Exactly, I've been able to test a 1.8 oriel to limits and man this car can take curves, it is confidence aspiring. the 9th gen gets light from rear end and tends to fishtail at limits (the reason for accidents under novice drivers reaching its limits) where as 10th gen though goes into oversteer too at limits, but it is by design and is fun & easy to tackle with vsc kicking in (will try with vsc off too as on 8th gen hybrid it was more of a nuisance playing safe all the time.
But 8th gen is a passion, being a corolla owner the time 8th gen was launched I kind of spewed hate on it but nothing compares to its design and drive. r18 is no slouch even by today's standards so for 2006 8th gen was lot of a car for our market (add in the manual transmission which is faster than both cvt and prosematic, and the fact that initially more manuals were sold than autos which started making more sense to us in 2008-2009 onwards). 8th gen was also raised for Pakistan if I compare it to the uk model hybrid.