I just came across this thread while searching around in the forums and found it to be a great one. Good replies and nice information.
I've a Corolla Altis Cruisetronic. The car is really good, I bought it after having 2 generations of civic, had a corolla in 2003 and then civic 2005 and then civic 2006 (8th gen). After recieving the car the 1st thing that i noticed was the general interior and exterior quality of the car which is top notch for this level of cars an example could of closing the door u can even close that door of this altis with a push of a finger from a closing distance of an inch which is great.
The problems, the only problem I faced was of air-conditioning, its cooling was not good for short trips in the begining it used to take atleast a drive of 20mins to cool the cabin if the car's been parked under the sun for some time. I took it to a toyota dealership at first they said it just fine but then when I forced em to do something about it they flushed the gas out of the compressor and then refillled it which solved the problem for me, but still I feel cooling is not that good but its better than before.
Coming to the EPS problem, EPS is very good with in the city but as soon as you hit the motorway you'll feel that it loses its feel after 100km/h till about 125km/h which was very troubling for me the first time i took it there, but as soon as you cross the 125 barrier it starts getting better and it has a great feel at 140 and above. To counter this problem i've changed the tyres to yoko c.drives and a little feel is back in that speed band, but what i usually do is I set the cruise control to around 128 i.e between 125 and 130 where the car is trouble free and you enjoy the boring motorway drive without getting a speeding ticket. Cruise control is a great option and it compensates for the lack of steering feel very well. The rest I like everything about this car no electrical problem like ECU and I wash the engine bay myself after every two weeks. The mutli-information display in the speed o meter are very infromative and helpful right now i'm getting around a range of 500kms per tank in the city and around 570-600kms motorway drive at the speed of (128km/hr).
The passenger cabin is free of noises and engine is very smooth and refined and gears shift seemlessly as compared to my 7th and 8th gen civics, acceleration is very good equal to the 8th gen prosmatec and gets even better when i switch it to manual mode. Great car apart from air conditioning, good leg room all around, but i find 8th gen civic to be a lil more roomy at the back which is due to the inclination of the rear seats back, civic's rear seat is more inclined and corollas seat is a bit up-straight good for old people but not for me, but anyways I don't sit at the back.
