I've happened to have the pleasure of driving the honda civic automatic as well as the corolla automatic and for some reason i feel that the driving pleasure this car gives u even d honda doesn't. Its so unbelievably smooth on its automatic gear shifts and the kind of luxury feel d leather interiors with the wooden centre console offer u are pretty much comparable to d civic's. Maybe it doesn't offer u a digi-speedOmeter and a cockpit type cabin but i guess that sportiness only comes to d civic naturally n not d corolla. The other aspect where i feel d corolla lacks is d suspension, d ride can get a lil bumpy at times. Here i feel that d honda civic wins hands down. I hope that d new corolla will try to raise d bar and a new sporty look to d car with an improved suspension could just set d ball rolling in toyota's favor again.
PS: This is just outta personal experience n i'm sure that a lot of you out there would beg to differ than me. I would love to get your feedback on any of these 2 cars that you might have driven.