A Review of the 2007 Toyota Corolla CE

With a commute of 75 miles to and from work, when the time came to look at a new car, my wife and I were concerned with one thing more than anything else: fuel economy. But when you spend upwards of three hours per day in your car, you need more than just good mileage. Fortunately, the '07 Corolla is not a one trick pony.

My prior car was a 2002 Oldsmobile Alero. I loved that car and put well over 100,000 miles on it before some flood damage and its general state of disrepair became more expensive to fix than to replace. So my wife and I spent the better part of a month looking over cars and trying to decide what the best match would be.

At first, I was sold on the Nissan Versa. The reported mileage was amazing and the constant variable transmission (CVT) appealed to the gadget junkie in me. It was comfortable, had good pick-up, and handled well. However, the sales team at the local Nissan dealership left a lot to be desired and ended up driving me off. In the end, though, it might have been for the best.

After getting mistreated at the Nissan dealership, my wife and I ended up at the local Toyota dealership. We'd test driven a few of the cars on their lot and they seemed to meet the criteria we had established. After making contact with one of the salesmen, we began discussing our options. Originally, we had wanted to look at the Prius, but there were none on the lot. Then a metallic grey car caught both of our eyes and we took a walk over to take a closer look at the Corolla.

The model we had test driven was an '06 and it was alright. The only problem was that the center console was set too far back, making it awkward, if not impossible, to rest my elbow on it. It was a minor issue, but comfort is absolutely essential when you're driving long distances on a daily basis. The '07, however, fixed that detail and that was enough to make me seriously consider it.

There are a variety of features on the Corolla which appealed to me:

1) The gas mileage. With 32/41 for the manual and 30/38 for the automatic, it's not the most fuel efficient car on the market, but it's in the top tier for non-hybrids.