2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport Hybrid sedan long-term review: Farewell

You know those utopian science-fiction movies where everyone drives cars that look the same because our wiser, less-selfish, future selves understand that you need only one, perfect car to do what needs to be done?

I know, right? How terrifying.

But also, I think we all know those cars must be Toyota Corollas, as quite frankly, why would they be anything else?

The world’s best-selling nameplate continues to outwit, outplay and outlast all others by just doing what it does, reliably and without fuss. Every. Single. Day.

Our time with the 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport Hybrid sedan long-termer has drawn to a close, and over the 1500-odd urban kilometres travelled, we have honestly struggled to find a real problem or deal-breaking point about it.

Sure, the colour is awful, but you can just buy a white one and note quietly to yourself that there’s a reason none of the utopian everycars in popular future-culture is Volcanic Red (now a $575 option).

Yes, those wheel covers look dumb, but so what. The nose is long, so you’ll scrape it. The driver’s seat could use better lumbar support, so you’ll buy a pillow. The very vocal assistant will chide you every time you even think of approaching a speed limit, so you’ll figure out how to turn it off or just live the left-lane life and drive slower.

In return, you’ll enjoy real-world fuel consumption in the low 4L/100km range, very cost-effective servicing at your local Toyota dealership, a comfortable ride, a big boot and all the features you really need.

My point being, if you are reading this as some kind of final validation before putting your hard-earned on the line for your little slice of utopian Corolla life, just do it.

Get a non-red one, without the navigation option and cherish the repeatable simplicity and efficiency that lies ahead of you.

However, if you’re here to help me find something, anything, wrong with the car that delivered a thousand hot-dinners? Let’s go!

To loop back, our ‘Rock-and-Rolla’ is priced from $27,395 before options and on-road costs. It has metallic paint ($575 – and easily avoidable), and the technology package to add DAB-digital radio and integrated navigation to the 8.0-inch touchscreen ($1000).

I’d suggest passing on this one too, as the standard Apple CarPlay (and Android Auto) connection works seamlessly and provides a better navigation experience, and now that my daughter has discovered ‘TikTok Trending’ on the DAB menu, we’re all better off without digital radio, regardless of how good that Coles Radio mix is.

Servicing is $205 a visit for the first five services, the warranty runs for five years, and you can even buy one with a guaranteed future-value package so that the entire cost of ownership can be calculated in Excel before you’ve finished this article.

But let’s say your life is more than A6=SUM(A1:A5), what did we discover about the little sedan that wasn’t so perfect (other than the colour)?

The combined petrol-electric output is still a double-digit number (90kW combined), which means the tangerine-dream was never particularly brisk. Even if you tried to rush about, the car didn’t really respond in an urgent manner. It buzzed more and revved higher, but you never seemed to go anywhere very quickly.

You’re not supposed to drive this car like that though, so more fool me for trying it on. Corolla life is very much a measured and rule-abiding one, so don’t go in expecting the first, last or middle word on dynamic and exciting performance.

There were a few other things though that we thought the car could manage better.

On cold mornings, it can take a decent amount of time for the demister to kick in and you’ll need to manually clear your windows and mirrors of excess frost and dew. In cold weather, the the Corolla is also more diligent about circulating its lubricating fluids in preparation for when you’ll need the petrol engine, and will run the engine more often and for longer, so you’ll use more fuel in winter.

This has also exhibited what we’ll call ‘ghost running’ where you can hear the purr of the petrol engine but the energy-usage diagram doesn’t indicate anything other than the electric system, or even nothing at all, activated in the car.

When the sun does come out, the dash-top material is very reflective and you can experience some solid glare in the windscreen.

And for rear passengers, despite having decent room, the rear bench is pretty firm and really only comfortable for shorter trips.

That’s basically it, and I think you’ll agree that none of these is a capital offence and all can be dealt with very swiftly.

Cold morning? Frosty mirrors? Wipe them with a cloth that you keep in the door pocket. Call it $10.

Ghost running? Engine treating itself to a little warmth in winter? You still get a very easily achievable average fuel consumption somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5L/100km. Our mostly urban use (in winter) resulted in an overall average of 4.2L/100km.

Even if the cold-running engine contributed 0.5L/100km between the claim and our result, that is somewhere around $10 for the 1500km we travelled. Sure, in a year that equates to about an extra tank of fuel, but it is still a pretty minor variance or impact. Clock up maybe $100

Reflective dash? Get an always stylish (but non-genuine) dash-mat from about $60.

Rear passengers not comfortable on a long-haul trip? Yeah, they won’t be. Keep to urban running and never speak of this again, or just buy the top-shelf jelly snakes to maintain a level of sugar-high bliss.

That’s another $10, or $180 in total, less than the price of a service, to essentially ‘perfect’ a Corolla.

Plus, it still leaves you with the remaining $395 you saved from not painting the car burnt-orangey-red, so in all, you’re up.

And what’s more, you’ve got the best worst-kept secret in the motoring world.

The 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport Hybrid sedan is pretty hard to top. As our ratings reflect, it isn’t the fastest, most dynamic, nor most perfectly equipped machine on the planet, but it sure feels like the most well rounded.

You can get a sharper looking machine going up the range, or a bigger machine by looking across the showroom to a Camry. You can even venture a little further afield with the same level of low-risk attitude in a RAV4 Hybrid, but the modest Toyota Corolla remains the sensible value proposition, regardless of lifestyle approach.

Things might not be hyper-exciting in a futuristic everycar utopia, but they sure do seem reliable.

But rather than wait for society to catch up on an arbitrary date down the track, and assuming Will Smith and Tom Cruise stay out of your way, embark on a journey in today’s monochrome jumpsuit transport, the humble Corolla Hybrid sedan.

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