I often recommend Toyota vehicles to people who are just looking for transportation. In fact, I run an informal, unpaid shopping service for my friends that has resulted in my purchasing no less than four 2012 Toyota Prius V cars for people, including my twin brother. And they’re all happy.

Toyota is one of the few companies still gung-ho on sedans and hatchbacks, which is proving a smart strategy as the marketplace shifts back in that direction. Sky-high gas prices are a big reason, but there’s also SUV fatigue (I’m fatigued just driving these cookie-cutter vehicles for a week), a Gen Z need to stand out from the herd, and a huge price gap—the average sedan is $27,590, and the average compact SUV $37,514. The midsized SUVs that everyone loves? They’re at $50,380.

Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, told Hagerty, “Shoppers, especially young buyers, are growing weary of new vehicle prices and want to return to the time when Ford would lose money on the Focus or Chevrolet would lose money on the Cruze.” He adds, though, that with automakers no longer subject to clean car regulations under Trump, “manufacturers do not have any reason to reintroduce [loss-leading sedans].”

That seems to be the domestic manufacturers’ thinking, because despite a sharp increase in online searches for sedans and small cars, Ford, Stellantis and GM hardly produce them and aren’t really gearing up to change that. So the Japanese companies are filling the gap. Here are some cool Toyotas I’ve tested recently that, well, aren’t SUVs:

2026 Toyota Corolla GR Premium Plus. How out of fashion, a hot hatch! I love the format, and I loved driving this all-wheel drive, 300-horsepower pocket rocket. You can get it with a six-speed manual, though our Premium Plus ($47,515 base) makes available an eight-speed paddle-shifted automatic (for $2,000).

Under the hood is a 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder (yes, three cylinders!) engine that won a 2024 Wards 10 Best Engines and Propulsion Systems award. Toyota engineers are wizards for getting 300 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque from three cylinders, with zero to 60 mph of 4.99 seconds.

During a visit to this car on a race track in Charlotte, North Carolina, Chief Engineer Naoyuki Sakamoto told me that careful placement of balance shafts keeps the three-cylinder car from what the British call “scuttle shake”—excessive noise and vibration. He also said the cylinder count reduces turbo lag (I didn’t experience any) and better exhaust gas management. Track versions of this car will be extensively raced. It’s a lot of fun, on the track or on the road, and five-seat, four-door hatchbacks are practical!

2026 Toyota Corolla XSE. Starting just under $30,000 ($29,635), the XSE is the top sporty trim before you get to the GR. Under the hood is a two-liter, 169-horsepower engine with 151 pound-feet of torque that’s adequate for most duty cycles. It was certainly OK for driving around town. I don’t do stoplight drag races.

For the price, you wouldn’t be able to buy a stripper compact SUV, but here you get a nice premium feel. Blind spot monitoring is standard, as is a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, and wireless charging. Other XSE features are a gloss-black mesh grille, model-specific side skirts, a color-keyed rear spoiler, and graphite colored 18-inch wheels. The interior gets heated front sport seats, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel.

The car was comfortable, the heated seats came in handy, and it was a pleasant cruise on the highway. Unless you plan to spent your weekends off road, it’s hard to see why most small families need more car than this. To go further would be to discuss the difference between “want” and “need.”

2026 Toyota Camry Nightshade Edition. This Camry (the result of a 2025 redesign) is an upmarket looks-cool edition, with gloss black exterior accents, matte/satin black wheels, and blacked-out badging. It’s basically an SE with something dark on its mind. Your call if you want to look sinister or not, but it’s hard to make a Camry even vaguely threatening. It’s a basically harmless piece of styling.

The Nightshade is a hybrid with a 2.5-liter drivetrain that produces an impressive 46 mpg combined. Not quite Prius territory, but close, and very useful in a mid-sized car with plenty of interior room. It’s not a big price leap from a Corolla, starting at $32,800 (another $1,525 buys AWD.) More than 80 percent of buyers don’t bother with AWD, and I sympathize.

The Nightshade package adds sport seats with white striping, aluminum pedals, and an eight-inch touchscreen (with a 12.3-inch unit optional).

These aren’t fast cars, but they were never intended to be. The FWD version sheds some weight, and the new model is almost 200 pounds down from the last XSE, with a minor power increase. Zero to 60 takes seven seconds. Do you think that’s a long time? Why, do you have somewhere you have to be in two seconds?

The Camry is one of the world’s most popular sedans, and despite their SUV obsession, Americans continue to love it. The Camry sedan is, in fact, the most popular passenger car in the U.S., selling an average of 300,000 to 400,000 annually here. Why? It’s incredible sensible, and consistently one of the most reliable cars on the road.