What do you guys think of this new hatchback design??

[jsta]

yep, you can take comfort that it's a 4 speed auto

http://www.redbook.c...&Ridx=11&eapi=2

personally speaking it's not a very good gearbox, i think any automatic gearbox (modern) should have tiptronic included so you have some degree of control over the gears

When I was buying my Toyota Corolla Ascent Hatch last December the sales lady said the car could also be used as a manual. I asked how does that work as that was news to me. She said she didn't know and just use it as an automatic. The gearbox is weird for an automatic. Its not straight up and down but looks like a manual gearbox.

I can't see anything in the manual about this so maybe she was just feeding me a line.

My knowledge isn't with cars.

It's called semi-auto but the problem is I think your car doesn't have that - it just has 3, 2 and L - correct me if I'm wrong?

I know this new model has the proper semi-auto with shift pedals or whatever behind the steering wheel and the plus and minus on the gear stick.

On a think gear 3 it can go either side but never tried it. I think its 3, 2 and 1. I'll take a digital picture of the gearbox today and post it.

My car is the Toyota Corolla Ascent Hatchback, automatic bought Dec of 2011.

Don't suppose there is a pdf manual of the car so I can search for certain words to scan through the manual faster ?

[fillit]

yep, you can take comfort that it's a 4 speed auto

http://www.redbook.c...&Ridx=11&eapi=2

personally speaking it's not a very good gearbox, i think any automatic gearbox (modern) should have tiptronic included so you have some degree of control over the gears

When I was buying my Toyota Corolla Ascent Hatch last December the sales lady said the car could also be used as a manual. I asked how does that work as that was news to me. She said she didn't know and just use it as an automatic. The gearbox is weird for an automatic. Its not straight up and down but looks like a manual gearbox.

I can't see anything in the manual about this so maybe she was just feeding me a line.

My knowledge isn't with cars.

It's called semi-auto but the problem is I think your car doesn't have that - it just has 3, 2 and L - correct me if I'm wrong?

I know this new model has the proper semi-auto with shift pedals or whatever behind the steering wheel and the plus and minus on the gear stick.

On a think gear 3 it can go either side but never tried it. I think its 3, 2 and 1. I'll take a digital picture of the gearbox today and post it.

My car is the Toyota Corolla Ascent Hatchback, automatic bought Dec of 2011.

Don't suppose there is a pdf manual of the car so I can search for certain words to scan through the manual faster ?

It's prob 3 2 and L, it's not really a real tiptronic/semi automatic it's only really used to lock it into gear so you can tow or for driving in snow etc.

[Lukusis]

Hmmm so i wasnt really itno the new model..... but having just saw one in the felsh, im diggin' it!

[jsta]

The car is $7000 cheaper than my Toyota Corolla Hatch Auto yet it appears to have more stuff in it like a GPS which mine doesn't have.

For them to make it so much cheaper I would fear that to many of thg parts maybe made in China. Know a friend who bought a Toyota

4wd and has broken down a bit and the parts made in China were the faulty parts.

Not everything made in China is bad but its far cheaper. That does worry me. Seen this with other products where when they were

made in Japan they last far longer than parts made in China.

Edited November 27, 2012 by jsta

[Kenshin X]

yep its growing on me....

[fivese7en]

The car is $7000 cheaper than my Toyota Corolla Hatch Auto yet it appears to have more stuff in it like a GPS which mine doesn't have.

For them to make it so much cheaper I would fear that to many of thg parts maybe made in China. Know a friend who bought a Toyota

4wd and has broken down a bit and the parts made in China were the faulty parts.

Not everything made in China is bad but its far cheaper. That does worry me. Seen this with other products where when they were

made in Japan they last far longer than parts made in China.

Have to agree with you mate, some stuff from China is pretty good but other stuff are very dodgy - in the end it's just cost to their business that matters to them sometimes.

I'm sure most of us are happy to pay the extra $$$ to get better stuff vs getting the cheaper stuff and lower quality at a lower cost - after all you're putting 20-35k down already for the car.

[Vettori]

New Corolla has 103kw @6400rpm.

hmm...

I didn't read all the pages of replies, so apologies if this was covered already.

The engine in the new corolla is the same as the ZRE. The 103kw is measured at 6400rpm compared to the ZRE 100kw at 6000rpm. Improvement? Hardly. Naturally if you rev it harder you will have more output.

[jsta]

The car is $7000 cheaper than my Toyota Corolla Hatch Auto yet it appears to have more stuff in it like a GPS which mine doesn't have.

For them to make it so much cheaper I would fear that to many of thg parts maybe made in China. Know a friend who bought a Toyota

4wd and has broken down a bit and the parts made in China were the faulty parts.

Not everything made in China is bad but its far cheaper. That does worry me. Seen this with other products where when they were

made in Japan they last far longer than parts made in China.

Have to agree with you mate, some stuff from China is pretty good but other stuff are very dodgy - in the end it's just cost to their business that matters to them sometimes.

I'm sure most of us are happy to pay the extra $$$ to get better stuff vs getting the cheaper stuff and lower quality at a lower cost - after all you're putting 20-35k down already for the car.

My brother was explaining to me that his friends Toyota that started to break down was on the Chinese made parts so what he's now doing is buying in other parts not made in China that are of a stronger design and he's fixing up his car himnself.

I can for see that techno minded people could start a business up by replacing the poorly designed parts for higher quality parts.

I saw on the news last night, maybe Today Tonight was doing it where a car fixer place had cameras on the work that was being done and that the customer could see the mechanics working on the car which is a brilliant idea. The car fixer place was in Sydney. Called C U Us or something like that. If they come to Perth I'd go there to get my car serviced over Toyota doing it.

[fivese7en]

It's just rubbish that you have to "DIY" your own car to get it running properly without the cheap parts and putting down 20-30k for it first.

You'd expect it to run for at least 3 years with no problems, bit of a disappointment.

No point taking it to toyota either as they well replace it with the same cheap part lol.

Edited December 5, 2012 by fivese7en

[jsta]

It's just rubbish that you have to "DIY" your own car to get it running properly without the cheap parts and putting down 20-30k for it first.

You'd expect it to run for at least 3 years with no problems, bit of a disappointment.

No point taking it to toyota either as they well replace it with the same cheap part lol.

A sign of the times though. They are all pretty much cutting costs to make the cars cheaper.

Sooner or later the whole car will probably be made in China and then it will be cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Not everything made in China is bad but for my brothers friend who bought a brand new Toyota 4WD and for him

to have to fix it himself with better parts so that the car would run better doesn't say much. Expect to see many

more people posting about new car problems in the coming months.

Good will is everything in business. Drop the good will and see the business go down the drain.

I went for new Toyota Corolla Ascent Hatch Auto 2011 model when I bought it last December because my previous

Toyota Corolla lasted so well for the 17 years that I had it for.

If I was buying now I really don't know what I would buy. The latest Corollas look lower to the ground so that wouldn't appeal to me and

I'd be wanting to know if any of the parts are made in China. That would be the first question I would ask and if they say no I would want them to put it in writing and sign it.