July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s Corolla, the world's best-selling small car, will keep its current design for a record sixth year, until 2008, as the automaker focuses on rolling out other new models.

``There was a decision to be made regarding engineering resources,'' John Hanson, a spokesman for Toyota's U.S. unit, said in an interview today. ``We decided to let Corolla go a little longer, mainly because Corolla has been such a huge sales success compared with where we thought it would be at this stage of its life cycle.''

U.S. sales of Corolla sedans and the related Matrix hatchback climbed 13 percent in the first half of 2006 as U.S. gasoline at almost $3 a gallon helped propel demand for compacts such as Corolla and its key competitor, Honda Motor Co.'s Civic.

Toyota cites the redistribution of engineering resources to ensure a smooth launch for the redesigned Camry as the main reason for the delay. Other automotive news outlets are speculating that the real reason is because Honda's new Civic has forced Toyota to go back to the drawing board.

For our part, we believe Toyota. The Honda Civic is currently enjoying a 17.1% increase in sales through the first six months of 2006 and has moved 165,056 units. Despite the Honda's critical success, the Corolla continues to steam roll its competition, including the new Civic, with a 38.7% increase in sales during the first half of the year, selling nearly 200,000 units. Clearly the Corolla can hold its own for one more year, which gives Toyota 365 more days to build a better Civic slayer.