DumbasSi

As some of you may know, I work at the Toyota plant in Cambridge. Just before Xmas, we slowly starting building the 2009 Corolla and Matrix. Each day, a few more are built. Today, about 90 or so, down from the 400-500 we usually build. They are both newly designed. In my opinion as a Civic owner, they are going to give Honda and the competition a good run for their money.

The fully loaded versions, the XRS, have many features and options not even available in the Civic. They might only have just under 160hp, but navi, auto A/C, push button start, XM radio, navi, AWD, etc. The XRS versions come with a very, very nice body kit and 17 or 18" wheels and in white, the Matrix looks awesome.

I've "heard" from some of the powertrain engineers, that the Matrix in Japan (called the Blade) has an available V6 from the RAV4 with AWD and is supposed to be Toyotas MazdaSpeed3 killer.

k_r_a_c_k_e_r

iTrader: (3)

nice.

Cynikal.Mindset

toyota.com/newmatrix

Joker

looks alot less spaceship like compared to the new civic

si_ponz

Very true. much more subtle changes then the latest civic generation.

rick10

toyota still doesnt get that the main problem when competing with hondas is not the engines or mechanical parts but its mostly on regards to the outside look of their cars.

They made an improvement with the toyota camry , but the corollas still don't look as good as the civics on the outside

Once they decide to focus more on the looks of their cars then they will probably beat hondas.

rjngo

i would like to own a toyota for my next car purchase...which is like forever lol

kickz

iTrader: (1)

dang those look very aggressive
the corolla looks like a smaller camery very nice..

viper_2_4

looks like a Camry junior...

the old Corolla was a rather dull car...hopefully this one isn't...if you look at the best selling cars in that class (in Canada), the Civic and Mazda 3, both were/are more interesting to drive then the last Corolla, so hopefully they addressed that...

ngking1

well never been a big fan of toyota's and i don't mean to trash them or anything but there "sport" really isn't that sport when you drive it.. like the camry sport doesn't have bucket seats and nothing on the inside of the car really gives me the feeling of "sport" unlike a honda, when you sit in it.. it feels sporty no matter what your driving. i just purchased a cr-v and man it feels really sport on the inside for a suv and the dash board is very attractive... just a little weak though... but i do have to admit the toyota's are looking pretty nice on the outside

szuberi

alot of youngsters who drive hondas think they are kicking *** at lemans.

the youngsters targeted by honda (with models like the SIR, SI) are not the ones on toyota's radar screen so that comparison is unfounded to begin with. toyota discountinued their commercial sport model vehicles long time ago due to a very small size of the market as well as the huge opportunity that was there in the young/mature family class segment.

toyota outsells honda big time literally everywhere

Team Rukus

great now we will have more old chinese and indian people slowing down our streets.

ever notice all corrolla drivers are slooooowwww.


LOL

CivicGurl

Off topic but wanted to share: I was driving along a main road in the right lane during rush hour. An Indian lady stuck her nose out of a plaza onto this road in front of me (and stopped) forcing me to stop (this is not at an intersection - and there were cars beside me). She then put her hand up making sure I was stopped so she could pull out. I was absolutely speechless . She was driving a beige Corolla.

Just had to share.

screwface

HAHAHAH BEIGE COROLLA! no doubt the most infamous vehicles in the gta hah. not really a fan of the new toyotas personally; i just really hate small windows.... makes me feel like i'm in some WWI halftrack

07Ex

IMO, from the back the new Matrix looks a lot like the new Impreza, and the interior looks like the old Civic SiR, with that shifter on the dash. I like it.

The new Corolla looks nice too, but I still find it to look like it's sitting way too high on the road. I am not sure what it is about Toyota and why they like their cars to sit so high. I drove Corollas many years when I was working at a car rental company, and they were reliable, but they were so boring to drive. Hopefully Toyota will improve on the fun-to-drive aspect of the car.

MPR

The new matrix has an available 2.4L 4 cylinder correct? (from the scion tC which is an old camry motor).

It may only have 160hp stock, but it has a lot more torque than the old matrix 1.8L engines. And this engine has a lot more potential for power. There are supercharger kits and turbo kits, the list goes on. A much better drivetrain for the car imo.

I really like the new look for the rolla. Don't care too much for the new trix tho. if you drop the rolla 2-3" it would look awsome.

But I'd still rather have an 07-08 civic Si sedan over the rolla xrs, hands down.

DumbasSi

We have about 300 of them sitting at the end of the final line. On Thursday, 7 of them were ready to be shipped. All the rest either have minor defects and need to be repaired or are missing parts that we don't have.

J-SKI

Damm Corolla Drivers...who Do They Think They Are?

nolimtzel

still nothing compared to the old xrs motor which was detuned celica gts. that thing could push to 250 hp with stock internals with turbo.

ngking1

yea agreed, i would choose a civic si over a rolla any day.. and personally rollas just **** me off. but i'm excited to see how the 2010 civic is going to look like, especially with how aggressive the rolla looks now.