Corolla XSE adds sporty touch to reliable package

Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews also can be seen in the Northern & Central California Cruisin’ News magazine published monthly out of Folsom, California.

Sacramento, California -- Nearly 50 million Toyota Corollas have been sold worldwide since 1966, a mind-blowing number that all but screams one thing: Toyota has given buyers what they want.

That continues in 2020 with a reconfigured Corolla. And in my recent week with the 2020 Toyota Corolla XSE, I quickly learned that the automaker has added a pinch of spice.

The four-door ride was decidedly sculpted for a sporty look, with fancy, machined, 16-inch alloy wheels; in-your-face front fascia; and LED headlamps that seem to wrap around the entire grille.  Yes, you can see it coming.

And you can hear it coming too, with a profoundly noisy note coming from the 2-liter, four-cylinder engine.  Alas, with a maximum of 169 horsepower at your command, the sound outweighs the rubber-to-the-road fury.  Even so, the power plant moved the XSE around nicely.

While the XSE was not a hot rod, its handling characteristics were excellent.  Zipping into tight spots and rounding sharp corners could be done one-handed.

Another plus: The four-cylinder engine produces good fuel mileage at 31 miles per gallon in the city and 38 mpg on the highway.

Everything else on the 2020 tester was a reminder of why this venerable model has sold so well for so long.  Excellent fit and finish.  A comfortable interior.  From the cockpit, good vision all around the car.  A generous lineup of safety, comfort and convenience features -- all easily mastered.

This Corolla has one of the more thoughtfully positioned center stack/control layouts on the market. The high-resolution, eight-inch, color touchscreen was an especially notable plus -- easy to see, and I didn't need a master's degree in engineering to use it.

One oddity in the tester: The back seat has technology sounding a beeping alarm if one of the passengers is not buckled in.  Thing was, the beeping continued for the center back seat spot, even though I had just two passengers in the rear seats.  I finally buckled the center seat belt, sans passenger, to get the beeping to stop.

The bottom line on this Corolla was appealing, at nearly a grand less than $30,000.  And this being a Toyota, I expect it will run virtually trouble-free for a very long time.

If I had to break it down, I'd say the perfect 2020 Toyota Corolla XSE buyer is a value-seeker looking for a loaded, affordable, reliable sedan with a helping of sporty flash thrown in.