Matt Greenop: Corolla still ticks boxes for NZ drivers

Toyota Corolla. Photo / Supplied

Corolla still ticks all boxes for NZ drivers.

The Toyota Corolla just won't go away - and there are a large number of Kiwis who would go into a huge emotional decline should that ever happen.

We love our Corollas here - and rightfully so. Just do a quick survey among friends and colleagues to see who has owned one, and it's highly unlikely that nobody puts a hand up.

Owning a Corolla - or one of its extended whanau that encompasses Levin and Trueno amongst others - is almost a rite of passage in New Zealand.

Want reliable, reasonably cheap cost of ownership and a solid resale? It ticks a whole lot of boxes. Even Toyota's glory car - the recently-launched 86 - puts a Corolla at the top of its family tree, the Levin AE86.

As time as ticked on, and technology has improved, the Corolla has carefully maintained its market position as an easy-to-drive, easy-to-live-with, family-capable machine without pretensions, nothing too flash Harry, and a good, honest face. And this has quite obviously worked a treat. With the next generation upon us as from this week, and Toyota's sales figures again putting it in Goliath position on the Kiwi car charts, it's undoubtedly going to be a solid success.

I've had a'rolla or two over the years, and certainly wouldn't discount owning one again.

Every company that I've worked for that has run a fleet has counted some of Toyota's favourite in its line-up, and that doesn't seem to have changed.