Nov 8, 2015 By Warren Brown special To The Washington Post 4 min read

CORNWALL, N.Y. — You can, of course, buy what you choose when it comes to cars and trucks. There is a world of choices.

Numbers tell a part of the story. In the United States, we’re on track to sell 17 million new cars and trucks this year, bought by less than 15 percent of the population. Globally, according to IHS Inc. — an international marketing, technical research and development company headquartered in Colorado — 82.8 million new cars and trucks were sold in 2013, a 4.2 percent increase over the 79.5 million sold worldwide in 2012.

IHS analysts predict that the sales pace will continue upward through 2018, reaching 100 million new vehicles sold worldwide. Three global giants will compete for sales leadership — Japan’s Toyota, America’s General Motors and Germany’s Volkswagen. Leading sales regions will be the United States and China. Global-economic-indicator hint: Politicians and economists should take market declines in China seriously. Speculation is that the United States won’t be far behind in a downturn.

Actual sales leadership will change as often as the score in a hotly contested football game. But here’s betting that Toyota will finish on top.

Why?

I think it is because Toyota has a much better understanding of its customers than any of its rivals do. The proof is in one of the company’s best-selling automobiles, the little Corolla, which has been a global sales leader for nearly a quarter-century.

What is it about the Corolla?

Try this: It works and keeps working long after more-expensive cars fail. It is affordable and easy to fuel and maintain. It comes with enough standard equipment and more than enough care in engineering and overall construction competence to make it an easy value proposition. Toyota is smart enough to change what needs to be changed — exterior styling, interior trim quality and safety equipment – when it needs to be changed.

Take a look at the 2015-2016 Corolla LE Eco Plus driven for this column. Many of my colleagues in the automotive media ignored it, dismissing it as a boring four-wheel appliance. That made me wonder: If the Corolla is so lackluster, why is it now in its 11th generation on the global market? Why does it consistently sell so well?

My conclusion, after nearly 1,000 miles of driving this one through the Northeast, including mountainous terrain in this area: The Corolla works, and works consistently well.

Most of us don’t drive with our egos hanging from a car’s badge. We just want to get to where we have to go as quickly, safely, economically and conveniently as possible. We don’t really care if a neighboring car or truck moves from stop to 60 mph in under five seconds. All we care is that the car we’re in moves fast enough to get us on and off a high-speed highway, that it stops within a reasonable distance after the application of brakes, and that it can repeat the performance seemingly forever without fail.

The little Corolla LE Eco Plus sedan does all that. It comes standard with a slightly more powerful 1.8-liter, 16-valve in-line four-cylinder gasoline engine (140 horsepower, 126 pound-feet of torque). A continuously variable automatic transmission comes with the LE Eco Plus. There are four basic trim levels – L, LE, LE Eco and S. The LE Eco and S trims are eligible for Plus and Premium trim treatments. A six-speed manual transmission is standard in the Corolla line. A four-speed automatic, not recommended here, is optional.

Again, you don’t buy or drive this car to show off. You get it for safe, reliable, affordable daily transportation.

Is the Corolla’s market supremacy vulnerable? Yes, I think so. South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia are eager to challenge Toyota. Those Asian rivals are wielding technology to take market share.

Toyota has to up its game in that arena and outfit the Corolla with more advanced electronic safety equipment such as blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert systems.

Toyota will up the ante. It is a smart company. The Corolla has sold so well for so long because its legions of buyers regard it as a smart car.