Faults:

No faults to date.

General Comments:

Typical Toyota reliability; faultless.

Sufficient room for a family. Comfy and quiet for a diesel.

Engine a bit gutless, hence marking down to a 7. Would not suit the boy racers!

Interior pretty bland and boring.

Handles well considering it is a tall car.

Good fuel consumption, averaging around 48mpg (British).

Previous car was a diesel Civic, which was a break in Toyota ownership for some 12 years (Carina.s) Civic not a patch on either Carina or Corolla for build quality and refinement.

In my opinion anyway.

Toyota is the only car that has stood the test of the state of the roads where I live, that's the best recommendation I can give.

If you want speed, and excitement buy something else.

Faults:

Unknown thumping noise, diagnosed as ABS pump kicking in.

Clutch totally fried itself causing total power loss, clutch pedal became stuck to the floor in 3 lane traffic.

Because of many problems related to the above, after 2 months of arguing (of which I only actually had the car 2 weeks myself to drive) I got a full refund from the dealer and brought myself a Honda Civic S-Type.

General Comments:

The build quality of this car is a definite A+. Heavy, solid doors and bodywork give a great sense of safety.

Handling is also fantastic and sticks to the road like clue with very little roll. Suspension is not bone jarring.

Performance is brilliant. The "L" in VVTiL stands for Lift and when you hit 6000 revs you really feel it kick you in the back. Knocks the spots off of the new Peugeot 206 GTi 180 but not quite a Honda Civic Type-R.

Cabin is very roomy with decent rear and boot space.

Paintwork is another matter being easily scratched.

Equipment is not fantastic. Standard AC could better be climate control, but interior is smart and tidy.

Exterior looks are fine from the front, but, as with many new cars, the back has been forgotten.

Faults:

Rear parcel shelf rattles.

Rear seats rattle and squeak.

Front seats rattle and squeak.

Loose rear view mirror.

Loose driver door trim.

Water leak above front passenger seat.

Windscreen wiper motors creaking.

General Comments:

At first glance the car appears to be a well designed practical 5 door medium sized hatch back.

However having lived with the vehicle for 4 months serious design and build quality faults are surfacing.

Faults:

Plastic kick-plate on rear sill lose. Rear seat trim coming away at the back of seat. Not the quality cotrol you expect from Toyota.

General Comments:

I've only had this car for a month.

I'm generally pleased, it handles well, performance is good for a diesel, very economical (74.5 mpg on a recent long run), seats are comfortable and supportive. Sound system is of good quality, steering wheel audio controls excellent. Diesel engine quiet except for idle. Minor niggles listed above, in addition, the manual states that the air conditioning switches on and off automatically when the climate control is set to 'auto' it doesn't. It's also fiddly trying to adjust the instrument cluster light.

This model Toyota is light years away from the previous worthy, but dull model.

I would certainly recommend this car to anyone looking to buy in the focus/golf size. The only down side is the minor niggles regarding trim. Toyota really does need to address this quality issue if they want to compete with Volkswagen.

Faults:

Lumpy low idle. Sunroof water leak, squealing brakes. Rattles from sunroof. Front passenger seat rattles (no cure) rear seat rattles. Noisy rear electric window. Loose interior trim. Plastic scratches very easily.

Poor quality on this British built car. dealer just washes it when I return it for repair. Except for the leaking sunroof there is no cure for the other problems to date.

General Comments:

Seat rattles present on all showroom models. Hit the seat back with your hand and see for yourself

Car has average performance. Ride is OK, but not as good as the Ford Focus.

Visibility poor through rear and side windows when reversing. Get some parking sensors fitted.

My old VW golf had better quality interior and build. Even after 4 years my VW had less rattles than this car.

Give Toyota a year or two to tidy the New Corolla up and it might be a good buy, but give it a miss for now.