The Number One Reason To Buy A 2013 Toyota Corolla

The 2013 Toyota Corolla might be the bargain you're looking for.

It's not exactly sleek (even in S trim, its sportiest form).

It's very familiar.  You see them everywhere, every day.

So why should you run down to your Toyota dealer and buy a 2013 Toyota Corolla?

Because the 2014 is sleek and shiny.

That may seem like contradictory logic, but stick with me here.

The number one advantage to a 2013 Toyota Corolla: Year-end pricing.

If you're a Toyota Corolla buyer, price is an object.  It's one of your key motivations in buying a new car, along with reliabilty.

With new 2014 Toyota Corollas coming in, dealers are slashing prices on the 2013s to get them off the lots.  Ideally before too many of the new, much more stylish and contemporary '14s arrive and the '13s become total wallflowers.

If you're that kind of practical buyer, now's the time.  Because although the 2013 Toyota Corolla lacks the sizzle of the new 2014 (which we haven't driven yet), it delivers on all the important Toyota Corolla attributes that have been established over more than 40 years.

We drove the S, with a base price of $19,060.  It comes with a 1.8 liter 4-cylinder engine, a four-speed automatic transmission, power steering, anti-lock brakes (discs in front, drums in back), 16-inch wheels, six airbags, halogen headlamps, fog lamps, color-keyed and heated power outside mirrors, air conditioning, a six-speaker audio system with USB and auxilary connections, a tilt/telescoping steering wheel, fabric-trimmed sport seats that are adjustable six ways, power locks and windows and cruise control.

The EPA says it will get 26 miles per gallon in the city and 34 on the highway (combined 29).  We just made 25 in town.  All its crash tests are four and five star ratings.

The interior of the 2013 Toyota Corolla.

And, decently equipped, the 2013 Toyota Corolla is no penalty box.  It's as roomy as Toyota Camrys were in the 80s.  About as fast as they were, too.
 
Ours had a few options...$209 for body side moldings, $225 for carpeted floor and trunk mats, $359 for an alarm, and $1,900 for the Premium Complete Package.  That bumps you up to 17-inch alloy wheels and more serious tires, adds a power moornoof, upgrades the air conditioning to automatic climate control, wraps the steering wheel in leather, adds Bluetooth, navigation, satellite radio and Toyota's Entune infotainment app suite.

Bottom line, with $795 for delivery processing and handling: $22,548.

Not bad at that price.  But what if you could get that down a bit?

Understand, dealers aren't going to be drowning in the old ones.  The Toyota Corolla is one of the best-selling cars in America (and the world, for that matter).  There's not a huge backlog.  But there's motivation for dealers to make their best deals right about now.  And if you're more moved by value and reliability than how slick it looks, this might be your moment.

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How The 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL Makes Family Sedan Buying Hard

Yes, you will actually want to drive the 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL on roads like this.

Attention new car shoppers....especially mid-size family sedan shoppers.

Do you know how good you have it?

Do you have any idea?

Five years ago this was one of the most bland and boring segments in the industry.  Camry, Accord, Malibu, Fusion, Altima, Mazda 6...some were better than others, but none were inspiring, none were aspirational.
But now, every one of those cars has been re-designed and choosing has become very hard.

In January, we drove the 2.5-liter four-cylinder version of the 2013 Altima...and it landed immediately on TireKicker's Best Cars (see the list in the right-hand column).  In June, the 2013 Honda Accord Touring landed one notch ahead of it. Not really a fair fight, given that the Accord had the V6 (enthusiasts should note that the 2014 Mazda 6, with almost 100 horsepower less and a four-cylinder engine, landed squarely at #5...several slots ahead of both the Altima and Accord).

The view of the 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5SL other drivers are likely to see most.

But now we have the 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL...the one with the V6.  And it's suddenly a fair fight.  Both it and the Honda have the same displacement, the same number of cylinders, are within 1/10th of an inch in length, 8 horsepower (advantage Honda with 278) and 137 pounds (advantage Nissan, the lighter) of each other.

More tale of the tape stuff:  The EPA fuel economy estimate is 22 city for the Altima, 21 city for the Accord.  31 highway for the Altima, 34 highway for the Accord.  26 combined for the Altima, 27 combined for the Accord.

Close, huh?

It gets closer. Virtually all the standard equipment on one is on the other, with the exception of a cargo net and cargo tie downs  (standard on the Altima, not available on the Accord), adaptive cruise control (standard on the Accord, not available on the Altima),  a heated steering wheel (standard on the Altima, not available on the Accord), memory seats (standard for the driver on the Accord, not available on the Altima), carpeted floor mats front and rear (standard on the Accord, not available on the Altima),  a nine-speaker audio system in the Altima, seven-speakers in the Accord, standard Bose audio in the Altima, a stock Honda system in the Accord, rear reading lights and an illuminated glove box (standard in the Altima, not available in the Accord), and a blind-spot sensor (standard in the Accord, optional in the Altima).

Beyond that?  18 inch wheels on the Altima, 17s on the Accord...a 6-speed automatic transmission in the Accord, a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) for the Altima.

Base prices are the biggest difference...$33,480 for the Accord Touring, $30,660 for the Altima 3.5 SL.  But, our Altima had the optional floor and trunk mats ($185), a rear decklid spoiler ($395) and the Technology Package...navigation, a 7-inch color display, blind spot warning, lane departure warning and moving object detection.

So the final as-tested prices were....$34,220 for the Accord Touring V6 (with $790 destination and handling) and $33,120 for the Altima 3.5 SL (with $790 destination and handling).

And so, as it should with cars, it comes down to the driving experience.  0-60 times are very close (6.2 seconds for the Accord, 5.9 for the Altima).  In a sports car, that 0.3 would be everything, but these are family sedans.  Let's not overstate the importance of that statistic.  Both are quicker than you're really going to ever need them to be.

Looking for a weak spot in the 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL? You won't find it in the interior.

So now, it's steering and handling...and that's where the Altima shines.  The steering feels quicker, the car lighter.  It is...as we noted above...by 137 pounds.  That's like one fewer medium-sized passenger. And the Altima has the smoother ride while giving up nothing to the Accord in handling.  And as we noted in our review of the Altima 2.5, the interior has been kicked up several notches.  The Accord's is very nice, too...but if you're looking for a place where the Altima misses a step and lets the Accord get ahead, you won't find it in the cabin.

A tie would be such a cop-out, wouldn't it?

Well, I wouldn't bust you for choosing either car, and I wouldn't complain if you told me I had to drive either one of them for the next five or six years.  They're both very, very good family sedans.  But if I was playing with my own money and choosing between these two, I'd sit down with my Nissan dealer.  The $1,100 lower as-tested price, and lighter, more tossable car win out in my book.  
Now, let me tell you about the 2014 Mazda 6....

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Why The 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander GT Deserves A Test Drive

Can the 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander GT save an entire car company?

New car buyers, you have a new address to remember.

Your local Mitsubishi dealer.

Yes, it's been a long time, if ever, since you considered the triple-diamond brand for anything with four wheels.  Long enough that the very survival of Mitsubishi as an automotive manufacturer in this country has been in question the past few years.

But this...the 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander GT...shows the company is still capable of making very good vehicles.  And ones targeted at the American driver, at that.

The 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander GT offers room, refinement and value.

It's a three-row crossover with plenty of everything, including power and fuel economy, at a starting price below $30,000.

Following the seven-year run of the last-generation Outlander (2007-2013, inclusive), anything would seem like a breath of fresh air.  But Mitsubishi, knowing what's at stake, steps up to the plate.

What do you need to know?   First, get the GT.  Yes, you can get the base Outlander, the ES, for only $22,995, but there's only one way to get the 3-liter V6, and that's with the GT.

You don't give up much by making that move.  The fuel economy penalty is minimal.  The four-cylinder with a continuously variable transmission is EPA estimated at 25 city/31 highway (27 combined).  With the V6 and a 6-speed automatic, it's 20 city./28 highway (23 combined)....and we saw 24 in 400 miles of mixed city street and urban freeway driving over the course of a week.

The base price is more ($27,795), but that covers the Super All-Wheel Control 4 wheel drive system  (that's about $2,000 of the $4,800 difference right there), the six-speed automatic instead of the CVT, the more powerful (224 horsepower) engine and a long list of standard features that make the Outlander GT a very nice piece indeed. Click here for the full list of standard equipment.

This time around, the Outlander GT is lighter, yet smoother and more refined.  And the weight savings translate into more-than-adequate performance from the 3-liter V6.

The 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander GT's interior, with the GT Touring Package, looks like it costs much more than $34,720.

The press fleet folks added one option package to our tester...the GT Touring Package.  That adds navigation with a 7-inch high definition touch-screen, real-time traffic, 3D mapping, lane departure warning, forward collision mitigation, adaptive cruise control, a power glass sunroof, leather seating surfaces.  a 710-watt Rockford Fosgate premium audio system with 9 speakers, a 10-inch subwoofer, DTS neural surround sound and Dolby, a power driver's seat and power remote tailgate.  The package is a $6,100 option, but I'd grab it in a heartbeat.  It makes the Outlander GT seem for all the world like a $40,000 crossover...and the final price (with $825 for destination and handling) is only $34,720.

The only complaint I have is that the touchscreen likes to think about what you tell it to do.  For four full seconds.  It will do exactly what you want, but it's press the button and onemississippitwomississippithreemississippifourmississippi before it actually happens.  Annoying, especially in traffic.  But the sound from the Rockford Fosgate audio system....that goes a long way toward making up for it.

OEM audio systems have come a long way in the 17 years I've been reviewing cars and even in the 5 years since I launched TireKicker...and we've had some awesome ones, including the $6,000 Bang & Olufsen system in the Audi A8 and the Bowers & Wilkins system in the Jaguar.  And more recently, the Krell audio package in the 2014 Acura RLX.   The Rockford Fosgate may not be as subtle or refined and I'm sure audiophiles would quibble over fractions of percentages of total harmonic distortion and the like...but it packs a punch and sounds great.

Bottom line, check that box and the 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander GT gets you a three-row crossover for loaded small SUV money.  That's a value proposition.   And that's a sweet spot Mitsubishi can now pursue with a quality product.

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New Car Review: 2013 Toyota Prius V

The expansion of the Prius line seems to be paying off.  A decent number of the baby Prius C models are on the road, and if you look, you'll see quite a few of the Prius V as well.  V in this case is not a Roman numeral, it is a letter...and it stands for "versatile".

The V is really a Prius station wagon, if manufacturers could bring themselves to use that term.  there's room in back for a decent amount of groceries or luggage, and folding one or both of the rear seats (and/or the front passenger seat) gets you a bit more room for stuff rather than people.

There are three models of V...the Two, the Three and the Five.  A Two can be had for the very reasonable base price of $26,650.  The Three, which adds display audio with navigation and Toyota's Entune wireless app suite, Eco and Power modes, is a bargain at $27,415, and the Five, which brings LED headlamps with automatic on/off, Sof-Tex trimmed seats, and 17-inch alloy wheels, is $30,295.  That's the one Toyota sent us for a week, and they went easy on the options, adding only three very practical ones: mudguards ($155), a rear bumper applique' ($69) and carpeted floormats and a cargo mat ($225).  Bottom line with $795 destination, $31,539.

The good news about the Five is that, like the Three, it has the Eco/Power switch.  You'll end up using it.  The Prius V is...slow.  As in 0-60 in about 10.2 seconds.  And that's in Power mode.  Eco makes it more like 10.7.  Not really all that much, but it feels like a bit more punch so, when you're not obsessed about mileage, you'll end up using it.  

About that mileage.  The EPA says 44 city, 40 highway, 42 combined.  In 600 miles of an even split of city streets and urban but not stop-and-go freeway driving, we only barely cracked 37. I don't know exactly what got us from 35 to 37.2 in the final day, but it did.  Maybe I gave up on the "Power" setting.  I don't know.  A lot of cars aren't making their EPA estimates at TireKicker World Headquarters of late, and that's odd because we don't drive them hard.  

Beyond that, it's a Prius.  The downsides are near-zero driving fun and a dull cabin apart from the power monitor and infotainment displays.  The upsides are the mileage (even 37 around town isn't bad...though it's well off the 50 we got from the standard Prius) and Toyota's reliability.   With competition finally on the road in the form of Ford's C-Max and this generation of Prius nearing the end of its life-cycle, we can hope Toyota's got something more involving for the next round.

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