Effective Living > Transportation
Summary. This page offers a review of the Toyota Corolla 2010 Sedan LE that we began leasing on 28 September 2010 from Toyota of Iowa City.
Sales Experience. Russ Bay is the sales person who helped us. If you’re shopping for a new car, we’d highly recommend you contact Russ Bay at Toyota of Iowa City by calling 888-580-8797. Please let Russ know that Greg Johnson sent you.
Journal. As we have more experience with this vehicle, links to journal entries and review commentaries will be listed here.
Follow-up. We received a nice follow-up email from Russ after the sale. Below is our email response to Russ thanking him for his help.
29 September 2010
Hi Russ,
Thanks for checking back with us. We’re really pleased with our new Corolla. Thanks for helping us find the best vehicle to meet our needs, and the purchase plan that made most sense for us.
As you know, we’ve been renting from Enterprise for over a year. So, we had an opportunity to try out a lot of vehicles. Depending on the circumstances, we’ve rented just about everything from compact cars to full-size trucks. We knew that finding one car to meet all these needs could be a challenge. As far as comfort, responsiveness, and features, many new cars seem similar. With a rental it didn’t matter so much what brand or model we drove.
However, in purchasing a car, the game changes. We knew we wanted a reliable fuel-efficient but spacious vehicle, with low long-term cost of ownership, and a local (but world-class) dealership standing behind it. Those criteria very quickly narrowed our search down to buying a Corolla from Toyota of Iowa City. Having purchased two other cars from Toyota of Iowa City over the past 25 years, I knew I could expect an exceptional experience.
I’d never leased a car before, but renting from Enterprise introduced me to the experience of always driving a new vehicle without considering long-term ownership. My wife and I enjoy driving a car with the latest safety, performance, and fuel efficiency features. The reliability is an added assurance. So, when you explained the cost and benefits of leasing, that really made sense for us.
In perusing the Toyota site today I noticed some older used Corollas with over 70,000 miles selling for over $11,000. There aren’t many vehicles that can hold their value like a Toyota. So, the lease offering us the option to purchase our car in three years (at 36,000 miles or less) for about $10,000 seems quite fair if we choose that.
We’d been renting on weekends from Enterprise with their half-price special at a cost of about $130 per weekend. A few weekends a month begins to add up. Now we can have a new Corolla every day of the month, and save hundreds of dollars.
Thanks again for steering us in the right direction.
Regards,
Greg Johnson
Video. Below is a video review of a Corolla 2010.