We check out the exterior styling of the 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback.
TranscriptJAMES RISWICK: This is James Riswick for "Autoblog," and I'm going to give you a walk-around of the new 2019 Toyota Corolla hatchback. Now, this is the range-topping XSE as opposed to the SE. There is only sporty versions of this. Now, all of them have LED headlights, but the XSE has adaptive LED headlights. So they move in and out when you go around corners.
As you can see here, this is the JJJ LED headlight element. And then the other element here of the XSE is this LED foglight down here. Now, this is a typically large Toyota grille. And in my opinion, I think it works pretty well here on this new Corolla-- a little more subdued, a little more purposeful, and a little more cohesive with the rest of the car. I especially like how right here, it's all broken up and you have this nice trim piece right along here.
Moving around the side of the car, the XSE has 18-inch wheels. The SE has 17's. And, hey, it's a hatchback. Now, one of the things you'll see is those look like cool dual port exhausts. They aren't. No, no, no. This is not even a hole. The exhaust is down here. It's a fake. There you go.
Now, in terms of cargo capacity, see what it has in store for us here. Now, as you can see, there's actually not that much here. This is a pretty small trunk. In fact, when I say trunk, it really is, because there's really not that much space up above the seat line. This is a pretty small duffel bag right here, and it kind of takes up most of the space.
Now, Toyota said that the floor has been raised, quote, "to make it easier to load." Well, perhaps, but the other thing is it's pretty small as a result of this-- not a lot of space to work with here. Obviously, when you lower the seats, you do gain a little bit more space. But still, probably not this car's strong suit, especially compared to the Civic hatchback, which is quite large.
Now let's go inside. Now, this interior really is one of the new Corolla's best elements. It just looks really good. All the materials are really quality. This is a nice leather-like surface on the dash. It's stitched. This is nice and squishy. It's stitched as well. The doors look good. I like this two-toned color scheme. This upholstery that you get on the XSE looks great, feels great.
This is leather. You know, on the current RAV4, you can't get leather at all. But this is leather, feels good. Although I wonder how well it will wear over time. It'll probably suck up your jeans pretty well. But when new, it looks good. This gray fabric looks really good. Once again, you have nice materials along here, which is common regardless of the trim level. So you do get this stuff on the lower SE as well.
This touch screen, this is standard. On all of them, you get Apple CarPlay. You have these new buttons and switches. They all operate and feel very nice-- very premium feel and look to them. The other elements that you get with the XSE is this digital gauge cluster. This whole area here is one big screen.
Other elements with this trim level is dual zone climate control, you have heated seats-- again, the leather seats. This seat I'm in right now is eight-way powered. That's a really nice feature in a compact car. You also have HD radio, and you have extra sound deadening. And this car is pretty quiet as well as with this new engine. With the CDT, you really do notice how quiet it is.
As for the back seat, again you have that nice materials there. You have a center armrest that folds down, decent space. I have the seat all the way pushed back, so literally not much at the moment. But you know, good seat room right there. So really, this is a very nice cabin-- clear improvement over both the Corolla IM and the stock Corolla.
And I think if this isn't the nicest cabin in the segment, well, it's darn close. I do think it is of a higher quality, and I think it looks a little better than what's in the Mazda 3 and the Honda Civic. Nicely done.
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