Toyota COROLLA VERSO RANGE
Toyotas Latest Corolla Verso Has A Distinctly Western Feel To It. Andy Enright Explains Why
Exactly how Japanese is your Japanese car? It may sound a ridiculous question but with many Toyotas being built in Burnaston, Nissans in Sunderland and Hondas in Swindon, chances are your Japanese car hails from a lot closer to home. The Corolla Verso is a case in point. Although Adapazari in Turkey is still quite a hefty commute from where Im sitting, it underlines Toyotas Eurocentric focus for their latest version of the clever
mini-MPV.
The first Corolla Verso was one of the most underrated cars on the UKs roads, especially in D4-D diesel guise. Sales were sluggish, the cars rather stodgy styling not helping, but beneath the unassuming lines was a car that shrugged off the toughest of assignments with some Ă©lan. We ran a long term car for six months and although many were decidedly lukewarm about the car when it first arrived, no car before or since has earned such respect from those who spent time with it. All it needed was a little more showroom wow factor. The latest version, priced from £14,500, adds exactly that.
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The exterior styling is a good deal more dynamic, the staff at Toyotas ED2 design centre in southern France doing a good job at giving the Verso a more pugnacious stance with far slicker detailing. The rear light cluster is particularly well executed with a trio of vertically stacked barrel-like lights that rise to form a distinctive shoulder that then forms the cars window line. The shape is still reminiscent of the original Corolla Verso but everything seems to have been sharpened up, as if the Verso has spent a month at Automotive Fit Club. The wheel arches are more defined, and the front grille and bumper are slimmer and sleeker.
Theres also a definite upper and lower body to the car, helped by those distinctive shoulders which give it a far more progressive look.
"Everything seems to have been sharpened up, as if the Verso has spent a month at Automotive Fit Club"
Unlike many similarly sized rivals, the Corolla Verso can
seat seven and, uniquely in its class, all five rear seats fold down into the floor to create a totally flat loading surface. This means that you wont need to haul heavy seats into and out of the car if ultimate carrying capacity is required. A lot of thought has gone into this system, the seats not only being the lightest in class but also requiring a simple one-touch operation to fold each one flat. The interior looks a good deal sharper than the old car, with tighter manufacturing tolerances meaning panel fits are better.
As with all manufacturers,
Toyota have worked hard at getting the door slam sound exactly right and the combination of carefully sited hinges and clever air sealing makes the Corolla Verso sound more impregnable than Fort Knox when you slam the doors shut. The materials used throughout the cabin have been thoroughly upgraded too with a combination of metallic finishes to accentuate the centre console. The design majors on geometric shapes and three-dimensional elements to render an arch like effect. Its quite unlike any other Toyota interior and marks a new design direction thats surprisingly bold for a model that will be marketed to some of the most conservative new car customers.
But who are these customers and what do they expect? Cast your mind back to when people carriers, or MPVs, first appeared. Life was easy then. You had a
Renault Espace or a Toyota Previa and youd be quite content. MPV.
Simple. Toyota then muddied the waters somewhat by launching the Picnic. We tried to ignore the fact that it was smaller than conventional MPVs. When Renault launched the Scenic, a new subclass sprung up, the
mini-MPV.
After that, things started to get a little sketchy. Toyota cop the credit/blame for creating the supermini-MPV class with the Yaris Verso, although
Citroen pioneered the van-based mini-MPV class with the Berlingo Multispace. Elsewhere in Toyotas current line up is a fully-fledged mini-MPV, the Avensis Verso, so where does that leave the Corolla Verso? Lets just dub it a mini-MPV, trusting that you dont spot one parked next to the Avensis Verso and write in to complain. Not only does it help furnish Toyota with the most comprehensive MPV range in the European market, but the Corolla Verso is also expected to account for around a quarter of all Corolla variant sales which, when you consider that enough Corollas have been sold to landfill the Pacific Ocean, its easy to appreciate the Versos significance.
Okay, so the concept of turning the worlds biggest body of water into a single-make version of your local scrapyard may have been a mild exaggeration, but dont underestimate the number of Corolla Versos that will soon be trundling off the end of the Turkish production line. Overall then, the Verso looks set to improve on the rather muted reception its excellent predecessor received. If you fancy a small MPV that doesnt look like a bread van, a Popemobile or a skip and which offers a level of fit and finish thats hard to come by in this sector, the Corolla Verso is well worth a look. Is it a mini, a micro or a midi-MPV? When youve got a product as well-sorted as this, does it really matter?
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Toyota Corolla Verso range
PRICES: £14,500-£19,795 on the road
INSURANCE GROUPS: 5E-8E
CO2 EMISSIONS: 165-184g/km
PERFORMANCE: [1.8] 0-60mph 10.8s / Max Speed 122mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [1.8] (combined) 36.7mpg / (extra urban) 43.4mpg / (urban) 28.5mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Nine airbags / ABS with EBD
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/width/heightmm 4360/1770/1622mm
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