Corolla emerges Nigeria’s Car-Of-The-Year
It was a clash of the Asian Tigers automakers inside the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos as Toyota Corolla was last week voted as Nigeria’s Car-Of-The-Year (COTY) at the just concluded Nigeria Auto Awards.
In a keenly contested voting process that saw Honda Accord and the aggressively marketed Nissan Almera coming head-to-head, the Corolla came tops anchored on a number of parameters, including but not restricted to its ubiquitousness, reliability and resale value.
Car-Of-The-Year is the phrase usually considered to have been invented by Motor Trend Magazine in the 1950s for their annual award for best American automobile.
It also refers to an award given yearly to the new automobile selected best by a jury of journalists for motor trend in Europe. The last edition held in Lagos was the Nigerian version put together by the motoring journalists.
Over the decades, Honda and Toyota are the best-selling compact cars in the market. Toyota Corolla is its 11th generation and both cars are highly reliable and often times when decisions are to be taken on which of these two Japanese nameplates are to be selected, the decision often comes down to aesthetic appeal, (which is subjective).
Corolla now comes with improved finishing inside out, runs, quieter, ‘deceptively’ bigger with better seats, a smoother ride, crisper steering, a CVT function that is actually preferable to a traditional automatic, and a special fuel-sipper model rated at an estimated of 42 mpg.
Moreover, improving the much enhanced mechanical and engineering appeal, it is all wrapped in styling that merits the use of the word- functionality ,and it is packed with the infotainment features that meets the wishes and aspirations of modern and cosmopolitan car shoppers.
For all the standard LED headlamps and crisp folds, though, the creative metal bending stops well short of the inspiring Furia concept on which the production model is based. The 2014 Corolla comes only as a sedan and for industry that may have lost touch with trend of events, memories of Corolla hatchbacks, wagons, and coupes remain in history’s dustbin alongside the hot-hatch FX16 and rear-drive AE86.
Unless you get close to the sedan, hardly would one realise that a 3.9-inch wheelbase extension smoothes out sharp ride motions and expands rear-seat legroom and by Toyota’s measure, there are 5.1 additional inches of space for stems in the back. The front seats are a significant improvement.
Corolla’s traditional L, LE, and S models use a carry-over 1.8-liter twin-cam VVTi four-cylinder, rated at the same 132 horse power as it was last year. Efforts were made to minimize mass, but curb weight rises with the added length.
MIKE OCHONMA