2023 Toyota Corolla Pricing and Specs

That’s an awful lot of kilometres for a 2012 model car. Do you know the history of it? Was it a sales rep’s car? Those are really the first questions you need to answer as the car’s background might give you a good idea of how it’s been looked after.

Put your detective’s hat on and take a close look at the car. Does the rear seat look pristine or is it about as worn as the rest of the interior? If it’s the latter, you could be looking at an ex-Uber taxi. Does the car have a permanent smell of pizza? Guess what? Basically, if the car is simply a high-miler with a good service record, then maybe it’s worth a punt. But if its history suggests a raft of different (but all underpaid) drivers and lots of stop-start city driving, then it could well be a liability in the short term.

To be honest, the fact that it’s already done almost 400,000km and is still going suggests that the previous owner has, in fact, cared for it and serviced it properly. But even so, if the car is an ex-rental car or delivery vehicle it’s probably not a great car to own as it heads into its sunset years. And if it’s an ex-car-share vehicle, run in the other direction as fast as you can.

The other documentation you’d really want to be able to examine would be the service history. Any skipped services over that period are bad news and will lead to problems down the track.

As for what might need replacing; at that mileage the short answer is just about everything. It’s not just engines that wear out with kilometres, transmissions, suspension, brakes, bushes, bearings and everything else that can wear, will have begun that process. Again, how close it is to the car’s use-by-date being up will be down to how well it’s been maintained till now. At least parts for a Toyota Corolla will be relatively affordable compared with some of the competition.

The world is your oyster here, Myra, and there are literally hundreds of makes and models that will do what you want as well offer the five-star safety rating you’re looking for. Your priorities are spot on, too; safety and the driving characteristics (in this case, steering weight) are very important in how you relate to the car and enjoy driving it.

Since you’re not too concerned with what brand you buy, the best advice is to short-list a few cars that fall within your budget and then go and test drive each one, checking that it steers the way you like it. Even small hatchbacks nowadays have the safety and performance to take you pretty much anywhere the road goes. But for longer journeys, you might appreciate features such as cruise control and a full-sized spare tyre.

When it comes to Bluetooth Toyota Corolla hasn’t always had a great track record with its factory installations. For years, many Toyota owners complained that the Bluetooth fitted to their cars was lousy with poor connection, frequent drop-outs and a lack of calling clarity. These days, those problems have been addressed thanks to Toyota’s troubleshooting and the Toyota Bluetooth systems are more or less the same as everybody else’s.

Toyota Corolla Bluetooth pairing (for either iPhone or Android) is a pretty simply process and involves following the on-screen prompts in the phone setup menu after the car has 'found' your phone (make sure your phone is in 'discoverable' mode). From there, you need to confirm that the security code displayed on your phone matches the one on the screen and you’re good to go. Once you’ve worked out how to connect Bluetooth to Toyota Corolla the first time, the system should automatically recognise your phone from then on. If in any doubt, follow the instructions in the how to pair/how to connect phone a phone section of your owner’s manual.

There’s a very good factory website at https://www.toyota.com/connect/ that can lead you through a list of what phones and apps are compatible with Corollas of the last few years.

All the current model Corollas feature Bluetooth connectivity, with the 2019 upgrade also extending to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility across the board. The previous model Corolla (2012 to 2018) also had Bluetooth from the entry-level model up, and the Corolla before that (2007 to 2012) featured Bluetooth on all but the base-model Ascent version. Prior to that, Bluetooth was not a factory fitment on any Corolla, but many owners added it with an aftermarket stereo head unit for better music quality.