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The Corolla was Australia's third best-selling vehicle overall in 2018. Here's our introduction to the range and a guide on getting a loan to finance your own Corolla hatch or sedan.
If you can believe it, the Toyota Corolla has been in production since November 1966. In 2016, Toyota stated 44.1 million had sold worldwide. According to their calculations, one sells roughly every 15 seconds.
There are three different Corolla trims on sale: Ascent Sport, SX and ZR. All three sell with either a 2.0-litre petrol engine or a 1.8-litre hybrid power plant. All Corolla grades have an automatic CVT, apart from the Ascent Sport, where it is optional. With that model, Toyota installs a six-speed manual.
In addition to a hatchback, there's also a sedan body style available. Refreshingly, there's no price difference between the two, as is often the case.
This is the lowest-priced Corolla trim line, with a drive-away price of $26,927 and up for a 2.0-litre, manual model. The automatics will cost you from $28,472. Toyota prices the hybrid Corolla Ascent Sport from $30,017.
The following are the key features of this model:
What do you get for the $31,974 SX drive-away price? Quite a bit more actually:
For a hybrid SX, you'll have to fork out $33,519.
This is the highest spec Corolla for sale. The standard 2.0-litre petrol and automatic cost $35,991, while a Toyota hybrid ZR is $37,536. Interestingly, there's a no-cost option to ditch the black leather interior for a red-accented one.
Other highlights include the following:
Finder's Alex Jeffs had his hands-on the Corolla ZR Hybrid, stating:
Best-seller for a reason
The Corolla is a bestseller for a reason. Regardless of what you may think about it, it does everything it was designed to do and it does it well.
Read our detailed Toyota Corolla comparison review, where we combined the findings of four motoring experts. Reading our concise review will save you time and give you a broader impression of what the Corolla is like to own. If you're looking at a used Corolla from 2018 or before, read our 2018 Toyota Corolla review.
Why should I buy a Toyota Corolla?
The ideal car loan would look something like this:
The closer you can get a loan to the above terms, the nearer it is to being an epic deal.
We help you compare secured and unsecured car loans. With a secured car loan, the loan provider has an asset that can offset some of the risk for them of lending you the money. If you were to no longer be able to meet the monthly payments, they can legally recover the vehicle. As a result, secured car loans will typically have a more favourable interest rate.
However, there is usually the condition attached that you must only spend the borrowed funds on the car purchase itself, not on things like on-road costs or insurance.
If you need a car loan that has fewer conditions attached, you might think about going for an unsecured car loan. No security interest is registered by the lender, so for them, there's an increased level of danger. As a result, they bump up the interest rates to compensate for their gamble. With a higher rate of interest, you will pay more back over the loan term, but you're free to spend the money on other bits and pieces like on-road costs.
Take note of application fees and monthly service fees as you'll have to factor those into your budget.
Enter the amount you'd like to borrow for your Corolla. Choose your preferred loan term, remembering the longer you take out the loan, the lower the monthly payments but the more in interest you'll have to dish out. If you can't really afford the loan, play with the term length. If you took out a loan of $30,000 over 3 years, the monthly payments are essentially 55% more than taking the loan over 6 years (though you'll pay less in interest due to shorter period).
Car loans and financial jargon can make your mind boggle, so we've put together an everyday English guide to car loans. Reading through that, you'll understand all the ins and outs of loans, speak the lingo and know what's needed to apply for one.
Picture: Supplied
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