From the Passenger's Seat

Last week, I had the pleasure of taking a road trip in Eastern California and Western Nevada with a 2013 GMC Terrain. It was almost the perfect road trip vehicle, with well-behaved highway manners and good grip on winding mountain roads. It certainly did not come without its kinks, though. The interior of my test Terrain was well-equipped in terms of options, being the uplevel SLT trim. It had a sunroof, perforated leather seats, a power rear hatch (which I enjoyed), and heated front seats. While the feature list is nice, the interior quality will not trick you into thinking this is a luxury car. The graining of the plastics and the two-tone color theme of my test car made it have premium aura, but the plastics were all hard. There wasn't a single surface that was padded anywhere other than the gauge hood and armrests. To make matters worse, there was a liberal use of glossy silver plastic on the dashboard. I'm not sure if it's even supposed to look like genuine aluminu...

Yesterday night, Toyota revealed the next generation of its incredibly popular Corolla. It is now in its 11th generation.  The new Corolla is perhaps the most radically styled yet. At first, I was appalled by the design, but it grew on me after half an hour or so. The interior is just as stylish (or overstyled) as the exterior, with a stacked design that looks like a fusion of the Yaris's and Avalon's interiors. It does look to be of much higher quality than the current Corolla.  More sounds deadening means a quieter interior, and a 3.9-inch stretch of the wheelbase translates to more legroom for the rear passengers. There is also heavier padding and foam inserts for the rear passengers, making it even more comfortable for them.  The engine is carryover; you'll find the same 132-horsepower, 128 pounds-feet of torque, 1.8-liter four cylinder under the hood. There is a new LE Eco trim level that has the same engine, but with a higher compression ratio and bet...