question 4 levin bzr or 'rolla sportivo owners

hi,
there's a need to replace the 4age aw11 for something with more seats as my daily driver.
has anyone owned both an aw11 AND a levin bzr/ or corolla sportivo, and can offer advice over which would give me the most satisfaction on a daily driver basis compared to the aw11?
thanks.

My dad had an AE111 BZ-R Super Strut for a while, I drove it around quite a lot. I've never owned an AW11.

AE111 rear seats are for children and for adults you dislike, the ride on a BZR Super Strut is very firm.

The corolla sportivo has 4 doors so that'd be a big winner. I have a Mazda 3 hatchback and I've fitted a queen sized bed, dishwasher, washing machine, fridge etc in the back with the seats down (obviously not at the same time). My second car will always be a hatchback because of the rear seat down practicality. I'd go the Corolla but my ideal daily would have to be a Caldina.

Edit: Buy Me http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/private/details.aspx?Cr=4&R=8666508&keywords=&trecs=21&__sid=129E7A426123&__Ns=pCar_RankSort_Int32|1||pCar_PriceSort_Decimal|1||pCar_Make_String|0||pCar_Model_String|0&__Qpb=true&tsrc=allcarhome&__Nne=15&seot=1&__N=1216%201246%201247%201252%201282%204294962861%204294954166&silo=1011

not quite a aw11 but a sw20 turbo owner, still a mr2 i guess

bought a corolla sportivo as a daily, bog stock, good as a daily, at first i averaged 10l/100km due to going too happy with lift (6.5k-8.25k rpm) but have since settled my right foot and average around 8.6-9.4 L/100km.. lookin at about 550-600km per tank

I averaged a consistant 10L/100km on my sw20 gen2 turbo regardless of how i drove it. go figure. approx 400km per tank, smaller tank but.

drive wise, corner entries feel more confident than the sw20, rear torsion bar suspension allows more bodyroll than i'd like on the rear(i duno if thats the cause) gradually adapted to the car and i can drive it on the streets pretty close to the pace i could on the sw20.

engine wise, its ok on lower rev's, upper rev's are where the 2zz wakes up at, not a turbo beater but with 141kw its good for what it is. once you get used to the high revving nature and the 6spd close ratio gearbox, it presents a pretty rewarding drive with good throttle blipping/heel toe control. did i mention it rev's really nicely? yamaha did a good job on their part of this engine.

FF driving seems to be polar opposite of MR driving. Faster and more aggressive entry than mr2's can pull off, throttle induced understeer on exits will annoy mr2 drivers. First gear sometimes loses traction on lift on dry, always in wet, second gear as well. Not much you can do there in the world of FF's i suppose

Maybe i went abit off track there, but after owning the car for about half a year, still pretty happy with my purchase, its represented good value in my eyes. give or take 70% of the performance of a stock mr2, sits 4 adults comfortably, 5 if needbe, easy/comfortable to drive, and i've used it on many occasions to help my friends move houses. doesn't look outdated on the streets either.

i happened to testdrive one of those 20v ff sprinters as well, it was selling for only 3.5k at the time, came with coil overs and adrenalines all round, would have bought that for sure given the price if i hadn't already bought my sportivo. performance not as good straight line, nor as practical, but would prob beat the corolla handling wise.

all in all for the corolla sportivo, i'd say its a good daily driver with enough pep that you don't get wouldn't really get bored or frustrated driving it.

thanks to everyone who's replied so far, your re-telling of your experiences are appreciated. over here in w.a., 1997 levin BZR's sell for $11K, whereas the 2003 sportivo's sell for $12K upwards. from your opinions, it seems like spending the extra grand (or so) for a vehicle with six fewer years might be a better choice.