Hi guys
I’m just back from a great weekend in Mallorca with my best friend Dearbhla and Toyota. They invited us over to test drive the new Corolla Hatchback Hybrid car and to explore the island in it!
I have to say, before the trip I would have thought a Corolla was an older persons car and not the most stylish/ sleek car out there – but I have to hold my hands up and say with the new design, Toyota have definitely proved me wrong.
We arrived on Friday and picked up our car from the airport – I was instantly impressed by the gorgeous style, shape and colour of the car. This for me would be a huge factor in choosing a car. I also love a car that is a good size for getting around a city. I’m in and out of Dublin City Centre nearly every day for different meetings and events, so I need a car that’s an appropriate size & is easy to park (but I also look for a car with 5 doors, as 3 doors can just be a pain!) and I have to say the Corolla Hatchback really did tick all of these boxes. I’ve been looking at cars for a while on websites like allcarleasing.co.uk to try and find the perfect model for me, but I was really impressed by the appearance of the Toyota before I had even driven it!
I was the designated driver for the weekend which I was very excited about as it was my first time driving a hybrid car and my first time driving on the right hand side of the road.
From Palma airport, we took the scenic route to our hotel – the Park Hyatt Mallorca which was located on the other side of the island. It’s a beautiful island and You can easily buy a villa in Alcudia which we drove through. I’m pretty tempted to get a villa out here after our visit since I loved it so much. It gave me a chance to get familiar with the car and how it felt to drive. It also gave me a chance to get used to driving on the right hand side of the road and to get used to all of the roundabouts haha (there was a lot of them!) The Corolla Hybrid Hatchback is automatic so very easy to drive (I definitely would have conked a few times if it wasn’t) – it has a heads up display with a great GPS system. This was my lifeline for the weekend. If you wanted to get one, considering a PCP agreement might be a good idea. If you want to learn more about it check out Money Expert. They have some great information that’ll help you make the right decision for you.
On Saturday we head for some paddle boarding lessons in Port de Pollenca – I had been here once before 15 years ago on my first ever family holiday to Spain! It was so cool to be back. We got a gorgeous tapas style lunch in Tolo’s and then visited the old castle town of Bellver a successful day of exploring and a lot of time spent in the car.
I learnt it has lots of amazing features, some of my personal favourites are:
- the rear view reserving camera
- The USB for Charging your phone
- Bluetooth
One other important thing to mention is as it’s a hybrid car it’s very quiet and smooth to drive – it has a petrol engine but an electric motor that self charges each time you slow down / stop the car which means you never have to plug it in – so handy! As it’s half electric it also means you’re not always burning petrol, like you are in regular cars, so it’s much more fuel Effecient (aka you don’t have to fill up your tank as often… aka you save money!)
Sunday we just hung out at our hotel, which I have to say was probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at, before heading back for the airport for our flight home.
I can’t thank Toyota enough for having me on this trip, it was amazing to get some winter sun with my best friend and also to get the opportunity to test drive the Corolla in Mallorca (at a quiet time of year, which made for a v relaxing driving experience. The roads are actually surprisingly good in Mallorca too for such a small island!)
I’m excited to see more of the Toyota hybrids on Irish roads over the coming months, they are very reasonably priced starting at €207 a month & you can learn more about ordering one here.
Hope you enjoyed this blog post & that you found it helpful if you are on the look out for a new car,
Lou xx
A big thank you to Toyota for inviting me on this trip & for partnering with me on this post 😊
