º£½ÇÊÓƵ

A multi-award winning car built at Toyota’s Derbyshire manufacturing plant has scored a double success in an influential driver survey.

The Toyota Corolla, built at the Japanese manufacturer’s plant in Burnaston, near Derby, has made its debut in the annual Auto Express Driver Power survey of the best cars to buy.

The car, which went on sale a year ago, took the award for Best Compact Family Car and topped the rankings in the category for ride and handling.

Since launching, the all-new Corolla, including the hatchback, Touring Sports and saloon models, have collected numerous industry awards – with the hatchback recently a finalist for European Car of the Year.

The Driver Power survey gathers the opinions of thousands of British motorists about the key qualities of the new cars they have purchased in the past year, including ride and handling, design and build quality, running costs, safety, practicality, infotainment and connectivity, comfort and powertrain performance.

Steve Fowler, editor-in-chief at Auto Express , said: “A win in a debut year is mightily impressive, and that is precisely what the new Toyota Corolla has achieved.

“On its way to taking the Best Compact Family Car win, the Corolla recorded an excellent set of scores across the board; in fact, no car scored higher for ride and handling.

“The Corolla remains cheap to run, especially when it comes to fuel economy, plus overall build quality inside and out is rated highly.”