Warren Brown, LA Times-Washington Post

If all you want is a solid, affordable sedan, the 2007 Toyota Corolla is your car. If you want more pizazz, more power, the current Corolla, a "small midsize" family car, is a bona fide loser. - Photo courtesy of Toyota

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.:

The car-rental people now call the venerable Toyota Corolla a "midsize'' sedan. I suppose they're right. Since its introduction in the United States 40 years ago, the Corolla has undergone myriads of changes - from subcompact to compact to midsize, from sedan only to wagon and sedan and back to wagon, and from the best little car available in America to one now surrounded by multiple rivals, many of them just as good, or demonstrably better, and some of them sold for less money.

Still, when flying into a new city, I'm always happy to stop at the airport's car-rental counter, as I did on arrival at West Palm Beach, and ask for a Corolla. I sometimes get strange looks from car-rental people, followed by comments such as: "You have a corporate discount. You can get a larger car, if you like.'' But lately, as it was at the Hertz counter here, the comments sound like: "If you're looking for an economy car, we have something smaller. The Corolla is midsize.''

I've learned not to argue I remember the days when all car-rental companies who carried the model treated the Corolla as something of a loss leader - an economy car for the budget-restricted traveller, basic transportation for the person who viewed driving as a necessary evil.

The world has changed much since then, but there are those who look at the 2007 Toyota Corolla Sport I rented here and say that not enough, unfortunately, has changed for that front-wheel-drive car.

I understand their complaint.

Comfort in its Homeliness

The current Corolla, even in its Sport trim, looks dowdy and uninspired, but I find comfort in its homeliness. There is little about it to attract thieves or police. It looks too ordinary to be coveted as a car-theft trophy. It is so humble in profile and performance - a 1.8-litre, 126-horsepower, in-line four-cylinder engine being standard equipment - the Corolla driver would have to do something extraordinarily dangerous or stupid to attract law-enforcement attention.

But the car's absence of anything approaching sex appeal is no big deal to me. My reasons are many.

I know when I'm renting a Corolla that I'm getting a car that is not likely to leave me stranded in a strange place. I am reasonably certain that it will accelerate competently on high-speed highways and brake safely near school zones on neighbourhood streets. I know that when I return it to the car-rental company, I won't get hit with a gasolene bill that resembles what I paid for airfare and hotel accommodations. I like all of that.

cosmetic spiffs

The Corolla Sport's cosmetic spiffs - its black-on-white gauges and its silly little air spoiler on the rear deck - are charming in an admirably goofy sort of way. Again, so what? The car I drove here got me everywhere I wanted to go as fast as I wanted to get there. It was safe. The driver's seat was comfortable. The trunk was large enough to handle my luggage. And I got 26 miles per gallon in the city and 37 mpg on the highway, which means I returned the car with a tank nearly full of regular unleaded gasolene. It's a good little car.

But "good'' is not good enough in today's world. Toyota will change the Corolla for 2008. It will be slightly larger, which means that the car-rental companies in their weird logic probably will reclassify it as "full-size''. It will have more power - just what the world needs in an era of dwindling oil supplies and rising fuel costs. It will go faster - on highways where median speeds already far exceed legal limits, wasting gasolene and increasing crash risks in the process. And it more than likely will cost more, a development that once and for all will eradicate the Corolla's legacy as an economy car.What the heck? That's progress, right?