2.0 Touring Sports – 15.000 km (9300 miles) status on milage, max speed and more

[Platy]

Just wanted to share some of my experiences with the Corolla 2.0 Touring Sports hybrid. Before buying it  on 1 October 2019 I have been driving a Prius 2004 for the last 10 years, ditching it at 300.000 km (186.000 miles). So I am used to drive a Toyota hybrid – yet the 2.0 TS is a quite different experience. Naturally, the acceleration is better, but in a way, it is the overall driving properties that make the biggest difference. It feels much more sharp, stable and firm, both in curves and in heavy wind. These driving properties makes it so much more engaging to drive. Plus, it is well noise insulated, and the nasty scream from the CVT when pushed is much less noticeable in this car than other Toyota hybrids I have tried.

Milage:

I have logged all my gas consumption – the milage can be seen on this graph (calculated, not read from the slightly untrustworthy display):

 

[Milage calculated for every tank full of gasoline]

 It should be noted that summer wheels are 17 inch and the winter tires are Continental wintercontact TS860 205/55/16. They have been on the car since km. 7300. The weather since then has been more or less non stop rain, windy and temperatures around 4-10 degr. C. I estimate that minimum 80 % of the km’s driven has been on motorways. In Denmark, where I live, the motorway speed limit is 130 km/h (81 mph) as default but quite often reduced to 110 km/h (68 mph).

Getting acceptable km/l (mpg) can be a bit tricky in this car, compared to the old Prius. The mpg in the 2.0 TS is so much more sensitive to pushing the speeder too hard - and that can be a bit tempting in this car, I must confess. However, doing so punishes you immediately. In the Prius, it made a difference, naturally, but much less so. If I want to achieve a mpg (UK) approaching 60 on motorways in winter, I really need to drive slowly (around 90 km/h (56 mph)) and maybe utilize the draft from a truck in front of me (I never do the pulse and glide stuff and am not a fanatic but do like to see high mpg figures. I turn off the AC whenever possible but the heater is running all the time. Low beam is on almost all the time, as is the radio and the GPS).

The total average at this point is 17,8km/l (50.3 mpg). I just calculated the mpg for the old Prius in the same time span (also with 16 inch winter wheels) in 2018-19, and is was 17,5 km/l (49.4 mpg) – i.e. basically identical.

Max speed:

The 2.0 TS has a listed top speed at 180 km/h (111 mph). Unless you live in Germany, testing this can (legally) only be done on a racing track. Or by traveling to Germany - which is what I did (I was on holyday there). The conclusion is that 1) the acceleration – also at the high end of the scale – is really good. It feels almost linear, but I haven’t measured anything. And 2) Yes, the top speed is of course 180 km/h (111 mph), in case you wondered. Even at that speed, the car performs excellent. The old Prius quite frankly felt wobbly and unsafe at its max speed of 170 km/h (106 mph), and the acceleration in the upper end of the scale was really slow.

The tachometer in the TS never seems to move into the red area no matter what you do, so I guess it is limited to 6000 rpm as its max. The engine temperature never changed from the standard position just below middle, but then again it was winter and around 4-8 degrees C. By the way, in Germany, I ended up with 15 km/l (42 mpg) as an average but at very high speed, it seemed to be doing more like 23 mpg or so.

First service check

I just had it done, no remarks except new windshield Wiper Blades. Price in Denmark 520 euro; what a bargain (sigh). I had them turn off the warning sound for safety belts, as it occasionally goes off if I have luggage on the seats. They claimed that there was no software updates available in Denmark (except the map data). Wonder if that is true…

Do I like the car?

Yes, very much so. Until now, only disappointment has been a slightly lower mpg than I hoped to achieve, but I am still learning to optimize it, and it should also increase a little in the summer. I considered buying e.g. the Leon estate 1,5 TSi 150 ST DSG, but it was almost the same price and significant lower mpg. And Toyota Corolla spells reliability and durability, keeping my fingers crossed. Have not regretted it for a second so far.

[OXYGEN]

Can you please share how and when you were notified by the car for the oil change?

In my old Leon 1.8 TSI there was a section in settings to see it. In Corolla I couldn’t find such thing. 

[Platy]

Sorry, I do not know of any such warning. Only in the somewhat lame MyT app.

[nielshm]

15.000 km. in 3,5 month?? Now that's intensive use. I've done 5.000 km., but I still miss that long motorway journey without, cold, wind and rain.

Going at high speed, do you fell a point where mpg's dropping instead of keeping af resonable economy?

[Platy]

Yeah, well, my driving pattern has changed lately (job & family reasons), so it was nice to get a new car! I don't know if there is a single point where mpg goes crazy, but I think that above 120 km/h (75 mph) or so it gets a bit thirsty... But then again, I guess that because of wind resistance etc., this is what you see in all cars. My dad-in-law got a 2.0 turbo diesel Volvo estate; he has begun to never exceed 110 km/h (68 mph) on his (very long) motorway rides because going above that costs a lot of extra money.

[OXYGEN]

Wait, what?

Are you telling me that there is no notification of any sort when 15000km are approaching/passed and the engine oil needs to be changed/dealer visited for service?

Are we back in the 90’s and we need to manually keep track of this?

[Platy]

Well, I don't know - I booked a time just before 15.000 km, but I didn't see any warnings in the car, only in the app. According to the manual there should be a setting under 'vehicle settings', 'oil maintenance', but I can't see any such thing in the car, only a setting for tire pressure... A friend of mine just lost warranty on his Opel because he assumed that there would be a warning - there wasn't!