Toyota Corolla Commercial 2023 long-term test

Why we’re running it: To see if this hybrid can strike the sweet spot between a car and a van

Month 1 — Month 2 — Month 3 — Month 4 — Specs

Toyota's cruise control is great — 24 April

I don’t know how people who are not motoring journalists feel about this, but I love conventional cruise control and in most circumstances dislike adaptive cruise control. I basically use it as a hand throttle, changing lanes and overtaking as necessary. Most cars with adaptive control don’t let you switch to standard mode, but the current generation of Toyotas do. Excellent.

Mileage: 19,356

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Life with a Toyota Corolla Commercial: Month 8

Dishonest trip meter exposed, while B mode gets a fair hearing — 10 April

A few weeks ago I mentioned my intention to be a bit more scientific about calculating the Corolla's fuel consumption.

Annoyingly, the thing is just too darn fuel efficient, and I still only have a sample size of a handful of fill-ups. Still, it's enough data to conclude that, actually, it's a bit of a liar and tends to over-read by a couple of miles per gallon.

Hardly verdict-altering stuff: high 50s instead of low 60s is still pretty good, and I still think the car is generally excellent. I find the misreading computer quite odd; surely it's not beyond Toyota's engineers to make it accurate, and I can't imagine they're doing it to catch out lazy journalists.

Anyway, economy has recently improved further, but I'm not sure whether that's thanks to rising temperatures or because I got round to setting the tyre pressures. Probably a bit of both, given that the Corolla has a battery to condition and does a pretty good job of keeping the cabin warm even when the engine isn't running.

While we're on the subject of fuel economy, I thought it was worth a closer look at the Corolla's hybrid system, and I'll start with a clarification: a few weeks ago I mentioned the B mode on the gear selector as a loathe it', which prompted a letter from a reader.

First off, loathe is a hyperbolic way to describe my feelings, but years ago someone thought it was a catchy heading, and it's remained part of the template for these reports ever since. More accurate would be that I find