Toyota Corolla Commercia

SECOND REPORT To our eyes, load-lugger is more appealing on steelies

that encourages you to press on, so you end up trying to boost your efficiency instead

IT’S safe to say that unless you ’ re buying a high-end pick-up truck or a Volkswagen ID Buzz Cargo, you ’ re not in the market for a commercial vehicle for its looks And yet, van makers insist on adding trinkets and baubles to their models in a bid to jazz them up

Our Toyota Corolla Commercial comes in one trim level, which is based on the entry-level Icon version of the Touring Sports estate But instead of kitting it out with that car ’ s 16-inch alloys, the Commercial makes do with 15-inch steel wheels and silver plastic trims

I can’t say I’m a fan of wheel trims Even when they’re designed by a manufacturer, they can still look more like aftermarket accessories, and the Corolla’s trims sit proud of the tyre sidewalls, so there’s the constant fear of mangling them on high kerbs when parking: if there’s one thing worse than wheel trims, it’s that damaged ones look even uglier So I took the Corolla’s off almost as soon as it was delivered, and to my eyes immediately improved its looks With the black ‘steelies’ on display, there’s something altogether more workmanlike about the Corolla Then, when it snowed at the start of December, and with a layer of winter grime covering the white bodywork, it had the look of a manufacturer’s pre-production mule traipsing across a Scandinavian cold-weather test facility

I’m not the only one who’s appreciated the transformation in the Toyota’s appearance My colleagues have given the update a thumbs up, while it’s been noted that other road users seem to mistake the Corolla Commercial for an unmarked police car

The number of times we ’ ve seen speeders in the outside lane of a motorway haul on the anchors as they come past our plain white ‘ cop car ’ is too significant for them to have just grown a conscience at that very same moment All that’s really left to complete the look is a hi-vis jacket and a penchant for driving at 65mph in the nearside lane of a dual carriageway

Staying below the speed limit is something that the Corolla Commercial positively encourages you to do anyway

The hybrid system is very efficient, and while the 120bhp 1 8-litre petrol engine has enough performance to get by, it’s not one

That’s easier said than done during the cold winter months, though It’s common knowledge that the range of pure EVs takes a hit when the temperatures plummet, but we ’ re seeing similar disruption to our hybrid Corolla’s fuel economy, too A mild October meant that we were on target to match the model’s official fuel economy of 61 4mpg, but recent cold snaps have seen our returns take a turn for the worse

The main culprit is the fact that the hybrid set-up doesn’t really start working properly until there’s enough heat in the system So from a cold start, the engine runs for around 10 minutes, irrespective of whether you ’ re cruising at speed or are sitting in stop-start traffic

That latter situation is where the biggest losses take place The Corolla has a gauge in the instruments that shows how much time you ’ ve spent driving on electricity during your journey, and it’s disheartening to see it sit at zero per cent for long periods When it’s warm, the gauge often records EV use in the 60-70 per cent region, and it even measures at 40-50 per cent when you ’ re cruising at motorway speeds

It proves how effective Toyota’s hybrid system is in most driving environments, so to see the gauge hit the low 20 per cents on a journey is disappointing However, we ’ re still averaging more than 60mpg on the whole, which is pretty impressive