Drive by wire

the main problem i have heard about is that the electronic throttle system does not allow throttle and braking to be overlapped....... thus performance driving is hindered

thats exactly what I was looking for. Thats what I meant by ups and downs. im telling you, this guy is good!

It is found on most of the performance cars like BMWs, Mercedes, Audis and Lexus etc. That is where everything will go eventually. So how could it be compromising performance??

Drive by wire

Congratulations guys! The new 05 Corolla (CE, LE, S and XRS) and Matrix ( all trims) come with electronic drive-by-wire throttle system. A technology used in Lexus and BMWs. First time I heard in an economy compact sedan. This is the reason why the throttle system on the 05 Corolla XRS I drove was very sensitive and response when compared to my 04 Corolla S.

Ive read around that DBW has its good and its bad. Especially for people with manual transmissions. Could this be true?

One drawback is that the car becomes unnecessarily more sophisticated. Back in the 80s Audi had large scale problems with it and got sued by a lady who later on appeared on 60 minutes to defame them. Volvos still have problems with electronic drive by wire systems which resemble more like turbo lags. Although, none of these problems exist in the manual Volvos. There was a glitch in the Lexus electronic drive by wire throttle system found in the Lexus ES330 and R30 etc. The drawbacks were actually more apparent in the automatic transmission. The glitch was that if you all of a sudden depress the throttle for sudden acceleration, the computer was not quick enough to analyze the throttle position in time. As a result, there would be no response for the first half second or so followed by a sudden power surge. This had resulted in a few minor mishaps when a padestrian got hit when the car all of a sudden leaped forwards without provocation and other incidents like this. Anyway, for one Toyota has removed the glitch and secondly the glitch was only present in the 5 speed automatic found in Lexus models and never found it in manual trannys. I found it to be a delight in the 05 Corolla XRS. Although, you have to be careful because it was overly sensitive.

yeah, I would say so. I was snooping over at the Mazda 6 forum, since was considering one at the time, and there have been many complaints about its slow reaction time, same with the BMWs. The TSX on the other hand is sharp in response time. I hope the 05 corolla is just a good if not better.

TSX electronic throttle is awesome. Very crisp and sharp. Corolla XRS seemed really good as well with the 6 speed manual transmission and seemed like a step in the right direction, but not sure about the automatics found on the other 3 trims.

I hope so too.

because he is saying you cannot do things like left-foot brake probably because once the computer senses the brake is depressed...it cuts the throttle.

You got that right.. I drove a Mazda 6 at one of the skills clinic in rev it up and it SUCKED ASS BIG TIME! I was coming out of a turn and stomped on the pedal, took about 1 sec for the car to respond.. left foot braking didn't seem effective either.. drive by wire suck major ass.. it take away the driver's direct connection to the drive train and I must say corollas are sucking more by the yr..

That was the point of my last post. Face the facts! All the major brands these days are shifting to electronci drive by wire throttle. That is the automotive future. You are dead wrong about Corollas as well. They are making leaps forward big time and are closing in on Lexus quality.

depends how the sytem is set up, the STi has DBW and you can left-foot brake with it.

yeah but the STI is a rally car designed for left foot braking and such...but like you said, its all about how the system is set up-on corollas-and other economy engines, there is no need for left foot braking...

theres also no need to "race out" an economy car

Why should not Toyota do it when Toyota can pull it off very well? Just because of a stereotype? so that Toyota should lose a huge chunk of young buyers who demand high performance, practicality, quality and economy at the sametime? Thus, creeping the median age of Corolla users up to 78?