The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox have just been out to test drive a Toyota Corolla. Verdict: a nice car; good and solid; good visibility; easy to drive; but the 1.6 Automatioc seemed a little underpowered.
This got the GF thinking. Toyota sem to have an excellent reputation, but also seem to have several manufacturing blindspots:

• there is no 1.8 Auto for the Corolla. You have to go to the Avensis for that? Why? The Silver Vixen doesn't want a car the size of an Avensis.
• Where are the diesel automatics?
• Why ais there talk of dropping the multimode gearbox on the Corolla Verso?

Most manufacturers charge extra for Automatic transmission, but at least you can get it with suitably powered engines. Many manfacturers now do sophisticated automatic transmission for diesels - recognising the importance of fuel economy. Why are Toyota so backward?

[File under: Motoring, Toyota]