Toyota Corolla Touring Sports estate 2019: prices, release date and pre-production review

The Toyota Corolla Touring Sports is now available to buy, with prices starting from £22,570. The stylish estate is set to go head-to-head with attractive models like the SEAT Leon ST, Renault Megane Sport Tourer and the all-new Ford Focus Estate.

The Corolla Touring Sports is joined by the standard Toyota Corolla hatchback at launch, with a saloon model slated to arrive later in 2019. With a focus on style, driving dynamics and efficient petrol-electric hybrid engines, Toyota is hoping to make a splash in the hotly contested family car market. In Touring Sports estate guise, the brand will also be looking to tempt potential SUV buyers too.

2019 Toyota Corolla Sports Tourer: engines, trim levels and prices

The Toyota Corolla Sports Tourer is available to order in four trim levels and with a choice of three engines. Icon and Icon Tech models can be had with a 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine with a manual transmission, or a 1.8-litre ‘self-charging hybrid’; Design models are available with these two engines or a 2.0-litre hybrid. Top-spec Excel trim is only available in conjunction with the two hybrid engines.

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The Corolla Sports Tourer comes as standard with 16-inch alloys, automatic LED headlights, an emergency call system, heated front seats, an eight-inch infotainment system with DAB radio, a reversing camera and a smaller two-inch TFT display in the instrument cluster, plus dual-zone climate control on 1.8-litre hybrid models. Prices start at £22,570 for the Toyota Corolla Sports Tourer in Icon trim with the 1.2-litre engine.

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A step up to Icon Tech trim brings uprated touch-screen infotainment with sat-nav and voice control, a seven-inch TFT screen in the instrument cluster, plus parking sensors and intelligent park assist. 1.8-litre hybrid models also get Toyota’s ‘Intelligent Clearance Sonar’ system, which offers in-depth parking sensor feedback. Prices start from £23,620 with the 1.2-litre engine, or £26,070 with the 1.8 hybrid.

The next step is to Design, which adds 17-inch alloys, automatic wipers, power-adjustable auto-folding heated mirrors, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, rear privacy glass, LED front foglights and an optional opening panoramic sunroof. You’ll pay £24,645 for the 1.2-litre model, £27,095 for the 1.8-litre hybrid or £28,820 for the 2.0-litre hybrid.

Excel trim sits at the top of the range and adds 18-inch alloy wheels, bi-LED headlights, keyless entry, sports seats, part-leather upholstery and an optional eight-speaker JBL sound system on the 2.0-litre hybrid only. Buyers can also choose the same optional panoramic sunroof as introduced with Design trim. Excel trim starts at £28,615 with the 1.8-litre hybrid, or from £30,340 with the 2.0-litre hybrid.

Toyota Corolla Touring Sports: pre-production impressions

This is a pre-production version of the forthcoming Toyota Corolla Sport Tourer – and Carbuyer has been behind the wheel to see how close Toyota has come to matching its family estate rivals.

As well as getting behind the wheel of the Toyota Corolla hatchback, we went for a drive in an early version of the new Touring Sports estate model. Our test car was fitted with a two-litre petrol-electric hybrid engine, producing 177bhp for a 0-62mph time of 8.1 seconds. Top speed is a claimed 112mph, while economy and emissions sit at 74.3mpg and 87g/km respectively, measured under the latest NEDC regulations.

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On the road, the car we drove had enough power to comfortably get up to speed, while the added electric power should help the Corolla to match diesel estates when it comes to carrying larger loads. Our test car also featured adaptive suspension, but we’d be inclined to leave this option in favour of the standard system that worked well on the Corolla hatchback we also drove.

The Touring Sports shares its underpinnings with the hatchback version of the Corolla but is 60mm longer, giving more legroom in the back and space for the larger boot. The optional sunroof does affect headroom slightly. There are some practical additions in the boot, including a handle for remotely folding the seats and a variable-height boot floor with both a carpeted and wipe-clean plastic side.

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As an efficient and well thought-out rival to capable rivals like the Ford Focus, the forthcoming Toyota Corolla Touring Sports estate looks promising.

Design and specification

The Corolla Touring Sports was designed at the Japanese brand's new design centre in Belgium, and a curved roof and wide wheelarches replace the typically flat surfaces of older Toyota estates, including the Toyota Auris Touring Sports model it's set to replace. Like the Leon ST, its rear window also leans forward for a sportier and less boxy look. Even its full-LED rear lights curve around the sides of the boot to help give the car a wider stance.

In a first for the class, there'll be four 'bi-tone' colour options, where the body colour contrasts with a black roof, door pillars and front grille surround. Equipment will include a head-up display, a "world-first 3D driver's meter", a JBL sound system, wireless phone charging and the Toyota Touch infotainment system.

Unsurprisingly, the interior is almost a carbon copy of the Toyota Corolla hatchback, but the space between the front and rear wheels has been stretched to improve rear legroom, which Toyota claims is best-in-class. Boot space is 598 litres behind the rear seats, placing the Corolla Touring Sports ahead of the Renault Megane Sport Tourer (521 litres) and SEAT Leon ST (587 litres), but just behind the Ford Focus Estate (608 litres). The outgoing Toyota Auris Touring Sports has a 507-litre boot.

The petrol-only engine line-up kicks off with a 1.2-litre turbo producing 114bhp, which will be offered alongside two hybrids. The first is a 1.8-litre with 120bhp, which is an improvement on the existing Toyota hybrid powertrain found in models like the Toyota Prius and Toyota CH-R. Meanwhile, the range-topping 2.0-litre hybrid is all-new and has 178bhp.