The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 29, 2008 - 17 FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED You'll Love Our Service! 905-335-4080 BURLINGTON LINE Toyota's 2009 XRS is a Corolla with attitude By Jim Robinson Metroland Media Group A hot rod Corolla! Linking the concept of performance and the humble Corolla may seem like a bit of a stretch, but Toyota seldom puts out a vehicle it thinks won't sell and that sure is true of the Corolla. Since the first one back in 1966, Toyota has sold more than 33 million Corollas in nine generations and in no less than 140 countries worldwide. Such is the demand, it is built in 16 plants around the world including here in Canada at Cambridge where the 2009 model, the tenth generation is rolling off the line. In fact, Cambridge is the second largest Corolla plant on the planet. And Cambridge had a part of play in the design of this significant vehicle. It might not sound like much, but Canadian input included making sure the footwell pedal spacing could accommodate winter boots and that the door pockets could hold a variety of sizes of ice scrapers. This extended to making sure the same pockets could accommodate personal electronics like cellphones and the larger PDAs used in North America. And, lastly, the door cupholders had to be big enough to hold a Tim's or Slurpie. It has been many, many years since I last drove a Corolla, so when Toyota called to remind me I hadn't driven one of the most popular cars in the world, let alone that it is made by people who read our newspapers, how could I say no? Ergo I was expecting a nice beige or silver Corolla, but what I got was a Ferrari red, big alloy-wheeled and rear spoiler-equipped XRS looking more the part of a sports sedan than family plodder. And while much is shared with the other SPORTY COROLLA: Yes Virginia, it is a Toyota Corolla, but this 2009 XRS model looks, drives and feels like a European sports sedan. members of the 2009 Corolla family, the XRS actually has attitude. Firstly, the 2009 Corolla is much bigger in flesh than it looks on websites or in brochures. The ability of modern stamping to produce shapes not possible even a decade ago results in the 2009 Corolla being very curvy. There are four models starting with the base CE, the mid-trim level S, the near-luxury equipped LE and the sporty XRS. All but the XRS get a 1.8-litre, DOHC inline fourcylinder producing 132 hp and 128 lb/ft of torque with a choice of a standard five-speed manual or optional four-speed automatic on the CE and S with the automatic standard on the LE. The XRS has a larger 2.4-litre DOHC inline four-cylinder with 158 hp and 162 lb/ft of torque. While the five-speed manual is standard on the XRS, the optional transmission is a five-speed automatic with sequential shift mode. I had the five-speed manual with fuel consumption listed at 9.5/6.7/8.2L/100 km (30/42/34 mpg) city/highway/combined. The automatic is rated at 9.4/6.5/8.1L/100 km (30/43/35 mpg) city/highway/combined. And you're right; the automatic is marginally better than the stick on gas. But for real economical motoring, the 1.8-litre standard or automatic both achieve 5.6L/100 km or 50 mpg. The brakes on the XRS are different too. The CE, S, and LE have ventilated discs at the front and drums at the rear, where the XRS has discs at the rear as well. ABS with Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) See Corolla page 18