The 2021 Toyota Corolla is available in eleven variants, with pricing ranging from $23,895 before on-road costs for the manual Ascent Sport to $34,695 before on-roads for the ZR Hybrid.
Australia’s best-selling small car enters 2021 with no price changes.
That means hatch and sedan variants are still priced identically to each other, with the exception of the flagship ZR.
The model range has also carried over unchanged, which also means you can still get every variant in either hatch or sedan body styles except for the ZR hybrid, which remains hatch-only.
The Toyota Corolla remains the top of the heap in the small car segment, with 25,882 sales and 24.2 per cent market share in the segment last year.
The Hyundai i30 got the silver last year with 20,734 sales and a 19.4 per cent share.
The i30 could threaten the Corolla for first place this year now that the latest generation of Elantra has been rebranded as an i30, though only the Toyota offers a popular hybrid powertrain.
Pricing
- 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport manual hatch: $23,895
- 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport manual sedan: $23,895
- 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport auto hatch: $25,395
- 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport auto sedan: $25,395
- 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport hybrid hatch: $27,395
- 2021 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport hybrid sedan: $27,395
- 2021 Toyota Corolla SX auto hatch: $28,795
- 2021 Toyota Corolla SX auto sedan: $28,795
- 2021 Toyota Corolla SX hybrid hatch: $30,795
- 2021 Toyota Corolla SX hybrid sedan: $30,795
- 2021 Toyota Corolla ZR auto hatch: $32,695
- 2021 Toyota Corolla ZR auto sedan: $34,195
- 2021 Toyota Corolla ZR hybrid hatch: $34,695
All prices exclude on-road costs
Engines
The 2021 Toyota Corolla range has two engine choices, starting with a naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol with 125kW of power and 200Nm of torque.
The hybrid pairs a 1.8-litre naturally-aspirated petrol four-cylinder engine producing 72kW of power and 142Nm of torque with a 53kW/163Nm electric motor, for a combined power output of 90kW.
The 2.0-litre engine is available with a six-speed manual transmission or continuously-variable transmission (CVT) with 10 virtual gears. The hybrid is only available with an e-CVT.
All Corollas are front-wheel drive.
Fuel Economy
The petrol 2021 Toyota Corolla with the CVT uses 6.0L/100km on the combined cycle, while the manual is rated at 6.3L/100km for the hatch and 6.5L/100km for the sedan.
Fuel economy in the Corolla Hybrid is 4.2L/100km in the hatch and 3.5L/100km in the sedan.
All models run on 91RON regular unleaded fuel and have a 50L fuel tank except for the hybrid models, which use a 43L tank.
Dimensions
The 2021 Toyota Corolla hatch measures 4375mm long, 1435mm tall and 1790mm wide, with a 2640mm wheelbase.
The Corolla sedan measures 4630mm long, 1435mm tall and 1780mm wide, with a 2700mm wheelbase.
The kerb weight of the Corolla ranges from 1320kg for the Ascent Sport manual hatch to 1415kg for the ZR sedan.
The sedan has 470L of luggage space, while the hatchback has between 217L and 333L. The larger of the two volumes is for models without a spare wheel.
Servicing and Warranty
The 2021 Toyota Corolla is covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty.
It requires servicing every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first, with the first four services capped at $180 each.
Safety
The 2021 Toyota Corolla has an ANCAP rating of five stars based on testing conducted in 2018. It received scores of 96 per cent in adult occupant protection, 83 per cent in child occupant protection, 86 per cent in vulnerable road user protection, and 76 per cent in safety assist.
The entire range comes standard with the following safety features:
- Autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection
- Lane-keeping assist
- Lane-departure warning
- Lane-tracing assist (excludes manual models)
- Adaptive cruise control (high speed-only in manual models)
- Traffic sign recognition
- Reversing camera
- Front, front-side and curtain airbags
- Driver’s knee airbag
The SX and ZR add blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.
Standard Equipment
The base Corolla Ascent Sport comes with the following standard features:
- 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay
- 4.2-inch information display
- Six-speaker sound system
- Automatic bi-LED headlights
- Automatic high-beam
- LED daytime running lights and tail lights
- Air-conditioning
- 16-inch alloy wheels (15-inch with aero caps on hybrid sedan)
- 60/40 split-fold rear seats with centre armrest
- Heated, power-folding mirrors
Hybrid models add climate-control air-conditioning – single-zone in the sedan, dual-zone in the hatch.
Options include DAB+ digital radio, satellite navigation and rear privacy glass.
Moving up to the Corolla SX brings:
- Satellite navigation
- DAB+ digital radio
- Blind-spot monitoring
- Rear cross-traffic alert
- Leatherette-wrapped steering wheel and shifter
- LED fog lights
- Auto-folding wing mirrors
- Keyless entry and start
- Privacy glass
- Climate control (single-zone sedan, dual-zone hatch)
- Wireless phone charging
- Paddle shifters (excludes hybrid)
The top-spec Corolla ZR also features:
- 18-inch alloy wheels
- JBL sound system (nine speakers in the sedan, eight speakers in the hatch)
- Front sports seats
- Eight-way power driver’s seat
- Leatherette (sedan) or leather and faux suede upholstery (hatchback)
- Heated front seats
- Head-up display
- 7.0-inch multi-information display
- Auto-dimming rear view mirror
- Ambient lighting
