Toyota Corolla review - Reliability and Safety

Traditionally, one of the best reasons to buy a Toyota has been reliability – and while the Corolla is still a little too new to tell for sure, signs are that it shouldn’t be an exception to the rule. The Corolla hasn’t featured in a Driver Power customer satisfaction survey yet, but the closely related Toyota C-HR SUV managed a credible 19th-place finish in the 2019 survey. The evergreen Toyota Prius is powered by similar technology and came top of the pack in 1st position. These results bode very well indeed for trouble-free Corolla ownership.

The Toyota Corolla received a five-star Euro NCAP rating in 2019, with strong scores for adult and child occupant safety (95 and 84 percent, respectively). Pedestrian safety also fared well with a mark of 86 percent. There’s an impressive list of on-board safety equipment as standard, including automatic headlights, adaptive cruise control, reversing camera, lane departure warning and Toyota’s lane trace system, plus a driver attention alert system.

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Warranty 

Like all Toyota models, the Corolla comes as standard with a five-year, 100,000-mile warranty (with no mileage limit in the first year) that puts most of the three-year items offered by its rivals to shame. The Ford Focus comes with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty, for example – cover that the Volkswagen Golf matches. None come close to the seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty offered on the Kia Ceed, however.

Hybrid models are subject to a five-year, 100,000-mile battery warranty that can be renewed to cover an extra year or 10,000 miles. This can be continuously renewed up to the 15th anniversary of the car’s registration provided a Hybrid Electric Service is carried out at a main dealer Toyota Hybrid Electric Specialist.

Servicing

An intermediate service for the Corolla costs £190, with a full service priced at £340. Hybrid models are subject to extra checks at service time, but Toyota does not charge any more for this.