2019 Corolla Hatchback

[Kalispel]

I checked out the 2019 Corolla hatchback in-person yesterday (both XSE & SE), while waiting for my regular 40K maintenance service.

Front seats are comfortable & stylish. Doesn't feel as roomy/open as my Yaris, due to the way the cockpit sort of wraps around the driver, and the ceiling is lower. Not bad - just a different feel. Larger (rotund/stocky) people may find it sort of cramped, but it was okay for me (normal/lean build). Even at 6ft2in tall my Yaris ceiling seems unnaturally high (& probably why the front windshield is so damn tall), so I actually like the lower ceiling on the new Corolla better. Interior is more 'deluxe' than a Yaris, naturally, but still not a fan of the jetting touchscreen integration into the dash, nor the look/design of the air vents in general. Inside doors/design are nice & the handle is much better than the inside squeaky plastic handle/grip on the Yaris. Front door feels strangely elongated for a 4-door car & easy to bang into something when you open them, but perhaps just because I am used to the shorter, lighter doors on my Yaris 4-door. Center console/armrest, and more storage in general is nice on the new Corolla.

Exterior doesn't look any better in-person. In-fact, it looks/feels worse. Weird hoodline. Ugly front grill/bumper design, & ugly, weird/stupid shaped headlights. Rear bumper & side skirt pieces had a lightweight, thin, cheap feel to them (the iM felt like it had better materials quality in this regard). The chrome-painted plastic fake exhaust port inserts are just laughably tacky. Rear hatch slope is sort of annoying, but its cool that the hatch is made out of lightweight ceramic instead of metal. XSE wheels are a nice design, but wish they were the exact same thing in 17" instead, with tires that balance sportiness with practicality better. The 16" wheels on the SE Corolla hatch still look a tad too small for that car (reminds me of the small wheels & skinny tires the base Matrix had back in the day, that ruined the entire look of the vehicle). Those 16" wheels would look great on a Yaris though if they weren't 5-lug wheels.

The 'Scarlet' 2019 Corolla hatch looked to me in-person (outside, in bright morning AZ sunlight) more like a dark/burnt orange-rust color than red. It wasn't attractive. The 'Oxide Bronze' color also had a sickly look to it in-person. WTH Toyota?

All in all, except for the new, more innovative engine/CVT design of the new 2019 Corolla hatch, I think I actually prefer the outgoing Corolla iM more in pretty much every other way. I am not interested in this car any longer, at least not in this current gen cycle version (2019-2021).