Toyota raises Corolla's price by 5.9%

Los Angeles: Toyota Motor Corp raised the US base price of its Corolla, the world's best-selling small car, by 5.9 per cent after a redesign that includes new engines and chassis and a bigger interior.

The Standard model of the 2009 Corolla will have a starting price of $15,250, the company's US unit said in a statement on Sunday.

That's $845 more than the model it replaces, spokesman Bill Kwong said. The top-selling version, the LE sedan, is 1.4 per cent more expensive, he said.

"There's a lot of new content, a new motor, power steering, so there was an adjustment," Kwong said from the US sales unit's headquarters in Torrance, California. The new models go on sale next month.

Toyota, which fell just short of unseating General Motors Corp for the lead in global sales last year, has said it expects US sales to rise between 2 per cent and 3 per cent in 2008, helped by the new Corolla. The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker has sold more than 30 million of the small cars since they first went on sale in the company's home market in 1966.

US sales of the Corolla, including Matrix wagon versions, fell 4.1 per cent to 371,390 last year. The only cars with higher totals were Toyota's Camry and Honda Motor Co's Accord.