Jun. 21st, 2007
Just had a test drive in the new Toyota Corolla, the one that comes with the robotized gearbox. I've never used this kind of gearbox before, and it feels like an odd mix of manual and automatic. In low gear the car moves with fits and starts, as if a driving student is operating the gears, but on the highway it's no different than my current (automatic) Toyota. I also tried shifting the gears manually, and got a much better result than the default 'economy' mode. All in all, a very strange experience, but I think I can get used to it, given some practice. There's still time to decide before I have to change cars (in January).