Africans have always loved Corolla is because it has continually delivered on being an affordable, reliable, family car over the past 40 years. The 2017 model features an even more prestigious exterior design, and there has been a strong emphasis on enhancing its sensory quality in the cabin.
“Most importantly, the Corolla continues to build on the model’s legendary QDR with significantly enhanced quality in every aspect of its design and engineering, while continuing to represent impressive value for money.”
The Corolla is sold in about 150 countries – including South Africa (SA) – and regions around the world and accounts for approximately 20 percent of Toyota’s global sales. Here are some of the figures:
50 years on, Corolla remains true to the model’s original DNA.
It’s been part of South Africans’ lives for more than 40 years.
More than 1 million Corolla units have been produced and sold in SA, alone.
About 45 million have been sold globally.
100 cars being built and sold every hour throughout the past 50 years / one every 36 seconds.
When developing each of Corolla’s 11 generations, Toyota has always remained true to its original principles: building a car of superior Quality, enduring Durability and indisputable Reliability. Furthermore, with each new model produced, Toyota has analysed customer feedback to ensure that Corolla continues to deliver on its hallmarks.
Right from the start, the Corolla was designed to have wide appeal. As a “people’s car”, it was affordable. And, as a family car, it was generous on space while also displaying higher build quality and considerable equipment features.
When it launched in 1966, Toyota certainly had high hopes that the Corollla was going to be a great success. For example, its name is derived from a Latin term, which means a “crown of flowers”. Suffice to say, in just three years, the Corolla became Japan’s top-selling model. The success quickly spread to other countries around the world, and the rest is history.
The new Corolla upgrades include exterior fronvt- and rear-end refreshments and enhanced interior modifications to give it classier feel.
Picking up where the current generation left off, the 2017 Corolla continues to deliver competent performance and consistently good fuel economy, all of which translates into attractive cost-of-ownership benefits.
The engine line-up remains unchanged, featuring a choice of a 1.4 litre D-4D turbodiesel and three petrol engines; a 1.3-litre Dual VVT-i unit, a 1.6-litre Dual VVT-i engine and the 1.8-litre Dual VVT-i unit. All engines are fitted with six-speed manual transmissions.
Revised tuning of the CVT transmission delivers shifts that are quicker, crisper and smoother with better matching to engine speed. The CVT also helps generate suitable engine braking when downshifting, including deceleration control that activates the fuel-cut system and holds the pulley ratio to maintain revs and enable easier re-acceleration.
The Corolla does everything it’s supposed to do: it’s comfortable, well equipped and affordably priced for pretty much any budget.
