I do find it surprising that Toyota created two bumpers with grills with opposite outer angles.

It's two totally different styling characteristics on the same car.

 

sooo... upper one is north america, and lower one is elsewhere? wait, the other way around?

either way, biiiig step forward.

 

The sport S model does not get a body kit but it does get a more aggressive, longer front fascia. All other models get the shorter one without the chrome trim. So what they don't spend on the body kit, they spend on the different front end.

 

^It's what Mercedes did with the last-gen C-Class too with the sport and the non-sport versions. Same thing with the Corolla here, although I'm not sure which bumper is the sport version, as both look rather aggressive.

EDIT: Now that I see Sulu's reply, the upper one does look slightly sportier.

 

Nope, they're both US. The S is wide at the top, the base and LE trims are wide at the bottom.

 

The S model gets the longer, chrome-trimmed, more aggressive front spoiler, and it also seems to get signal repeaters in the mirrors, too, which the other models don't seem to have.

I also noticed what seems to be a different rear seat: the pictures shown in this thread seem to show separate, adjustable rear seat headrests. On the Toyota Canada website, a rear seat is shown that shows rear seat headrests that are part of, and extensions of the seatback, like the Camry's rear headrests.

I cannot post the picture here, but you can see it at:

http://media.toyota.ca/pr/tci/en/toy...ls-246649.aspx

 

The S also gets a whole different gauge cluster.



S

 

they designed different front for the sport model, not just tacky body kit, something everyone complained about before.

 

S will also have paddle shifters...

 

The next allocation of Corolla's at dealers will be this new 2014 model. I'm excited for it.

 

Wow I actually like it! Looks pretty good both inside and out. And wow, look at that, painted color-keyed bumpers. With the size increase they're obviously moving the Corolla more upmarket, whereas some other vehicles (RAV4) have been pushed downmarket. The LE Eco Valvematic engine does make more peak horsepower, but the regular engine actually has a bit more torque. The two engines are so close in spec that I'm wondering why Toyota is even bothering to offer different ones. Seems like a waste of money to me. Anyways I'm sure this will be a great seller. Look forward to seeing them on the road.

For those of you that are more Toyota savvy than me, what exactly is Valvematic? Is it continuously variable valve lift ie like BMW's Valvetronic and Nissan's Neo VVL such that you can remove the throttle plate? That would make sense then from a MPG perspective, but definitely adds cost to the engine.

 

wow, that's kinda odd... the narrower bottom / wider top on the S looks, to me at least, less sporty than the regular one.

 

Exactly. It provides more power AND better fuel efficiency (although the peak torque is lower than the non-Valvematic engine, the torque curve is likely flatter across a broader range). It has been used on the ZR engines (Corolla and RAV4) in Europe for a few years now.

 

Why would they want it to go down? A sale is a sale regardless of if it's to a fleet or not.

 

yep.

Torque is also delivered 400 rpm lower.

Those are very fuel efficient engines, Valvematic has been on sale in Europe for 4-5 years I think.