– Sponsored Review –

Late last year, I was given the opportunity to test drive the all-new Toyota Corolla Altis, which is now in its 11th generation, over a period of four days. It is my first time being approached to do a car review and I am more than willing to try out something different for my blog and readers! To be honest, I don’t know much about cars and absolutely nothing about technical specifications but I’m gonna give a shot nevertheless 🙂

The all-new Corolla Altis’ design theme exudes the confidence of a modern, advanced vehicle. With a longer wheelbase and shorter overhangs, the car holds an athletic stance with greater presence. More pronounced flared wheel arches, and a clean yet impactful sculpted surface adds an air of elegance to its sporty exterior. Viewed in profile, a sweeping crease in the body sheet metal spans the length of the sedan and accentuates the integrated door handle design. The exterior tapers towards the front and rear of the vehicle to emphasize its wheel arches, with a longer, faster sloping roofline that blends into a shorter rear deck to give the sedan a sportier image.

As a result of the 100 mm increase in vehicle wheelbase, passenger comfort in the all new Corolla Altis’ interior package has been dramatically improved, with significantly increased legroom for rear seat occupants. Compared to the outgoing model, the rear seat hip point has been moved back 75 mm, with additional legroom gained by adopting a slim front seat back.

The rear passenger floor was also made flatter by re-routing the exhaust pipes beneath the vehicle to offer a better middle position flat floor bed. A new sporty 3-spoke steering wheel, designed with a characteristic V-shaped silver ornamentation and clad in genuine leather, provides excellent ergonomics driving to remain a comfortable experience, even for longer journeys. Shortcuts to access frequently required information and audio controls are placed within easy reach to ensure safe driving at all times.

The Corolla Altis adopts sleek, compact LED lamp assemblies that reduce corner mass and help accentuate its tapered, rounded-corner design theme. In addition, the lower amounts of heat generated by the LED lamps enable the use of a lighter weight PES (Polyethersulfone) resin lens instead of conventional glass. The all-new Corolla Altis is the first compact sedan to offer LED projector headlamps as standard equipment. The Corolla Altis also comes with automatic headlamps which are really cool. The headlights lit up whenever we turned into a carpark, tunnel and when it was dark.

As a parent, I am very happy with the Corolla’s Altis wide trunk space which can contain a pram, luggage, bags, amongst a few other things. When our hands were full from too much shopping, the electric trunk release allowed us to open the car boot with a light touch.

The all new Corolla Altis has incorporated quite a number of cool features such as the keyless entry which, simply put, eliminates the need for drivers to rummage through their bags in search of their car keys. The car can be unlocked at a simple touch of the handle as long as the key is in your bag or pocket.

Instead of having to insert the car key into the ignition, the engine is started at a simple push of the button.

The all-new Corolla Altis offers an efficient 1.6-liter, four-cylinder 16 Valves DOHC engine equipped with Dual VVT-i that generates a power output of 121 bhp and 154 Nm torque. The Dual VVT-i varies the timing and lift of the engine’s valves to suit your driving requirements, resulting in improved responsiveness, superior fuel economy of 6.5l/100km and low CO2 emission of 151g/km.

Thanks to a rigid chassis that takes advantage of improved suspension tuning to offer a more engaging and more dynamic car, the Corolla Altis offers improved handling and steering. The vehicle also felt very stable and agile.

I love that the audio controls are located on the steering wheel. It certainly makes things a whole lot more convenient when I want to switch radio stations or turn up the volume while both hands are still on the steering wheel.

We all know how distracting it can be when glaring headlights from other cars shine directly into our rear view mirrors when driving! The electrochromic rear view mirror with auto dimming solves this problem.

Drinks holder for the driver and passenger. How thoughtful!

DVD infotainment with navigation is powered by Garmin. Quite reliable but takes quite a while to load when we were turning out from carparks.

I was initially quite skeptical about the rain sensing wipers but the wipers started sweeping as soon as it started to rain. The speed of the wipers is also dependent on how heavy the rain is.

All in all, we found the all new Toyota Corolla Altis to be a very reliable and stable car which boasts many intuitive features that form a conducive and hasslefree driving experience. Click here to book a test drive today!