A favourite with many businesses, Toyota’s Corolla Touring Sports recently gained a raft of updates. Al Suttie heads behind the wheel to check out the hybrid estate’s fleet appeal.

Toyota Corolla Touring Sports Design 1.8 Hybrid

List price (BiK): £33,235 (26%) CO2: 106g/km Economy: 60.1mpg Test efficiency: 60.0mpg

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Monday

The arrival of a Toyota Corolla Touring Sports estate might not seem like a cause to get the bunting out, but I’ve always liked these small family estates. This one arrived in 1.8 Design Hybrid specification, which only endears it further to me as I think this is the absolute sweet spot of the Toyota’s model’s line-up – affordable, practical and clean enough to have low running costs.

Tuesday

After yesterday’s enthusiasm at its arrival, the Corolla settles in to doing what it does best – providing unfussed, relaxing transport. I know motoring journalists can get frothy about handling and the adroit nature of some cars’ steering, but the Toyota deserves huge credit for simply being very comfortable and very predictable in corners. Nothing to write eulogies about, it is simply relentlessly, unerringly decent.

Wednesday

Toyota, with all of its vast resources, manages to make the seats of the Corolla look quite sporty for a mainstream small estate. More importantly, they are brilliantly comfy and offer the sort of support and hold that will keep you from getting achy or fidgety during long drives. This sort of thing matters more than standard leather seats or a massage function to my mind.

Thursday

I’m not particularly tall, with the top of my head about 179cm from the ground, yet I’m glad to be sitting in the front of the Corolla rather than behind myself. Rear seat space, while not mean, is not as good as in some of the Corolla’s rivals. A rare misstep by Toyota, though the back seat is fine for kids who are more likely find themselves berthed here, I suppose.

Friday

The Corolla’s 1.8-litre petrol engine with hybrid assistance is no ball of fire – 0-62mph coming up in a decent enough 9.4 seconds – but it is smooth. A bit more driving ability on battery power alone would be welcome at town speeds, but then this isn’t a plug-in hybrid. The combination does offer quiet, easy cruising and even the CVT automatic gearbox feels reasonable in this application.

Saturday

You could spend a lot more money and still not get an estate with a boot as big as the Corolla’s. A Skoda Octavia wagon has the edge on space, but there’s nothing wrong with the Toyota’s 596 litres with the seats up. Tip them down and you get more than enough for most needs plus a completely flat floor. Again, Toyota has come up with a solution that isn’t fancy-dancy but just works in the real world.

Sunday

The Toyota Corolla Touring Sports is a bit of chameleon in the way it blends into your life and needs. It doesn’t ask anything of you other than a bit of petrol now and again – more ‘again’ than ‘now’ thanks to 60mpg in my time at the wheel – and it does all that’s expected of it with calm competence. It means I have a great deal of respect for this car, and a quiet admiration that is, well, very in keeping with the Corolla’s nature.