Faults:

Nothing yet. This it the first installment of ownership comments for this car.

General Comments:

It's not a race car. It's not a hyper MPG car. It's not a luxo-sport car to be compared to BMW, Lexus, etc. What it is, is a good all around A-to-B car, which should be relatively inexpensive to operate and maintain.

This Canadian-made Corolla is the base 'S', with CVT, 16" steel wheels, touchscreen infotainment, push-button automatic climate control, and simulated leather (vinyl) seats with cloth inserts. I stayed away from the S-Plus trim, due to the 45 series 17" tires being very noisy on several 2014 Corollas I rented last year. Also, the 16" tires on this car (Michelin Primacy) will be cheaper to replace and last longer than the 17" Firestones. I also didn't want the extra complications with the S-Premium, which gets you the headaches of more a complex touchscreen infotainment system and keyless entry, of which the fob batteries die every 2 years and need to be replaced to maintain the 'keyless' feature.

NOTE: Unlike some of its competitors, which get a can of fix-a-flat, the Corolla still has a real spare tire.

Things I like about the '15 Corolla include:

1). LED low-beam headlights... these throw a wide, clear beam across and down the road.

2). Ease of driving... not a nervous, jittery, herky-jerky ride like some Mazda3s and Ford Focuses, or the Chevy Cruze (as mentioned above, I rent a lot of cars in my line of work, which provide me many first-hand comparisons).

3). Dashboard design. The open design (they call 'retro') makes the car feel bigger than it is. By comparison, the driver's seat in the Focus and Cruze makes one feel a bit crammed in like a sardine.

Some things I don't like:

1). Cabin could be a bit quieter above 65MPH.

2). The amount of "free-wheeling" by the CVT, in reverse, takes a bit to get used to, similar to a manual-transmission car.

What I'm not sure about on the 2015 Corolla:

1). The CVT. For a CVT, the unit in the Corolla (made by Aisin), functions well, so far. In 'sport' mode, on the highway, the thing easily tops the Chevy Cruze 1.4T for performance and is on-par with the 2.0L Fords & Mazda ATs. In normal mode, the CVT is unobtrusive and does what it is supposed to do... get you down the road with little fuss. The unknown about the CVT did not move me to buy the dealer's extended warranty for $2000. I figure Toyota did their homework developing the unit, and the CVT should provide a good service life. Time will tell if these Aisin CVTs are any more reliable than the JATCO CVTs found in most all other CVT cars.

Since I was pretty happy with our other, other car, a 2007 Ford Focus, I considered the 2015 Focus... but Ford is having trouble with that PowerShift (I think that is better described without the "f") transmission, and are rushing a conventional automatic in for 2015. But, as of this writing, Ford still doesn't have the 2015 Focus on sale in the US. Also, on the 2007, I found it strange I had to replace the motor mounts and the accessory belt pulleys LONG before the spark plugs(!).

As noted, this '15 Corolla was bought to replace an early 2000's Chevrolet Prizm, with about 250k miles. Yes... the Prizm is essentially a Corolla, built by Toyota at the NUMMI factory in California, to be sold by GM... The only things that broke on the Prizm were the Delco/Delphi/GM parts needed to make it "different" from its cousin, Corolla. Actually, the only things that really 'broke' on the Prizm were the Delphi blower motor resistor and EVAP canister solenoid valve. Believe it or not, this Prizm was still on the OE Iridium tipped spark plugs and accessory belt pulleys at 250k miles! Since the Mazda3 and Focus share so many (troublesome) design elements, and the Prizm was virtually trouble free, I decided Toyota would get my money this time. Oh yeah... we've also had 3 other virtually trouble free Corollas since 1988.

I'll report back later as my ownership experience develops... like how the first 'free' (10k mile) oil change goes at the dealer, with the specified 0w20 Toyota synthetic motor oil...