C O V E R     S T O R Y

Surely you agree that the advertising concept of having a certain Hollywood actor driving the all-new Toyota Corolla Altis didn’t raise your expectations.  In fact, personally, I find the adverts bordering on the tasteless and the just plain awful. Could this be a premonition of things to expect with the Corolla Altis? Thankfully, no—as the Corolla Altis proves to be the best mainstream car Toyota Motors Philippines has come up with in probably its whole history, but could it be a true threat to the Honda Civic and Nissan Exalta? 

For those who think that this new Corolla Altis is merely an evolution of the Corollas of the past with refined styling and features, then you’re wrong. What Toyota has done here is that it grabbed the formbook by the scruff of its neck and shredded it. The Corolla Altis is leagues better than the car it replaces. The Altis has grown in very aspect (4530 mm vs. 4315 mm in length; 1705 mm vs. 1690 mm in width; 1500 mm vs. 1385 mm in height and 2600 mm vs. 2465 mm in wheelbase) and it shows.  The height is probably the most obvious improvement for the Corolla Altis since it uses the same concept design as the ones found in the Echo and Prius. Designers noted that increasing the headroom would give a less claustrophobic environment. Although not too obvious from its design elements, the Corolla Altis is also the longest car in its class compared to the Honda Civic’s 4435 mm and the Exalta’s 4470 mm. 

Though the dimensional difference compared to its competitors isn’t much to cause a lot of controversy, these proportions do give the designers the block fromn which to carve their design. In this respect, the length, width and height dictated by Toyota’s ergonomic specialists have paved the way as to how the car will look like. The Corolla Altis’ exterior design is quite different from the guppy-faced Japanese Corolla. Since Toyota’s aim in the South East Asian region is to position the new Corolla Altis as an affordable luxury family car, exterior designers had to work hard to improve the rather clean and uninspired design of the Zen-loving Japanese.

In the process, they have given the Corolla Altis one of the most heatedly debated body design since the nameplate’s inception more than 30 years ago. Unlike Honda, who didn’t like to take chances with the new Civic (they decided to refine the previous generation’s design), Toyota took a bold step with the Corolla, the centerpiece of which is the four-headlamp design. The four-headlamp structure is the first for any Corolla, and according to the car’s designers, this improves the lamp’s throw by huge bounds over the two-lamp design that was used before.  

Aesthetically, Toyota wrapped the lamps to make the inner lamp pieces droop downwards, similar to what Mercedes-Benz did with the S-class; only this one, they did it in reverse. Though some people noted that the lamps look as if they were two nostrils protruding into the grille, personally, I find the Corolla Altis’ lamp design quite refreshing and unique. This is especially true because of the fact that Toyota has finally produced some sexy curves upfront unlike the bland squarish and / or triangular units in the Civic, Exalta and Lynx.

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