2024 Toyota Corolla

The Toyota Corolla has been in continuous production since 1966. In that time, it’s become a benchmark for safe, reliable, and practical personal transportation. Now in its 12th generation, the Corolla builds on that reputation with a modern spin on a proven formula. The styling and technology are thoroughly modern, but the Corolla still impresses on its historic strong suits with excellent safety scores and outstanding fuel economy.

The 50-mpg Corolla Hybrid sedan and sporty, flexible Corolla Hatchback are reviewed separately.

We’ve spent hundreds of hours driving and evaluating the current collection of compact cars, including this Toyota Corolla.

The Toyota Corolla adds the moody Nightshade trim to its lineup for 2024. It’s essentially an appearance package for the SE trim with dark exterior accents and stylish bronze-colored wheels.

The pricing of the Corolla is around the middle of its class. More affordable options include the Nissan Sentra, Kia Forte, and Hyundai Elantra. The Mazda3 has a similar price tag, and the recently redesigned Honda Civic is a little pricier.

Before buying a Corolla, check the Kelley Blue Book Fair Purchase Price to know what you should really pay. The Toyota brand is the champion on our Best Resale Value awards list, and the Corolla’s resale value is above average for the segment.

The Toyota Corolla is motivated by a 169-horsepower 4-cylinder engine matched with a CVT automatic transmission and front-wheel drive. We’ve found it delivers enough pep to get around town and to cruise on the highway comfortably. Acceleration is quick enough for daily driving duties and an improvement over the weaker base engine in earlier model years of this Corolla generation. It gets a little more engaging to drive with the paddle shifters on the SE and XSE trims. Overall, the ride is compliant, the seats are comfortable, and it’s hard to find fault in how it drives.

Fuel Economy

The popular LE trim of the Corolla has a combined fuel economy rating of up to 35 mpg. It’s slightly more efficient — and a bit more powerful, too — than its entry-level counterparts in the compact sedan segment. If efficiency is a high priority, the Corolla Hybrid, reviewed separately, earns up to 50 mpg combined.

We find the interior quality of the Corolla to be pretty good for a compact car at this price point. The standard cloth seats are comfortable, and the upper trims get SofTex faux leather seating. As for the 8-inch infotainment screen, we love that it has standard wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and a traditional volume knob.

The rear seats have 34.8 inches of legroom, which is adequate for most adults but just okay for this class. The trunk has 13.1 cubic feet of volume, which is one of the smallest in this segment. We also found it oddly challenging to fold down the rear seats because of the awkward placement of the latches behind the headrests.

For reference, the roomier Honda Civic sedan boasts 37.4 inches of rear legroom and has a 14.8 cubic-foot trunk. If you want more cargo room and flexibility, consider the Corolla Hatchback.

The aesthetics of the Toyota Corolla are humble yet stylish. The SE and XSE trims look sportier than the base LE model, with revised front and rear fascias and 18-inch alloy wheels.

Impressive Engine
The Corolla’s 169 horsepower is enough, and fuel economy of up to 40 mpg on the highway is fantastic.

Toyota Safety Sense 3.0
The standard safety tech suite in the Corolla bundles many desirable features. It has automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, lane tracing assist, road sign assist, and automatic high beams.

8-inch Toyota Audio Multimedia
The standard 8-inch screen in the Corolla is loaded with features like wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, dual Bluetooth phone connectivity, and over-the-air updates.

Intelligent Assistant
This optional feature on the Corolla adds a cool piece of modern tech to this compact. Just say, “Hey, Toyota,” and the infotainment system acts like a smart speaker responding to voice commands. You can use it to get directions, control the audio, change the temperature, and more.

The Toyota Corolla is powered by a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine rated at 169 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque. Output is sent to the front wheels via automatic transmission (of the continuously variable variety). The Corolla is good on gas, returning up to 35 combined mpg in the base trim and 34 mpg in the two upper trims.

3-Year/36,000-Mile Warranty

The Toyota Corolla is backed by a 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty and a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty. Toyota also throws in a 2-year/25,000-mile complimentary maintenance plan.

Safety

The Toyota Corolla has a strong track record for safety as a repeat winner of the IIHS Top Safety Pick award. On top of its good crash-test ratings, it’s well-equipped with standard safety features like automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, and much more.