An underwhelming car

Well, I drew the short straw at work this week and had to drive a Corolla on a business trip. I drove it for about 400 miles. Here is the result of my experience:

1. The interior - The interior looks nice, the colors, textures, and feel of all of the materials in the car are at least average with any car in this segment. The insturment cluster is very crisp and clear, I am a fan of black on white gauges. The radio sounds really good, it is loud and clear, reception is great. The layout of the controls are all well placed

2. The exterior - You like it or you hate it, it does remind me a lot of a 1988 Dodge Shadow, but with a racing wing on the back. Over the years, I have driven many cars/trucks of all shapes and sizes and I must say that the headlights on this little car are the best that I have ever seen. They are white, well aimed and in general make you not worry that something will sneak up on you in the dark.

3. The performance/ride - There are a couple of pluses here, first it did get 32mpg in mixed driving between 80mph interstate driving and town driving. The steering is very tight, this car is easy to whip around much like a go-cart. The minuses cruise control has a lot of difficulty going up the slightest grade (I-74 between Cincinati and Indianapolis), it downshifts to gain speed, then lets off, then down shifts and on and on all within an 1/8 of a mile, it makes for a jerky ride. The ride is rough like hay wagon rough. The ride is loud air noise and road noise are not at a loss (good thing the radio is loud)

4. The ergonomics - Seats are hard, can not be adjusted to be comfortable and are very narrow. The center armrest and the door armrest are both about 2" too low forcing you to lean like a gangsta while riding. The steering wheel remains too close to the dash even when adjusted to the lowest position your hand still hits the dash directly in front of the wheel.

5. The overall opinion, if the only thing you care about is decent gas milage this car is OK, it does get only slightly better than the Chrysler 300m (about 4 mpg difference on the same trip as this Corolla went on)
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