“Baby you should have went and just got a Nissan Sentra SR 2025.”
Toyotas are highly regarded for their long-term dependability as practical, fuel-efficient commuting machines. The brand has dominated reliability charts, along with its luxury counterpart, Lexus, for decades.
But one Corolla driver says she hasn’t been wowed by the automaker’s entry-level sedan. She says she ultimately decided to trade it in after just one year.
TikTok creator Tay (@softytee) posted a clip that garnered over 17,000 views, explaining why she was disappointed with her 2025 base-model Toyota. However, throngs of users who replied to her video weren’t exactly following her logic.
Her main gripe with her Corolla: It doesn’t have push-to-start. Sure, she decided to buy the car despite seeing that she would need a key to start it. Regardless, Tay said that using a key is inconvenient, especially in the wintertime. Not to mention, she claims her key would repeatedly get stuck in her steering column. Tay said the issue got so bad that she needed the dealership’s help to remove it, and that even the dealership’s employees had difficulty extricating it.
“It was locking the key in the car… wasn’t me being rough… that’s just what was happening,” she told viewers.
Tay went on to state that her vehicle didn’t exactly include all the bells and whistles.
“No heated seats… no sunroof… not even a glasses holder,” she says.
She claims her Toyota’s construction overall felt “flimsy” and that the bumper came undone. She attributed this to the adhesive “wearing down” over a short period.
Other Corolla drivers have also reportedly had issues with their front bumpers. One Reddit user said they drive a 2020 Corolla SE, and their vehicle’s bumper constantly came undone after a minor fender bender, even after getting repaired. Others who replied to their post agreed that they felt the clips and fastener systems on Corollas are flimsy.
“My partner has the same year and model car, and same problem. Toyota charged a boatload and she ran into a curb the next week and it was broken again,” one wrote.
Another grievance Tay had with her Corolla was that blind-spot monitoring didn’t come standard.
“It doesn’t tell me if a car is next to me,” she says.
The third reason Tay said she finally opted to trade in her ride was the high interest rate she had accepted before purchasing the sedan.
“I just feel like if I am gonna pay a pretty penny for this car… coming off the lot $26,000, I need a little something something,” she remarked.
Despite her complaints, she did have some positive things to say about the vehicle, noting that it is indeed “reliable.” However, she thought that the Corolla was probably best for a person “coming out of high school,” and didn’t have kind words for its driving dynamics.
“The drive is not smooth. You can feel everything. You can hear outside your window,” she says.
On top of that, she didn’t exactly have the best time working with the dealership. Tay said employees who worked there were “very unprofessional,” and that she “did not enjoy being at that dealership.” And whenever she brought her new Corolla into its service center for an oil change, it was always a “whole day” ordeal, she says.
Tay also thought the dealer’s advertising of its four years of “free maintenance” was misleading. She noted that she still had to pay for her alignment, despite not being told beforehand that it would be an additional expenditure.
The TikToker said she believes Toyota’s reluctance to outfit its entry-level cars with modern features stems from the brand’s history of reliability. She speculates that Toyota prioritizes this as a main selling point and knows consumers will purchase their cars regardless of whether or not they’re equipped with the latest and greatest features.
“They know they’re reliable. They know they’re popular, so they don’t really give much,” she opines.
Many users who replied to Tay’s post thought that some of the gripes she had with the car weren’t valid.
“You bought the base model so what do you expect? Should’ve got the Corolla XLE. That’s better but more money,” one penned.
Another person echoed Tay’s statements about reliability and said that this is Toyota’s main selling point. “Girl it’s a Corolla. It gets you A to B and lasts forever,” they penned.
Whereas someone else was shocked that Tay didn’t know about the features, or lack thereof, prior to purchasing her car. “Ok so do people not do their research when it comes to shopping for a car?” they asked.
A second person echoed these sentiments, writing, “Girl you bought the basic and wanted nicer features. You got what you paid for.”
If Tay, or another else looking for an entry-level sedan, wants a more feature-packed ride, there are other options worth considering.
Kelley Blue Book compiled a list of what it deems to be the best compact cars of 2026. According to the automotive resource, the 2026 Honda Civic is its top choice, along with the Hyundai Elantra and Kia K4. It’s worth noting that all of these vehicles carry MSRPs either adjacent to or slightly below the Corolla’s, and come with some extra perks that Tay says she wishes were in her Toyota. The Elantra, for instance, comes with Highway Driving Assist (lane warning management) and forward collision warning alerts as standard tech, even in the base model.
Motor1 has reached out to Toyota via email and Tay via TikTok direct message for further comment. This story will be updated if either party responds.
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