Toyota Corolla Safety Rating & Features
May 16, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
The All new 2007 Toyota Corolla has just received a five-star safety rating from the European New Car Assessment program (ENCAP), so you can rest assured knowing your car is built with safety as one of the major draw cards.
Nonetheless, the five-star safety rating isn’t all thats important, there new Toyota Corolla range comes with high levels of active safety.
Active Safety
With improved Brake systems (275mm by 22mm ventilated front discs with single-piston sliding calipers and 259mm by 9mm rear discs also with single-piston sliding calipers), the new Corolla features Active Braking with intelligence (AB-i) as standard equipment.
The new braking package includes:
- ABS anti-skid brakes,
- Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD)
- Brake Assist (BA).
If you are unfamiliar with the terminology, click on the links to read about the different safety features. Brake Assist is relatively new technology aimed to assist the driver in emergency braking, the idea being that if you are not applying enough pressure to the pedal force required, the system helps you along.
Unfortunately the car is not equipped with Electronic Stability Control (nor is it an option). Which is a big let down, as the technology has been proven to save lives.
The new Corolla (apart from the base models which can option this) is equipped with seven SRS airbags.
Passive Safety:
The new Corolla has been built with some new ideas in mind, much like the Toyota Yaris, the Corolla’s body design also offers a flat rear floor for extra space, bolt-on structures for ease of repair following low-speed accidents and high levels of pedestrian safety.
Corolla’s body has a comprehensive impact-absorbing structure for front, side and rear collisions. To start with, the front impact-absorbing structure is designed to minimise cabin deformation by dissipating crash energy via the front bumper reinforcement, front crush boxes, front side-members, under member, moment-cancel members, dash cross-members, floor tunnel side-members, rockers, front pillars and door inner reinforcements.
Making a car acheive a five-star safety rating is no small feat, and the design structure of the new Corolla shows why. Ofcourse, attention has also been made to the side impact scenarios, with side impact-absorbing structure including high-strength steel reinforcements for the centre pillar outer, rocker outer reinforcement and rocker inner.
The new Corolla hatch and sedan have special reinforcing panels where the rear door surround and rear wheel house join, along with the aft end of the lower rear door impact beam. All this helps reduce the possibility of intrusion into the rear cabin area.
Print it: 
“High levels of active safety” – but no ESP ???
This is 2007 Toyota !!!
This omission would instantly take the car off my potential list !
Agreed,
modified article to mention this downfall.
By the way alborz… great website. I only just discovered it the other day.
How much did that cost you Alborz for Kev to say that LOL!
It was free, its the best way :)
Despite what you might think 280ZX, this website is not here primarily to make money. Everyone that contributes to this site has a passion for cars, and we do it because we love cars.
Most of us have other jobs at the same time.
Dont worry calm down knackers i know im just having fun!
5 star ENCAP rating ONLY applies when the optional $750 safety pack – side, curtain and knee bags is on the car – and its NOT standard on the volume selling Ascent model. So at best it might be a 3 to 4 star car as standard!!
It’s great that from the Conquest (mid series) up with that safety gear as standard that the car will have a 5 star rating but almost every manufacturer including Golf, Megane, Focus from their mid series model upwards have that safety gear as standard and all get 5 star ENCAP ratings ….
So congrats Toyota … you’ve now caught up with the rest of the pack.
It should have a 5 star ugly rating
Hi Scott,
The Focus LX (mid range) and even the top spec Ghia only gets dual front and side airbags as standard, therefore no 5 star rating unless it had the curtain airbags like on the European tested model. So the Australian Focus only gets 4 stars at best.
If you compare the prices and the safety ratings:
1) Corolla Ascent + Safety Pack = $21,740 (5 star)
2) Megane Authentique = $25,490 (5 star)
3) Golf Trendline = $25,490 (5 star)
4) Focus LX = $24,990 (4 star)
Ok i know there are other factors involved when comparing prices (such as engine, equipment, features etc) but in terms of safety ratings for a given budget i think the corolla performs really well indeed :)
From Steel Guy: It’s important to note that Volvo landed this 5-star safety rating with the help of advanced high-strength steel. Volvo’s record for safety is well known, and other auto makers are opting for advanced high-strength steel, especially in their vehicle pillars. This is a proven safety feature, in many cases enabling the B-pillar to shift much like a pendulum, instead of folding inward toward the passenger cabin, in the event of a side-impact crash. And they can achieve this with thinner sections ad a lot less steel because of the unique properties of AHSS. Translated: lots of strength, but not a lot of weight.