Toyota Corolla Touring Sports Review & Prices

There aren’t that many hatchback-based estate cars on sale anymore, with the Volkswagen Golf Estate and Ford Focus Estate now gone, but the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports is one of the best options going. It comes with a choice of efficient hybrid engines and it’s comfortable to drive, but it’s not all that spacious inside.

It’s a bit like one of those small, nifty carry-on suitcases that have a ton of clever features but aren’t all that practical. Sure, it’s handy if you know how to pack smart, but it’ll never be as practical as a bigger suitcase. The Peugeot 308 SW is like a medium-sized check-in bag by comparison, while the enormous Skoda Octavia Estate is practically the entire cargo hold.

The Peugeot 308, Seat Leon Estate and Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer run it close in the styling department, but the Toyota is a good-looking car. The sheer amount of Corollas you see pottering around as taxis dulls their shine, but if you take a step back and look at its pointy headlights, soft curves and flared wheel arches, it’s actually quite a handsome thing.

The cabin is more bland. It’s not ugly, but the dashboard is a bit too straight-laced with only the trim strip around the air vents to lift the ambience. You’re sat in a chamber of dark grey plastics, otherwise, and while most surfaces feel plush and soft to the touch, there are a few scratchy places on the dashboard and on the door cards.

All versions come with a 10.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system, with clear graphics and menus, but it’s not very responsive to your inputs.

It’s easy to find a comfortable driving position in the Corolla Touring Sports, especially in the top-spec Excel trim level which comes with a pair of stupendous leather sports seats, complete with metal inserts. It’s just a shame that headroom and legroom is lacking in the back, as it’s a real squeeze for two adults and a child. Boot space varies from 598 to 581 litres depending on engine size, which lags behind alternatives.

Out on the road, however, things look up. The Corolla Touring Sports is an excellent car to drive around town, as even in top-spec trim on the biggest wheels it’s very comfortable over bumps and bad roads. You get plenty of low-speed shove thanks to the electric motor, and being automatic-only makes for easy progress in traffic.

Accelerating up to motorway speeds is a bit noisy, but the engine does settle down into a quiet cruise - where there’s remarkably little wind or road noise. It’s even fun on a twisty road; not exactly sporty, but with more steering feel and agility than in alternative estate cars.

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The Toyota Corolla Touring Sports starts at around £32,000, in 1.8-litre, entry-level Icon guise. That’s a little pricey compared to a base model Volkswagen Golf Estate or Skoda Octavia Estate, but considering that the Corolla is hybrid only, the tech and fuel efficiency go some way to offsetting the higher price.

It comes as standard with 16-inch alloy wheels, a 10.5-inch touchscreen infotainment with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, adaptive cruise control, reversing camera and soft-touch plastics in the cabin. Design, GR Sport and Excel cars all look a bit sharper thanks to their intricate headlights and alloy wheel designs, but only the top-dog Excel trim level gets the lovely leather sports seats up front.

It’s comfortable, agile and quick enough, but the CVT automatic gearbox can be noisy when accelerating

Around town

If you think an estate car is unwieldy around town, the Corolla Touring Sports proves otherwise. Thanks to its excellent all-round visibility, rounded corners and darty steering it feels just as city-friendly as any medium-sized hatchback. The big mirrors make it easy to parallel park, as does the standard-fit reversing camera.

There’s plenty of shove away from the lights thanks to the electric motor in both hybrid engine options, and the engine kicks in smoothly when you exceed the Corolla’s 20mph electric-only drive threshold - or you put your foot down abruptly.

If you’re a gentle driver then the Toyota does a good job of running on electricity alone, at the push of a button.

Well-judged suspension means the Corolla Touring Sports is hugely comfortable, even on the largest alloy wheel option, soaking up speedbumps and potholes without feeling crashy or bouncy.

The automatic transmission makes light work of traffic, but the piece de resistance is the auto regenerative braking system, which slows you down in accordance with the car in front of you, leaving you to only press the brakes for the last bit of stopping. It’s very intuitive to use.

On the motorway

Get out of town and the Corolla Touring Sports is a highly capable long-distance cruiser. The downside to its CVT transmission (it uses a belt and cones instead of traditional gears) is that the engine kicks up a storm when you put your foot down to get up to speed.

Once you reach the national speed limit, though, things quieten down very well indeed. There’s minimal tyre roar, again, even on the biggest wheels, and wind noise is practically nonexistent. The good rear visibility helps when peering over your shoulder, while the big mirrors and blind spot detection give you peace of mind when changing lane.

On a twisty road

It may not be as sporty as a Skoda Octavia vRS Estate, but the Corolla Touring Sports feels far more agile and composed on a winding road than you might expect from an otherwise sensible family estate car. The steering isn’t devoid of feel as you get in some alternatives, and there’s plenty of grip from the front wheels, giving your confidence when carving through corners at speed.

It’s easy to get comfortable up front, but the back seats are tight and the boot space lags behind alternatives

Sitting up front in the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports feels reasonably roomy. The highly-adjustable driving position and stepped-back dashboard design won’t leave you feeling claustrophobic. Plus, there’s a decent chunk of centre console separating you and the passenger.

The door bins are a bit disappointing though, and you’ll only just be able to squeeze a large water bottle in - with some angling to get it in. There isn’t any centre console storage, bar a small cubby under the centre armrest, but you do get a separate wireless phone-charging pad in front of the cup holders. It has an on/off switch, too, to stop your phone getting too hot once it’s charged.

Well equipped and with plenty of nice plastics, but the cabin is boring otherwise

On the face of it, the interior of the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports leaves a lot to be desired. Grey plastics and fabrics are used throughout - even on the racier GR Sport trim - without much in the way of exciting design elements.

That said, once you start fiddling with it, you’ll be delighted to find that almost everything is made of some high-quality materials. There is a notable block of hard plastic underneath the driver’s side air vent and on the lower and middle door cards, but even then everything feels sturdy to the touch.

All models come with a 10.5-inch infotainment system which looks nice, but it’s not hugely responsive to your inputs. It does, however, come with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay - if you’d prefer to run your phone apps.

Top-spec Excel models come with a pair of excellent sports seats up front, which are very comfortable and look the business; leather-trimmed and with metal inserts under the fixed headrests. It’s a shame that small touches take away from the overall experience though, such as the volume buttons on the dash (what’s wrong with a knob?) and the heated seat switches, which look like afterthoughts.

Toyota offers a selection of dealer-fitted accessories for the Corolla Touring Sports too. These include a protection pack that adds a rubber boot liner plus some protective strips on the bodywork, and various towbar options if you plan to use it for trailering stuff or going caravaning. Speaking of, you’ll be able to tow up to 450kg unbraked and 750kg braked.

Official testing of the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports has the 1.8-litre car achieving up to 61.4mpg, and the 2.0-litre reaching 56.5mpg. In a week of testing the lower-capacity engine, the estate returned a real-world figure of around 60mpg - so you can get close to those official numbers.

In our time with the 2.0-litre model we only saw around 47mpg against the claimed 60.1mpg figure - though this was during a period of city traffic-heavy driving, so you’ll be able to get closer in more mixed driving conditions.

Emissions figures come in at 101g/km and 107g/km at the highest for the 1.8-litre and 2.0-litres engines respectively. That places all Corolla Touring Sports versions in low road tax brackets, but you’re better off in a plug-in hybrid as a company car driver, as a PHEV will be cheaper for monthly payments.

Independent safety board Euro NCAP awarded the Toyota Corolla a five-star rating when it was tested in 2019. It excelled in adult occupant protection, achieving a 95% score, and the score applies to the estate version too.

There’s a healthy amount of safety assistance kit as standard on the Corolla Touring Sports, too. Automatic emergency braking is one example, which kicks in if the car senses an accident is about to happen. You get a pair of ISOFIX mounting points in the back, too.

Toyota came 14th in the 2025 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, which out of 31 manufacturers entered isn’t a very impressive result.

Nonetheless, the Corolla Touring Sports comes with a three-year warranty which automatically extends up to 10 years/100,000-miles, so long as you keep up regular main dealer servicing.