Toyota Corolla Altis : Roadtest

There are battles and then there are iconic battles which rage on for decades. One such battle is the one between the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla who have been fighting for the top spot since the past two decades. Toyota launched the Corolla in India in 2003 amidst much fanfare as the best selling car in the world. The car struck all the right chords of the Indian buyer with its attractive looks, punchy and frugal engine coupled with bulletproof reliability. The car was pretty much a best seller in its segment until Honda launched the radical new Civic in 2006 and spoilt Toyotas party. Come 2008 Toyota has retaliated with the launch of the all new Corolla Altis which hopes to regain the top spot. Read on to find out whether it does or doesn't.

Design and Style:

The previous generation Corolla although a good looking car was pretty much on the conservative side designed to appeal to a greater band of audience. The new Altis though follows the design cues of its bigger and more radical sibling the Camry. The car has gained on aggression, being bold and attractive at the same time. The protruding headlights and the strong shoulder line further accentuate the bold new look. Although built on an identical wheelbase, the new car is longer thanks to the extended bumpers. The Altis now sports an even further raked windscreen making the car look sportier and at the same time being more aerodynamic as well. The Altis now also comes with indicators on the wing mirrors which is a nice touch. One thing is for sure, the Corolla has definitely evolved for the better.

Engine and Performance:

The Altis gets the same 1.8 litre unit albeit with a host of changes. The VVTi unit gets an upgraded ECU and now puts out 132 PS @ 6000 rpm and a max torque of 170 Nm @ 4200 rpm. All this adds up the Altis being pretty urgent in its power delivery. Mash the throttle from rest and the car gallops to a 100 km/h in 13.11 seconds. Keeping the throttle pinned and we managed to hit a 188.54 km/h before we ran out of roads.

The Altis managed pretty good acceleration figures as you can see, but the real forte of the car is its drivability. Be it any gear the Altis never gets bogged down and squirts forward the moment you jab the throttle. In-gear acceleration is simply outstanding with hardly any downshifts required which is a boon when driving around town.

Our Altis came equipped with a 5-speed manual gearbox which had a positive shift action but required more effort when shifting through the gate quickly. The excellent powerplant though is somewhat of a let down on the refinement front. At high speeds the all aluminium unit gets pretty vocal and was not quite melodious according to automotive standards. Another noticeable thing was the over enthusiastic rev limiter which gets involved pretty soon and made the acceleration tests a real chore. Braking though is one of the Altis's strong points with ABS, EBD and discs all round managing to haul down the car from 100 km/h in just 57 metres without any sort of drama.

Suspension and Dynamics:

The underpinnings of the car have undergone evolution as well with the chassis being beefed up further to handle the additional bump in power and aide handling. The suspension is pretty similar to the old car, but the Altis sports a wider track and a newly designed 'L' arm provides a more planted feel. The rear suspension has been tweaked as well to aide stability. With increased ground clearance and running 65 profile tyres, the Altis provides a pretty pliant ride absorbing most of the irregularities thrown by the road. But as the speed gets higher the car tends to get skittish and at times the thumps and thuds do tend to filter in.

The Altis also gets an all new electric power steering which feels nice and light at lower speeds making the car extremely maneuverable around town. Higher speeds however do not weigh it up as it should and the steering still feels light limiting feedback and confidence. Come to a series of bends and you find out the Altis is definitely inclined towards traveling in comfort rather than in Schumacher mode. At its limits the Altis understeers and just cant hold its line. That said the Altis is definitely more of a family car than a drivers car.

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Living with it:

Step inside the car and you find yourself in a plush well appointed cabin. Even with the identical wheelbase, the Altis manages to liberate more space having more width and the further extended cab-forward design increasing space lengthwise as well. The dash looks smart in beige-grey combo with fake wood inserts adding a touch of class. The steering wheel matches that of the Camry except the Altis has fake wood inserts here as well. The instrument console is on the conventional side and unlike the futuristic Civic, has the tacho-speedo combo housed inside the binnacle. Rest your backside on the large front seat and you find adequate support for most kind of driving styles. But what is immediately noticeable is the nice commanding view that you get.

There is none of those awkwardly thick A-pillars restricting vision and neither do you get the sinking sand feeling from the seats. The driver gets powered seats while the co-passenger has to do with manual adjustments. The rear passengers are well pampered as well with the seating position being spot on. The bonus being a near flat floor at the rear with the transmission tunnel being nary a hindrance unlike in the earlier car. For its segment the Altis is a well kitted car. There are lots of storage places, a nice sounding audio system with a remote control, rear sunblind, auto-leveling HID headlamps, headlamp washers and then some. The quality of the materials inside though not exceptional is definitely a cut above the older car.

Fuel efficiency:

With a healthy spread of torque throughout the powerband requiring fewer downshifts and lesser throttle as well, the Altis turned out to be quite frugal. Around town, the car returned an excellent 10.3 km/l with the number stretching to an incredible 14.8 km/l on the highways giving a near 700 km range from the 55 litre tank.

Verdict:

The new Corolla Altis is definitely a step in the right direction for Toyota coming at the right time as well. The car is unmistakably Toyota in that it does everything so clinically well almost to the point of being tagged as boring. But there are chinks in the Altis's armour too. A noisy engine, not the best of plastic quality inside and a lacklustre drive being some of them. Other than that, with legendry reliability and backed by Toyota's heritage, it's little surprising to know that the Corolla is the longest continuously running nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer and products like the Altis just ensure that.