Corolla reclaims the crown.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

SAVANNAH, Ga. _ It was Henry Ford, of course, who pioneered the car for the masses. And in this icon of the old South, the Spanish moss clinging to ancient oaks once made a handy seat stuffer for Ford's Model T.

Fast-forward to present day, and it's Toyota with the hot car for the hoi polloi: The Corolla has sold more than 25 million units in 142 countries since its debut in 1966 and its U.S. arrival in 1968. In other words, the best-selling passenger car in history.

Lately, the Corolla has been eclipsed in U.S. sales and critical favor by Ford's Focus and the Honda Civic. The 2003 Corolla, the ninth generation of Toyota's bread-and-butter car, is setting out to reclaim the high ground for budget sedans.

Shepherding the Corolla from Savannah to Detroit convinced me that Toyota has accomplished exactly that.

I'll confess I wasn't thrilled over the prospect of a 900-mile drive in what I expected to be a mere appliance, a sleep-inducing econocar. But it took less than an hour along humpbacked Georgia two-laners to realize the new Corolla is no penalty box. Instead, the Corolla proved a gracious long-haul companion.

And as the miles piled up, the Corolla argued an open-and-shut case as the new leader of its class. In fact, while the Toyota mostly slipped under the radar at the recent Detroit auto show, I'd rank it an early contender for next season's Car of the Year awards.

It's that good.