Corolla has a well-earned reputation for reliability and life gained in forty years on the Australian market. It has been a big seller in this country, managing number one spot on several occasions over the last couple of years due to rising fuel prices. So there are always plenty of Corollas on the used-car market. Which allows smart buyers plenty of opportunity to pick and choose amongst those on offer.
 
From the September 1994 model the Toyota Corolla jumped up a step in refinement for a car of this class. Fascinatingly, some of the technology developed for Lexus cars even flowed down to Corolla. These post-94 Corollas are the ones we will concentrate on in this week’s used car feature.

Corolla was built in Australia for many years prior to 1999, but is now fully imported from Japan. The locally-made Corollas were modified to suit Australia's poor roads and the steering was given a more positive feel to suit the tastes of Australian drivers. Interestingly, quite a few of the Australian modifications were transferred to Corollas worldwide, so the cars imported from Japan still work pretty well in our conditions.

Handling is competent enough, with an emphasis on safety for the average driver. But over the years it has improved to the stage where the keen driver will get some pleasure from the way the Corolla feels and reacts.

Toyota Corolla has reasonable rear-seat room and a good-sized boot. It is large enough to be considered as a family car if the children aren't of the hulking-teen type. It comes in four-door sedan and five-door hatchback (Toyota calls it liftback) and station wagon format, though not all were on sale at all times. The wagon is a practical machine with a good load area.

Engines are all four-cylinder units with sizes of 1.6 or 1.8 litres. The 1.8-litre is the better bet if you are doing a lot of country driving, but the 1.6-litre is fine for suburban use with some holiday trips in the bush. The 1.8 engine from late 2001 onwards is a new design and a real step up from the previous units.
 
Always anxious to get away from the Corolla's reputation for being a sensible but boring car, Toyota has had a stab at a couple of sporting variants. These Sportivo models didn’t have a lot of success. Chiefly because many of the so-called sporty models have been half-hearted styling-and-suspension jobs without any more engine performance than the standard cars.

The 2001 Corolla sports model did have a turbo engine with plenty of grunt, but it was expensive and didn’t sell well. This can be an interesting car if you are looking for something out of the ordinary, but talk to your insurance company first as insurers often take a dislike to turbocharged engines.

From May 2003 until 2006, Toyota imported the Corolla Sportivo with what was virtually a hot Celica 1.8-litre engine. There’s plenty of power high up the scale, up to 141 kW at the peak, but down-low torque is noticeably lacking so it can be hard work getting the best from it.

All manual gearboxes are five-speed units, with the exception of the Celica-engined Sportivo which has a close-ratio six-speed. The automatic transmissions in the cars being examined this week are all four-speed units. Performance from an automatic can be marginal in a car of this size so take it for a good test drive, preferably in genuine stop-start driving, to see if a Corolla auto suits your needs.
 
Spare parts and servicing for these little Toyotas are available through one of the biggest, most widely spread dealer networks in the Australia.

The Corolla has a simple layout and is easy for the good amateur mechanic to work on. But please stick to non-safety work unless you are a professional. Workshop manuals are readily available at specialist motoring bookshops as well as some general suppliers. We recommend you have one at your side before commencing work.

Insurance premiums are usually low on the Toyota Corolla, but the turbo and Sportivo models may be slugged with a hefty extra charge by some companies. All the more so if the driver is young and/or inexperienced. Again, make sure to contact insurance companies in advance of buying a performance car or you could be in for a nasty surprise.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Check for signs of body damage, or panel repairs. Look for ripples in the body, best seen by looking at the car end on in good light; watch for paint colours that don’t match correctly; and try to spot tiny spots of paint on areas like glass, badges and rubbing strips that should be paint free.

Look carefully at the upholstery and carpets for damage or excess wear. These can also be a clue that the Corolla has been knocked around.

Drying out and cracking of the dashboard top or rear shelf probably means the car has seldom, if ever, been garaged.

Rust is not common in later-model Corollas, but can sometimes be found around the fuel filler cap and the hinges of the rear hatch. Check the bottom corners of the doors and mudguards, the door sill panels and in the lower edges of the bootlid or tailgate.

Engines should kick over virtually instantaneously and settle into a smooth idle within seconds.

Look for smoke from the exhaust pipe when the engine is accelerated after having been idling for a minute or so.

Manual gearboxes should be smooth and quiet in operation and not crunch on fast downchanges from third to second.

Too long a delay in an automatic transmission clicking into gear from Neutral or Park is probably a sign of wear.

Make sure the brakes don't pull the car to one side when they are applied hard.

HOW MUCH?
Budget on paying from $2000 to $4000 for a 1994 Conquest; $4000 to $7000 for a 1997 CSi; $6000 to $10,000 for a 2000 Ascent; $7500 to $12,000 for a 2001 Conquest Seca; $9000 to $14,000 for a 2001 Ultima; $12,000 to $18,000 for a 2006 Ascent Sport; $15,000 to $22,000 for a 2007 Conquest; and $18,000 to $26,000 for a 2007 Levin.

CAR BUYING TIP
Bigger sellers are, naturally, available in larger numbers on the used-car scene. Use this to your advantage by picking and choosing carefully from those on offer.