Good news for those in the market for a four-season fuel sipper in the lower price range
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This top XSE trim gets 18-inch wheels, blacked-out grille treatment, rear diffuser, sport-themed rocker panels, and color-keyed spoiler. The sporty cues continue inside with red stripes on the seats, red stitching, and red seats belts. On seeing it for the first time, my wife said, “This is a Corolla? It looks like a sports car.”
What powers the Toyota Corolla Hybrid?
Typical with CVT-equipped cars, the Corolla Hybrid gets noisy when pushed as the CVT has the four-pot winding up and droning away while the car plays catch up. Selecting Sport mode brings some extra zing to the drive experience. Of course nobody is buying a hybrid Corolla for thrills. The real thrill with this car is putting it in Eco mode, trying to eke out every kilometre of electric-only driving, and watch the gas gauge… not move.
The 2025 Toyota Corolla Hybrid ZSE AWD on its 18-inch wheels is rated at 5.0 L/100 km city, 5.7 highway and 5.3 combined. During my frozen wintry week behind the wheel it retuned a respectable 5.9 L/100 km.
How does the Toyota Corolla Hybrid drive?
Toyota’s proven TNGA platform feels solid and imbues the Corolla with responsive handling and accurate steering. I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun this little sedan was on my back road test loop – even on this winter rubber. It just kinda hunkers down and gets on with it, carving the corners with fine balance and body control. Credit front Macpherson struts, rear multilink suspension and the rear electric motor that adds a bit of torque vectoring. The ride quality is good too.
Interior features in the hybrid Corolla
So what do we get in this top trim XSE? The infotainment screen gets upgraded from 8 inches to 11.5 inches, there’s a phone charging pad, sunroof, the rear seats are heated, and for your listening pleasure a pretty decent JBL audio system. The driver gets a 7-inch colour gauge display. The screens are sharp and Toyota’s infotainment system works well, with the Apple CarPlay showing a nice layout. Additionally, blurt “Hey Toyota” at any point (see what you started Mercedes?) and the disembodied voice in the Corolla’s dash is ready to do your bidding. Which she does very well.
Humans with opposing thumbs will appreciate the plethora of physical controls in here – rocker switches for seat heat, rotary controls for temp and fan speed, and a row of buttons for other HVAC functions. Unfortunately, with this 11.5-inch screen upgrade the volume knob gets ditched for up and down buttons. The shifter is of the old fashioned mechanical PRNDL variety.
How safe and reliable is the Toyota Corolla?
All Toyota Corolla Hybrid models come with Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 that includes adaptive cruise control, auto high beams, lane departure alert, front collision mitigation with pedestrian and cyclist detection, road sign assist, blind spot monitoring, and lane tracing assist. The IIHS gives the 2023 Corolla 4-door sedan a Top Safety Pick rating and the NHTSA awards the Corolla its top 5-Star rating.
The Corolla’s adaptive cruise is generally a smooth operator, avoiding abrupt acceleration and deceleration events when embroiled in the traffic hell we endure here in the GTA. And while the semi-autonomous lane centring works well, you’ll only get a few seconds of hands-free driving before being told to get your paws back on the wheel.
Final thoughts
The Prius has moved upmarket, leaving the Corolla Hybrid models, of which there are four, to occupy a lower price range. Good news for those in the market for a four-season fuel sipper, and I will happily go out on a limb here and say the 2025 Corolla Corolla Hybrid XSE AWD is a pretty stylin’ rig. Oh, and it’s not available in beige.
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