Yeah, that’s the CVT.
In terms of cars without a CVT, the mazda3 is fairly good, but watch out for rust. Ford Focus if you get a manual one - the automatic is at least decently responsive and not a CVT, but also has some significant reliability issues and it’s a lottery if you get a good one or not, but the rest of the car is really reliable. Honda Civic, maybe, but the Honda Tax is almost as bad as the Toyota Tax in terms of people overvaluing them.
Stay with the ‘thinking’ process. You have very divergent set of criteria. One almost directly cancels some other one, ie, performance vs mpg vs reliability.
You are going to have to decide what you will accept, and what you won’t.
I bought the Prius for reliability and great mileage. It has both. I pretty much dislike everything else about the car and have from early on. But…I still have it. I am really attached to those 2 criteria. Can’t find anything acceptable to replace it.
Yea I’ve basically accepted that a vehicle that fits most of my other criteria won’t be as easy on gas. (although conservative driving habits can help).
I’m not planning to YOLO myself into a Corvette or something though. I am, however, a big believer in enjoying day-to-day things. I could spend thousands to go visit another country, but then I would return home to the exact same life I left. Instead I’d rather improve my life here in ways that impact me every day.
Like me. After many years with extreme pain and disappointments I don’t care what others say and now I just do what I want.
So, buy whatever your heart wants. And if this is a Corvette, who cares? Have fun! You can see this car everyday, and it’s emotions with it every day. You only live once. 
Oh don’t worry, I’m blaming the CVT!
I think the Honda and Toyota taxes are probably worth paying for lower cost of ownership over time, at least for some models. I think it is important to research specific models and years and not just trust brand names. If Toyota doesn’t change a truck design for 10 yrs and then they completely change the drivetrain for example, you would expect some growing pains at first.
Yeah, that’s why I like Consumer Reports Used Car Buying Guide so much.
Not only do they tell you which models are the most reliable, they also tell you which year of each model is the most reliable, and when vehicles are redesigned, too.
I just like to bounce my ideas off of people so I can potentially get more info or hear fresh ideas.
My reasons for avoiding the 'vette are practical ones, not based on the opinions of others. I live where it snows and the 'vette is a low clearance RWD car, it just doesn’t make sense as a daily driver. I also don’t have a spot to safely store a seasonal car if I just had one for fun and not as a daily driver. Lastly, I want to purchase the car outright or pay it off extremely early. So that rules out some of my more expensive tastes. And I could save longer, but there are limits to how much I want to commit on a single purchase. I don’t want to kill my recreation and hobbies for the next few yrs by blowing all of my money and my future money in one place.
What model Corolla do you have? my partner has the ZRE182 Corolla same year as you. It just hit 190000km, in Australia the Corollas have had CVTs for a while, the CVTs are supposed to be serviced at 80000km but i got it done late at like 970000km then again at about 170000km. The gearbox lads said to get it done like every 40000km but its pretty expensive at almost $500 for a service last service they updated the firmware and it revs out to 4000rpm now if you accelerate hard and the RPM goes higher in sports mode. The service book recommends 80000km services for the gearbox, i should add Toyota may not service the gearbox at 80000km if the oil looks okay apparently its up to them.
I have been serving since the car since the last cap price service at 60000km but CVT can be a pain to service as they don’t have dip sticks or a proper fill hole.
The nugget itself lol
Mine is a 2014 Sedan with the S trim. It looks like this: https://www.hendrickdodge.com/inventory/used-2014-toyota-corolla-s-fwd-sedan-5yfburhe7ep120277/
Maintenance schedules for this car treat the CVT as a sealed unit. The fluid inside is meant to stay there for the life of the part. Some claim you should ignore this and change it every so often. Other people say that if you wait too long and then change it, the lack of grit in the fresh fluid will actually cause slippage. Since mine is at 75k miles, I’m afraid to fuck around and find out with the not-recommended transmission fluid change. On the other hand, I’m not comfortable being unable to service that important part of the car.
BTW, that hatchback looks like an all-around better design. I’m amazed that it looks so small but apparently weighs a tiny bit more than mine. Wonder what they cut corners on for my model…
The computer in my 2015 golf GTI manual says I’ve got 31mpg combined since my last oil change and it’s fun to drive.
Ive had it 6 years. For maintenance it’s actually been pretty average. Not Toyota level reliable but not unreliable either.
That’s the right thing to do with any automatic. Change the fluid regularly (preferred), but if the service history is unknown and it’s passed more than 2 service windows, don’t change it.
Buy a new car, never a used one. If you can. You never know how often or if they did even service it at all. If you do, or have the servicing done on your car it will never draw into doubt if it was taken care of. A used car is a crap shoot at best. Carfax only reports what is reported to it. I either buy new or know that I am taking a chance. I can normally fix things myself but there are still things outside of my ability to do so.
Buying a new vehcle is ridiculously expensive here in the US these days. Buying a recent used vehicle is little better as far as reasonable costs too. I have never minded buying a recent used vehicle; recent as in 2 to 3 years. The service record on something like that is normally fairly complete. Some of those purchases have been very good. We still own an '06 Tacoma we bought used in '09 as well as the Honda Fit we bought new in '16. No intention on selling either anytime soon. Our Tesla 3 is gone though.
You’re right, it is expensive. I am also in the US. I buy cars/trucks and run them till they give up the ghost so buying new really isn’t that expensive. In the long run. I still have my 06 Lexus that I bought new. 330,000 miles and has never had anything replaced that wasn’t a wear item. I am a stickler on maintaining so that may have helped it a bit. I am pretty sure I was more well off by keeping and maintaining that car than I was if I had bought a few used and didn’t know what I was buying.
These days though it may not matter. I don’t think anyone makes a truly crappy car. Find one you like that has all the options you want and be happy with it. I guess that is all that really matters. Who really cares what a bunch of us says on the internet about it.
Thing with modern cars, they are expensive, not nearly as cheap to maintain/repair as older ones. moms and pops shops are ok for old cars but new cars are harder to diagnose, need special, expensive equipment, very few of those guys know how to do it properly, dealers are ridiculously expensive and not always know what they are doing either,
I personally lease my cars since early 2000, drive them 3 years, then they are someone else’s problem, if you buy a new car, sell it in 3 years you’ll lose as much or more as you would spend on lease. Last 6 years i drive honda passport/ pilot. love them for the most part. fast quiet, get me 25mpg on highway. plenty of room, , awd… In 3 years i had 0 issues with them, they would probably be trouble free to 60-70k, but as long as i can afford it, I will lease new cars every 3 years.
My accountant tells me if you own a business, you can write off pretty much all of car expense if your car is over 6000lb, does not apply to me, but now i see why people who never haul anything heavy or tow anything get those huge pickups/ suvs
For our car, my mom insisted on getting a Toyota Certified Used Vehicle.
It’s more expensive than a regular used car, but much cheaper than a new car.
I think a TCUV has been checked for a whole bunch of things by the Toyota dealership.
There’s probably an equivalent for other brands of cars as well. 
7 year 100,00 mile warranty as well
I’m honestly kind of surprised about the noise level in your Corolla. Normally Corollas are uninspiring but inoffensive, including their NVH levels. Maybe just replace the door seals/moldings and look into tires that are specifically rated for low road noise. Or is there possibly an alignment issue?
Regarding the CVT, I personally wouldn’t be concerned about its reliability, fun-factor or lack thereof not withstanding. Corolla owners are often the sort of buyer that simply wants appliance-like reliability from the car without thinking too much about it, so I suspect that in the vast majority of cases they just use their car without issues and don’t post about it online. Just the uncommon cases of early failure appear on the forums.
A non-turbo engine is a bit of a tall order these days in a modern vehicle. I’d probably agree with @wolfgirl42’s suggestion about Mazda, they seem to cater to drivers that care about driving, and their engineers have said that they prefer the power delivery characteristics of non-turbo engines. Definitely go for a manual trans if you can find one, you won’t regret it.
For winter driving, a good set of dedicated snow tires will make a world of difference, and that together with a good vehicle stability control algorithm would give me more confidence in bad conditions even compared to an AWD vehicle with all-season tires. But if you definitely want AWD then the current generation Corolla hybrid AWD is very well reviewed and quite reasonably priced. Or if you really think you need something for light off-roading that still has good fuel economy maybe look at a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. It’s non-turbo, and Toyota’s hybrid systems are known for being the most reliable in the industry due to their relative simplicity, even compared to a traditional automatic transmission.
Nice!
My main problem concerning hybrids (and electric vehicles even more so) is I cannot find a good solution for when the Li-Ion cells eventually go bad.
I think this problem came to my attention in the electric vehicle thread.
If there is a good solution to that problem, I haven’t been able to find it. 
