This is the BEST selling car in the world! It's crazy, but Toyota has sold over 50 million Toyota Corollas and now it's available as a hybrid! The Corolla once had the image of being quite a boring mode of transport, but has that all changed?
Paul Maric does a review of the 2020 Toyota Corolla ZR hybrid hatch to see if it's any good. Is there anything that lets it down? Watch and find out!
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:56
Interior: 02:52
Infotainment: 04:21
Features: 05:55
Practicality: 07:23
On the Road: 10:59
Verdict: 14:42
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#toyota #review #corolla #hybrid #hatchback @toyotausa @toyotaaustralia @TOYOTAglobal
Paul Maric does a review of the 2020 Toyota Corolla ZR hybrid hatch to see if it's any good. Is there anything that lets it down? Watch and find out!
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:56
Interior: 02:52
Infotainment: 04:21
Features: 05:55
Practicality: 07:23
On the Road: 10:59
Verdict: 14:42
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#toyota #review #corolla #hybrid #hatchback @toyotausa @toyotaaustralia @TOYOTAglobal
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. The Toyota Corolla, it is the best selling car in the world.
00:05 Unbelievable, isn't it? They've sold almost 50 million Toyota Corollas since it was launched in the 60s.
00:11 That means they have sold as many Corollas as there are people in Colombia.
00:15 That is crazy. What you're looking at here is the new Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid.
00:20 This is the top of the tree, and now it's available in hybrid trim,
00:24 but it doesn't look like a hybrid, which is what I love about it the most.
00:27 It competes with cars like the Volkswagen Golf, the Hyundai i30, the Mazda 3, the Ford Focus.
00:32 There are a stack of competitors there, and being the top of the tree, it's going to set you back just under $34,000.
00:38 Today, we're going to do a detailed review of the Corolla ZR Hybrid.
00:42 You can skip ahead to other parts of the review just by using the time codes up there,
00:46 or if you're on YouTube, scroll down to the description.
00:48 If you haven't done so already, please hit the subscribe button and also press the bell icon
00:52 so you can find out every single time we publish a new car review.
00:57 Let's talk exterior. I didn't think in my career as a motoring journalist,
01:00 I would ever say that a Corolla actually looks good, but I think the Corolla actually looks good.
01:06 Have a look at this. It is edgy AF.
01:09 It's got lights everywhere. It's got angles. It is everything you wouldn't expect from a Toyota.
01:14 Now, if you have seen our other reviews of hybrid Toyotas, such as the RAV4 Hybrid,
01:18 you can see that review by clicking up there.
01:20 You'll know that Toyota's logos, if they have blue in them, that means you're driving a hybrid car.
01:26 So whenever you spot that, you know, this is the hybrid model.
01:29 I quite like the way that they've got a big grille down here to let all the air in.
01:33 We have kind of ugly number plates fitted to this car,
01:36 but you can imagine with a set of slimline plates, this would actually look quite sophisticated.
01:40 I do like this red colour as well.
01:42 Really gives this car a mature and sporty feel, but still applies to a lot of people.
01:46 I can see young people driving this and cooler older people as well.
01:50 LED headlights with LED daytime running lights are slotted into there.
01:54 If you come around to the side here, 18-inch alloy wheels on the ZR Hybrid.
01:58 I'll be keen to see with such a low profile, whether this actually rides well.
02:02 Toyota's on the new TNGA platform, which is a name for the platform they're using across a range of cars now.
02:08 Actually ride really nicely, but I wonder whether this is going to affect the way this feels.
02:13 Another hybrid badge there, just in case you forget.
02:15 And have a look at this, a two-tone roof is now available.
02:18 So offsetting that red, you've got the black that runs across the roof, but I hope that doesn't peel.
02:23 It looks like it's a wrap of some sort and it kind of looks like it's got an edge on it,
02:27 which probably isn't going to be a good thing.
02:29 Black wing mirrors with indicator built into them.
02:32 And if you whip around to the back here, you've got more hybrid badge, more LED lights and an interesting looking rump.
02:39 It's got a bit of a round end on it.
02:41 So, oh, hold on.
02:42 I've just noticed something.
02:44 Don't put exhaust pipes on this car.
02:46 It doesn't need them.
02:47 So imagine that was just red.
02:49 That would be perfectly fine.
02:50 You don't need to have fake exhaust pipes, Toyota.
02:52 Welcome to the Corolla's interior.
02:55 And if you're still awake, Toyota has done a good job here because the previous generation Corolla was so damn boring inside that it just sent you to sleep.
03:04 This is looking a whole lot better.
03:06 Although I'm not a fan of piano black and I can see a lot of it around here.
03:11 Have a look at this.
03:12 I mean, the reason I'm not a fan of it is it marks so easily, it scratches.
03:17 You just have to touch it and it's scratched for life.
03:19 It is really just a material that I wish they would stop using inside cars.
03:23 But put that to one side.
03:25 It's a good looking interior and dashboard.
03:27 It feels soft to the touch, but we now have a tool that can tell us if it is or not.
03:32 If you've seen our other videos, you would have seen me use this before.
03:34 It's a durometer.
03:35 It measures softness or hardness from a scale of zero to 100, where zero is super soft and 100 is super hard.
03:43 Just like my muscles.
03:44 Let's see what it's like on the dashboard there.
03:47 Um, wow, that's pretty impressive.
03:52 52.
03:53 Let's check this center console.
03:55 That is amazing.
03:56 That's in the 30s.
03:58 Seriously impressive.
03:59 What about build quality?
04:01 Well, this is pretty flexible.
04:03 Unlike me.
04:04 Have a look at that.
04:06 That's not great.
04:07 That whole center console is moving.
04:11 That's a little bit gross.
04:12 Toyotas are known for their build quality, reliability and all that kind of thing.
04:15 But it seems like it is slipping a little bit here or that isn't secure.
04:19 Something, but anyway, that's not a very good look at all.
04:21 Let's talk infotainment.
04:22 Just like the Corolla's styling, Toyota has finally got with the modern age when it comes to technology.
04:29 This new unit is eight inches.
04:31 It's now common across a lot of Toyota's products.
04:33 We have an in-depth, detailed review of this infotainment system.
04:36 You can see that by clicking up there.
04:37 But today I'll walk you through just some of the basics.
04:40 This is the home screen.
04:41 It's divided into three sections.
04:42 I'll run you through the map.
04:44 You can manually manipulate that map.
04:46 It zooms in and out pretty quickly as well.
04:49 So it looks like it's got a bit of processor grunt behind it.
04:51 I'll then show you the extra menus you can go through.
04:54 Audio, you have FM, AM, DAB plus digital radio.
04:58 You can stream through your phone or another USB connected device or Bluetooth.
05:02 I'll show you what Apple CarPlay and Android Auto looks like.
05:04 That now comes standard with Corolla.
05:06 It's a good integration.
05:06 It takes up the entire screen, flips through the screens very easily.
05:11 Jasmine Ray.
05:14 I don't know what the hell that is.
05:15 I think my wife's been putting some music on my phone.
05:18 Back to the main menu here.
05:19 You have other apps available with the Toyota infotainment system.
05:23 Don't bother using any of them.
05:24 If you look them up on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store,
05:27 they all have really low ratings.
05:29 They're tricky to use and almost entirely redundant when you do have smartphone
05:32 mirroring built into the car.
05:34 The only other thing I'll point out here is the hybrid information you can see
05:37 under the car details.
05:40 This shows you where all the power is coming from within the hybrid system.
05:44 And when we go for a drive, I'll show you how all of this works.
05:46 But one of the other great features here is the trip history.
05:49 It shows you your best consumption in the past and also how you've been performing
05:52 in terms of fuel consumption during your recent trips.
05:55 What about the other features that you're getting with the car?
05:57 We'll talk safety first.
05:58 Autonomous emergency braking that works at city speeds,
06:02 detects pedestrians and cyclists as well.
06:05 You get blind spot monitoring, a lane keeping assistant,
06:08 rear cross traffic alert and the AEB, which is the tech that stops the car
06:11 if you don't, works in forward and reverse.
06:14 So if you're going to whack into something while you're reversing,
06:16 it will stop the car dead before you hit anything.
06:18 That includes pedestrians as well.
06:19 Jump down here, we have dual zone climate control.
06:21 And I thought I might point this out as well.
06:23 There's a function that allows you to stop cooling to the rear of the car.
06:26 This is really handy for cars like hybrids because it stops your energy
06:29 consumption increasing.
06:30 There's also an eco heat and cool mode.
06:32 Then, of course, you can set the zones for the passenger and also the driver.
06:36 Jump down one more level, you have wireless phone charging.
06:39 We'll see if that fits my big phone.
06:41 Oh, look at that, fits nice and snug.
06:43 You have heated seats for the driver and front passenger,
06:46 electric seat adjustment for the driver, radar cruise control for when you're
06:50 out on the open road, front and rear parking sensors and an auto dimming
06:54 rear vision mirror.
06:55 If we jump down a little bit further, you have a full EV mode,
06:58 so you can drive the car in EV only.
07:00 We'll talk about that later on when we're driving.
07:02 You have drive modes you can pick from, an electric park brake,
07:06 and then let me show you the key.
07:08 This is what the key looks like.
07:10 Has lock and unlock and then on the back you have the Toyota logo.
07:13 Remember, the blue means it is a hybrid.
07:15 It tells you it's a Corolla just in case you've forgotten.
07:18 That sits in your pocket.
07:19 It's a proximity entry key for opening the doors and also for starting the car.
07:23 Let's talk practicality and we'll start with storage.
07:26 You know your phone can go there, but what about bottles?
07:29 There's two cup holders up the front here that fits in snugly.
07:33 The bottle can also go inside the door and there's extra storage around the bin there.
07:37 Centre console, it is pretty small, which is setting a theme for this car.
07:43 You do have a 12-volt outlet and a USB point there,
07:45 plus another USB point here and the glove box.
07:49 It's actually pretty generous.
07:50 That's not too bad.
07:51 Once you've got the manual in there, there's still room to put bits and pieces.
07:54 What about comfort?
07:57 Yeah, these seats are nice.
07:58 I like the driving position, but check the seats out.
08:02 They look sporty.
08:03 I really like all this highlight stuff and this suede Alcantara business
08:08 and the perforations.
08:10 It looks like a very sporty car and I'm keen to see whether it drives as sporty
08:14 as those seats look.
08:16 Holy moly, legroom in the back here is terrible.
08:20 I've got my seat in my normal driving position and sure,
08:23 I might be a little taller than some people, but I'm still not massively lanky
08:27 and my knees are in the back of that seat.
08:29 I have no toe room whatsoever.
08:32 I just can't understand at the point that you're engineering this car that you
08:35 don't get someone to sit in the back and then maybe think about the dimensions
08:39 to make it a little bit bigger.
08:41 This is really not very good.
08:43 So let's put the leg and knee room to one side for one second.
08:48 The seats themselves are quite comfortable.
08:49 You get rear air vents.
08:51 There is a centre armrest with two cup holders.
08:56 Cups fit into those.
08:57 And then cleverly, your cup storage is inside the doors,
09:02 so you can hold things in there.
09:03 There's actually nothing beneath it, which is why they've integrated that.
09:06 And that means you're not going to be able to put anything else in those bins
09:08 that you would normally fit in the doors.
09:10 Headroom is good, but yeah, seriously disappointed with the amount of legroom here.
09:14 I understand you're not going to have people in the back seat of a Corolla
09:17 all the time, but seriously, I mean, if you have friends or people that you need
09:21 to have in the back of the car, they are just not going to be comfortable back here.
09:23 At least it's got mat pockets and then ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats
09:27 and then top tether points as well, if you do want to squeeze a baby in here.
09:31 That theme of no space is continued in the boot, unfortunately.
09:35 Have a look at this.
09:36 333 litres of cargo space.
09:38 It's not a great deal, and it's also not a great deal compared to some of the
09:41 competitors in this segment.
09:43 But anyway, we'll see if it fits our luggage.
09:45 Under the floor here first, though, you have a tyre repair kit,
09:48 because this car has no spare tyre with all the hybrid components.
09:52 This is a system where you effectively just put a bit of goo inside the tyre.
09:56 It then finds its way to the hole and then fixes itself.
09:59 Not really an excellent solution.
10:01 If it is a big hole, you're still going to have to get the tyre fixed.
10:04 Let's have a look at how this takes our luggage.
10:10 It actually works quite well.
10:11 So despite the fact it's not a huge amount in terms of leaderage,
10:14 this cut down here doesn't eat too much into your luggage space.
10:17 And then the lip isn't overly high.
10:19 It drops in nicely.
10:20 And then you have some hooks inside the boot here to secure things.
10:23 Plus, have a look at this one.
10:25 A maximum of two kilos you can lean onto this, which is on the cargo blind,
10:30 and you can get rid of that pretty easily as well just by detaching this.
10:42 Just by detaching this.
10:46 And you're going to have to leave that at home, because it doesn't really go
10:48 anywhere else.
10:49 And if you do need more room, you can drop the second row as well.
10:52 The clips are on the back of the seat.
10:55 And there you go.
10:56 You have a little bit more room if the 333 litres isn't enough.
11:00 We're behind the wheel of the Corolla ZR Hybrid.
11:03 Let me run you through the package under the bonnet and how all this works.
11:05 So it uses a 1.8 litre naturally aspirated petrol engine in addition to a hybrid
11:10 drivetrain.
11:11 The hybrid drivetrain is powered by a 1.3 kilowatt hour battery that sits under the
11:15 back seat over there.
11:16 To put that into context, something like a Tesla Model 3 is around 75, 79 kilowatt
11:21 hours, so it's about a 70th of something you'd find in a full electric car.
11:26 In terms of power and torque from the internal combustion engine, it's 72 kilowatts
11:30 of power and 142 newton metres of torque.
11:33 Pretty typical from a 1.8 litre four cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine.
11:37 It's then backed up by an electric motor that produces 53 kilowatts of power and 163
11:43 newton metres of torque.
11:44 Both of those combine to produce 90 kilowatts of power in total.
11:49 What does that all mean?
11:50 Well, you can click up here to see our IONIQ plug-in hybrid review where I explain how
11:55 combining power figures between an internal combustion engine and an electric motor kind
11:59 of all comes together.
12:01 That all combines to give you a fuel economy of 4.2 litres per 100 kilometres.
12:05 That's really good for a hybrid and better than other cars in this segment because they
12:08 don't really have the advantage of the hybrid system.
12:11 In terms of what we've been achieving, it's around mid 5 litres per 100 kilometres.
12:16 So it is fairly realistic, the claim that Toyota gives.
12:18 Let's talk about ride for a second.
12:20 TNGA, that's the platform that this car sits on.
12:23 It's shared with other Toyota products.
12:25 Toyota has fitted this car with an independent rear suspension setup.
12:28 Some other cars in this segment use a torsion beam, so this gives you a bit more control
12:31 over the rear.
12:32 The entire package is excellent.
12:35 This is one of the best riding cars in this segment.
12:37 Even on 18 inch alloy wheels, it is soaking up everything we throw at it.
12:41 So big tick for ride and handling for Corolla.
12:43 There is a nifty feature built into this car and it's the camera up here.
12:47 It's able to detect road signs as you pass them and then it reminds you what the speed
12:52 limit is.
12:53 It works pretty well but the problem is that on the nav screen, this picks up road speed
12:57 signs from the navigation, whereas this one picks it up from what it sees in front of
13:01 you.
13:02 So sometimes you have conflict where the speed is actually different to what it is.
13:06 So from that point of view, it's not a very good system.
13:09 Winding circle comes in at 11.4 metres, kind of big for a hatchback.
13:13 I would have thought it would be a little tighter than that, but that kind of gives
13:16 you an idea of all the equipment you have under the front there that's preventing the
13:19 wheels from making a full turn.
13:22 Visibility out the cabin is great.
13:23 In front, I can see everything.
13:24 I've got the heads-up display in front of me there that shows me when I transition from
13:27 Eco mode into Power mode.
13:29 That's when the whole combination comes to life.
13:33 Visibility out the side is okay.
13:34 The wing mirrors aren't overly big, but they are big enough for this little car.
13:38 I have blind spot monitors there that monitor everything around the side of the car.
13:41 There is not a huge amount of visibility out the back though, and that's because the window
13:45 is quite narrow.
13:46 Let's talk about how quiet it is in the cabin.
13:48 You get a little bit of noise from those 18-inch alloy wheels.
13:51 The tyres transmit a bit of road noise into the cabin.
13:53 And then if you go into EV mode, it's dead silent because the engine is completely switched
13:58 off.
13:59 But if you jump on the throttle, there is a bit of a racket inside the cabin.
14:04 So while it is responsive when you've got the slipper in it, it is a little bit noisy
14:08 in here.
14:09 Okay, R.I.P. my credibility with you guys.
14:13 I actually like this car.
14:15 I never thought I'd be telling you about how much I like a Toyota Corolla, especially a
14:19 hybrid one.
14:20 It's really fun to drive.
14:22 The ride is great.
14:24 It's just, I don't know, it's just engaging, which you never thought you'd say about a
14:27 Corolla.
14:28 It gets my big tick of approval, and it sets itself apart from other cars in this segment
14:32 because no one else really offers independent rear suspension that makes the car handle
14:36 nicely, incredible fuel efficiency, and then just an engaging drive thrown in with it all.
14:41 You don't have to spend mega bucks to be driving a car that is fun sometimes but practical
14:46 the rest of the times.
14:47 Now, I did lie a little bit there on practicality because there is next to no rear legroom.
14:52 The boot is incredibly tiny as well.
14:54 So don't get this if you need to transport bigger people around in the second row or
14:58 if you need to put lots of stuff in the boot.
14:59 But for everything outside of that, it presents excellent value for money, and the efficiency
15:03 means you're never going to be paying for fuel.
15:05 Let me know if I'm crazy.
15:06 Have you driven the new Corolla or any of the new Toyota products on the TNGA platform?
15:11 Let me know in the comments below.
15:13 I'd also love to get your feedback on the videos, whether you're enjoying them or not.
15:16 If you have enjoyed this one, press the like button, follow it up with a subscribe, and
15:20 also then press the bell icon as well so you know every single time we publish something
15:24 new.
15:25 But until next time, drive safely.