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Far away from the hubub of the New York Auto Show, Toyota has released a facelift for its station wagon version of the new Corolla. Of course, it’s not for us.
The Toyota Corolla Fielder is a wagon variant of the JDM Corolla, which features different dimensions (namely, less width to make it easier to maneuver and less length to comply with Japanese tax regulations) and a different powertrain. A hybrid system is available as well. North America will soon get the Toyota Auris, a larger hatch that will be badged as the Scion iM. This Corolla though, might actually be more desirable.
40 Comments on “Meanwhile In Japan, Toyota Reveals Corolla Wagon...”
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Wow. Much bland. So boring.
Wagonification can’t save everything, no matter how vehemently folks claim otherwise. This looks like something from the 90s that only got continual facelifts.
If i have to pick i’ll take bland and useful over not bland and not useful.
Yeah but, if this were a Civic wagon you’d be saying the exact opposite.
Not really. Boring is boring, Honda gets no passes. I don’t even like the current Civic. The Euro Civic wagon is weird, but IMO weird is better than boring. Not good though. Looks like a minivan.
Ha, ok. Good!
Also, can we not have purple make a comeback! Bleh.
Purple can work, but it has to be the right shade, right car. A purple 1st gen XKR comes to mind.
1992-1995 Civic Coupe comes to mind.
My CX9 black cherry (purple) comes to mind..I love that color.
@Chocolatedeath
They should not get to call that black cherry. Far too purple. I was thinking it would be more red, like those 90s black cherry over silvery beige Legacy Outbacks.
I absolutely love the awesome greenhouse on this thing. I don’t care if its a 1993 Corolla underneath there (which it isn’t), I will pay cash on the spot for this thing. No diesel, no brown color, or AWD, nor even a stick shift required!
Look at that rearmost window, no stupid ‘sporty’ slant to it, no fat c pillar, just straightforward glass.
signed, former owner of a 1990 Civic Wagon
In light of the popularity of CUVs, it may be time for automakers to give wagons another try. Consumers obviously find them useful, and most don’t really need all wheel drive or high ride heights.
That’s the thing though. Consumer wants tend to outweigh their needs. If people bought cars solely (or even mostly) on rational terms, the CUV market wouldn’t nearly be as large as it is.
“Need” is a moving target. On one scale, most of the people who own cars at all don’t need them. There are buses and trains. Convenience and time-saving is not the same as need. 10 years ago I was riding a bike the same 26 mile RT I now drive.
Do you “need” safety features? Many would consider AWD to be one. Others feel the same way about having a commanding view to the outside.
A lot of boomers are too stiff in the hips to be comfortable with anything low to the ground, be it a sedan or its SW derivative. If I could get into the 1980 Datsun 210 wagon that was my first new car today, I’d need help to get back out of it.
Most little CUVs aren’t sold with AWD and high hip points have plenty of practical benefits for a large swath of the car buying public. Wagons died here for a very good reason. CUVs are even gaining traction in Europe.
The biggest reason is you can charge a lot more money for a “CUV” than you can for a wagon. Which makes offering a wagon mostly pointless in the US, it just costs you profit, since they cost about $.05 more to produce.
As I have said before, if high hip points were such an amazing selling point, where are all the sedans on stilts? Americans love sedans just about as much as they love CUVs, one would think a jacked up sedan would be a runaway hit. Subaru could barely give away the Legacy SUS.
A tall car wants a tailgate, not a trunk.
This would sell well here. Looks like a Subaru though
Agree!
Side profile is very much mid 00’s Legacy wagon.
I’ll take it, even as a Toyobaru
Honestly, better looking than the old one Scion is giving the US.
There’s only that much you can do design wise with a station wagon.
But that is OK, people buy station wagons for utility. I like this one.
However, people are interested in CUV / SUV’s and therefore this one I doubt it they will bring it to N. America.
To fill that “gap” Toyota is probably working on a smaller version of RAV4.
“There’s only that much you can do design wise with a station wagon.”
Do an image search on Holden Commodore Wagon.
@jkross22: I looked at Holden Commodore Wagon. Honestly, IMO the Opel station wagon equivalent looks much better. De gustibus non est disputandum.
i like the body design except for the universial toyota catfish mouth, it looks cheap and not interested in seeing predator every single day.
The Fielder is narrower/taller longer than the Auris, the lack of width would be a problem stateside.
http://toyota.jp/corollafielder/spec/
wheelbase 2600mm = 102.4″
length: 4400mm = 173.2″
width: 1695mm = 66.7″
height 1510mm = 59.4″
http://www.toyota-europe.com/new-cars/auris/index.json
wheelbase 2600mm = 102.4″
length: 4275mm =168.3″
width: 1760mm = 69.3″
height 1460mm = 57.5″
Corolla sedan has a 106.3″ wheelbase, length 182.6″, 69.9″ width, height 57.3″
Considering Toyota is only pondering a common platform now, the variety they offer across the world is pretty impressive.
It is better looking than the Corolla sedan we get. Seriously.
New Corolla is selling well around here but every time I see the “face” of one I look away. Don’t know what it is but something about it looks off.
Slam the doors on a new and you’ll find the look isn’t the only thing that’s off.
I guess Toyota wants to re-live the glory days when their cars were reliable tin cans.
I agree about the looks. I think the Camry is even worse, with the filter feeder mouth on the non-sport models. I’m just surprised at how this poor design has not impacted their sales in any noticeable way…
That is downright ungainly. Seriously. It looks like a caricature. But at least it has a tall greenhouse, so that should appease some of you.
Yea, its bad. Fanfare of this proves the whole wagon fetish is rooted more in contrarianism than anything rational. Seriously, this looks like an 89 Corolla wagon with a new face/wheels/paint. And at least the 89 Corolla had some interesting details. This thing is bland as hell.
My understanding is that the recall involves the ginormous front end opening, which is sucking up too many souls in Tokyo.
I would sacrifice my left testicle for this. Please, Toyota!
Fellow lovers of compact wagons and hatches, how sad is it that we feel a pang of desire for a Corolla, when in the early 2000s we had a whole fleet of affordably-priced screaming-yellow sporty miniwagons to choose from: Mazda Protege5, Ford Focus ZXW 2.3, Mitsubishi Sportback Ralliart. But wait…
What if the answer is just 100 miles away at your nearest Mitsubishi dealer? Behold the Outlander Sport. The electric-teal paint, stubby length, rear-pinched window, and wipe-clean hard plastic interior recall a Pearl-Jam-era Honda Civic, only ugly. The optional 2.4 liter engine recalls the Ralliart. And if you drop your Outback Sport on a set of lowering springs like my neighbor did, you’ve got a proper wagon.
I’d rather overextend myself buying or maintaining a compact VW turbowagon. But still.
Outlander sport has a nonexistent cargo hold, it’s one of the ‘chopped butt’ hatchbacks that I completely don’t care for. I do like that it has a semblance of ground clearance, and can be had with a stick shift.
My family once rented the neatest Corolla wagon in Siberia, a totally stripped out Japanese RHD ‘courier’ model of the AE100 chassis (93-97 Corolla here in the US). They only came in white, with unpainted black plastic bumpers. 1.6 4AFE engine with about 105hp, 4spd manual, vinyl seats, and a beam axle suspended on leaf springs in the rear, much like the first 3 generations of caravans. There’s some sort of weight rating on the back hatch that said 800kg… not sure if that’s really the payload of this little beast?
The more upscale ‘civilian’ models were in abundance over there as well, “Fielder Touring-G” with much larger taillights, and all sorts of spoilers and mudguards and alloy wheels and such.
It is literally designed for old people (said so in PR). They also announced Corolla Axio, which is sedan version.
You had me at, ‘of course, it’s not for us’. Hallelujah!
I like a sw without the rood racks. Looks much sleeker, like the long hatch it is. The previous Fielder did quite well here in Brazil, then they discontinued it because the next car didn’t have a sw variant. With this, there is hope we will get a new Fielder, and sw lovers like my dad could be tempted.
I would guess that Auris Wagon is continuation of old Fielder… this is too narrow, made only for Japan.
I’m not really that up-to-date on my Corollas, but (IRRC) this generation and the re-design previous didn’t get the Fielder because the Euro or North American Corolla it was built on didn’t. I believe our last Corolla was the American one (hence no SW), but the current one follows the Euro design and that is why a SW is possible.