Compact car in the context of "Passing place"

The Toyota Corolla (Japanese: トヨタ・カローラ, Hepburn: Toyota Karōra) is a series of compact cars (formerly subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla has been the world's best-selling automobile of all time since 1997, when it surpassed the Volkswagen Beetle. Toyota reached the milestone of 50 million Corollas sold over twelve generations in 2021.

The name Corolla is part of Toyota's naming tradition of using names derived from the Toyota Crown for sedans, with "corolla" Latin for "small crown". The Corolla has always been exclusive in Japan to Toyota Corolla Store locations, and manufactured in Japan with a twin, called the Toyota Sprinter until 2000. From 2006 to 2018 in Japan and much of the world, and from 2018 to 2020 in Taiwan, the hatchback companion had been called the Toyota Auris.

The Toyota Auris (Japanese: トヨタ・オーリス, Hepburn: Toyota Ōrisu) is a compact car derived from the Corolla, manufactured and sold by Toyota. Introduced in 2006, the first generation three/five-door hatchback shared the platform with the E150 series Corolla, while the second generation five-door hatchback and estate car called "Touring Sports" uses the E180 platform. The "Auris" name is based on the Latin word for "gold", "aurum".

In Europe, Toyota positioned the Auris as the replacement for the Corolla hatchback, while the saloon car version continued with the Corolla nameplate. Starting with the E210 model, the Auris nameplate was discontinued and used the Corolla nameplate instead, except for Taiwan, retained the Auris nameplate for the hatchback version until July 2020.

The Volkswagen Golf (listen) is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across eight generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – including as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada (Mk1 and Mk5), and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico (Mk1).

The original Golf Mk1 was a front-engined, front-wheel drive replacement for the air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive Volkswagen Beetle. Historically, the Golf is Volkswagen's best-selling model and is among the world's top three best-selling models, with more than 35 million units sold as of 2019.

The C-segment is the 3rd category of the European segments for passenger cars and is described as "medium cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "small family car" size class, and the compact car category in the United States.

In 2024, the C-segment had a European market share of 13.9%.