Had a bit of a shock the other day - just pulling off the roundabout from the M5 onto the M50 at about 45 mph and the offside driveshaft went bang. Sent me across the outside lane(fortunately only 2 lanes & it was empty) into the crash barrier.

All in all a lucky escape, other than manouvering on the drive at home I can't think of such a thing happening without dire consequences!

Is such a failure on Toyota Corollas common?

It had been serviced & MoT'd just a month ago at a local independent - should they have picked it up?

Although it is a 1998 model it had only done 45k miles - it's used as a 2nd car & we've had it since it was 2 yrs old.