I was in similar situation 25 days ago, choosing between a civic oriel manual or altis grande manual, but at the end decided to go for grande' after reading reviews on civic forums and inspecting both the cars personally. No doubt that the interior of civic beats grande but the question is will it look like the same after 1 year. Read alot of people complaining about peeling of the material from door panels, squeaking sound coming from sunroof, some complained about squeaking sound coming from arm rest in brand new cars. I have driven 8th gen civic reborn and it was less than 70k driven and it made all those kind of squeaking sound and some strange noise coming from the rear and suspension as if i was sitting in an airplane. Lots of plastic used inside and I am quite allergic to these squeaking sounds.
As far as corolla is concerned, i have had two of them previously and no such sounds even after crossing 100k kms. No noises from the doors. Although the interior is not as good as that of civic but than its not bad either. The exterior is a class of its own, ride height might be of concern here. The bonet and trunk cover were all naked in civic even in the top of the line. Maybe, next time when i will decide to choose a car between corolla and civic, I would go for civic if and only if they make the exterior pretty by that time, not concerned about the interior cuz they always make it very good. But as for now, its Grande all the way.
