All-new Toyota CorollaHatch to debut in New York

2019 Toyota Corolla Hatch (Newspress/Toyota)

Although the Toyota Corolla was withdrawn by the Japanese auto giant from a number of markets a few years ago now, replaced in most cases by the Auris, the Corolla is still the biggest-selling car in the world with more than 40 million sold to date. The Corolla still lives on in some markets though, and an all-new 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback is soon to make its debut at the upcoming New York International Auto Show.

Toyota is making a big deal of a hatchback version of the Corolla being back, but in some ways it never actually went away. At the moment, Americans have the Corolla sedan and the Corolla iM, but the iM isn't really a Corolla in the true sense. The iM is really the European Auris hatch that was absorbed into the Corolla family when Toyota's Scion sub-brand it was sold under was discontinued a couple of years ago.

Now though, a completely new Corolla Hatch is about to take a bow, but how well it will sell when it lands in showrooms is open for debate. Anything that's not an SUV or pickup truck is having a bit of a rough ride right now in the American market, and some models that could have been seen as rivals to the Corolla hatch have been taken out of production due to poor sales. The Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 are two prime examples, so Toyota going big on a new compact car could have some people wondering why, especially as Americans don't tend to embrace the hatchback body style much and where there's the option usually go for a sedan version instead.

Those who do still want a compact hatch will be well served by this new Corolla though, which will come with a lengthy list of standard features that includes the Entune 3.0 infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Amazon Alexa Connectivity; a revised sport-tuned suspension built on the new Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform; and Toyota's usual raft of safety features in the Safety Sense 2.0 package.

The almost identical third-generation Toyota Auris five-door hatch for Europe was revealed recently at the Geneva Motor Show, so what we're actually seeing is a greater harmonization of Toyota's global model strategy.