The 2023 Toyota GR Corolla Is Even Better Than I Expected

this is the new 2023 Toyota gr cor Corolla and it's a new high performance hatchback from Toyota although that's understating things a bit because this is basically a sports car 300 horsepower all-wheel drive manual transmission only and some quirks and features that elevate it to the very top of the performance hatchback world and today I'm going to review it before I get started be sure to check out cars and bids which is my Enthusiast car auction website for cool cars from the modern era with free listings you can list your cool car for free and auction it on cars and bids and you should because we've had some great sales recently including this Honda S2000 which sold for just under thirty thousand dollars we've done great with s2000s on cars and bids this Ford Transit Connect van that has a full engine swap for a Focus ST which is amazing that also sold for just under thirty thousand dollars and this wonderful new Ford Bronco wild track which sold for just over sixty two thousand dollars we've had a lot of success with new Ford Broncos on cars and bids if you're looking to buy or sell a cool Enthusiast car from the modern era cars and bids is the place to do it with daily auctions and great selection and free listings check it out at carsandbids.com all right time for the quirks and features of the gr Corolla let's start in an obvious place of the Mechanicals now first things first all of these come with a six-speed manual transmission you cannot get an automatic you can't get a dual clutch none of that stuff is offered this is six-speed manual only and all of these also come with all-wheel drive there's no front-wheel drive base model version all gr Corollas are all-wheel drive manual transmission now you're probably thinking that's a pretty good start for a high performance hatchback until you discover that this car is powered by a 1.6 liter three-cylinder engine 1.6 liter three-cylinder doesn't really sound that high performance you can tell that this is indeed a three-cylinder because there are three lines on the plastic engine cover which is the universal symbol of how many cylinders a car has how many lines are on its engine cover so three cylinder engine could they really be serious well this three cylinder is Turbo charged for 300 horsepower and 275 pound-feet of torque which are really strong figures now this is the same powertrain that's in the gr Yaris not sold in North America another High Performance Toyota hatchback although that has about 270 horsepower this is an extra 30 on top of that for 300 horses now that's a pretty healthy figure but it is behind some Rivals the new Honda Civic Type R and the Volkswagen Golf R both have 315 horsepower so this is a little behind but it's also cheaper the Civic Type R and the Golf R both start at 44 000 this car gr Corolla starts at 37 000 for the base model the core version so it's quite a bit cheaper now this version of the gr Corolla is the circuit model sort of the higher spec version and it starts right around forty four thousand dollars and then there's another Limited Edition version called the maurizo Edition that one starts around fifty one thousand dollars but I'll get into some of the trim level difference is a little bit later and by the way since we're talking engine if you're wondering EPA rates the fuel economy at 21 miles per gallon in this city 28 miles per gallon on the highway and 24 miles per gallon in Combined City and highway driving not exactly Economy Car territory but not bad for a serious performance car but this car is cooler for way more than just the powertrain I also love the way that it looks Toyota took the standard Corolla hatchback sort of a regular economy car and they made it cool they widened the fenders you can see in front a widened flared Fender but more importantly in back they grew it out dramatically it almost looks like the car has muscles bulky rear fender flared over the back tires it just looks so cool and so rally car and so different from a standard Corolla now along the side I also love the rocker panels which connect the flared fenders in front and back they look cool sporty and they have GR4 and printed on the side GR is Toyota's latest Performance Brand it stands for Gazoo racing it's for like the race team and then four of course means four are all-wheel drive that this car has those rocker panels look great perfect complement to these flared fenders now on the side you can also see the brake calipers red calipers for the gr Corolla and they also have the gr logo on them to leave no doubt at all that this is the special performance model but beyond that there are a lot of other cool exterior items on this car for one thing there's a lot of vents on the outside of the gr Corolla to help emphasize its performance you see some on the front wheel arches that draw attention to their width and give this car a more performancey look but as far as front vents go I especially like the ones on the hood they're there for heat extraction obviously and they look very cool but most importantly they look cool when you're in the driver seat you look out over these Vents and they give you kind of a constant reminder that you're in a special performance car and not just something with a normal non-vented Hood now speaking of the front of this car it's one is pointing out that the entire front end and Grille has been massively enlarged compared to the standard Corolla and Corolla hatchback you can see much much bigger obviously part of that is looks to make the car look and feel more aggressive but it's also for airflow you get more air coming into this engine tiny engine turbocharger very important to suck as much air in as possible and so the opening in the front helps the car do that by being well massive and it's the same deal in back a much more aggressive performancey car compared to the standard Corolla hatchback the most obvious and immediately noticeable upgrade back here is that the widened rear fenders flow into a generally wider body and back and it gives this car a much more muscular high performance look than a standard Corolla and frankly more than just about any other hot hatchback I've ever seen it really looks like it means business back here you also have a lower section in Black sort of a nice performance touch and it turns into a diffuser and as you look down there you can also see that this car has three exhaust pipes now I recently made fun of the new Civic Type R in a video for having three exhaust pipes for four cylinders well this car has three exhaust pipes for three cylinders which is really stupid it's just total Overkill and I hate it but I will say I do prefer the look of these three exhaust pipes compared to the Civic Type R and the Civic they're all right in the middle centered and it calls attention to the exhaust Overkill at least in this car they're spaced apart and another cool upgrade of the gr Corolla compared to the standard Corolla hatchback is a carbon fiber roof this car has a full carbon fiber roof panel like you see on some serious sports cars well here it is on the gr Corolla now this helps keep weight down in general carbon fiber is lighter than a piece of painted sheet metal but it also helps keep weight down at the top of the car which is important because that helps to lower the center of gravity anytime you can remove Weight higher up it helps bring down the center of gravity to center of mass and that helps improve the car's handling but not all gr Corolla models have this carbon fiber roof and that brings us to a discussion of trim levels so here's the deal like I said the base model is called the core and that one starts around thirty seven thousand dollars this one is the upgraded version It's called the circuit and it's sort of the higher spec version of the two and it has a lot of upgrades compared to the core one is this carbon fiber roof which the core model does not have another one is this rear roof spoiler the core has a roof spoiler but it's body colored and smaller this cars is a larger and black and it looks sportier in front the core doesn't have those cool hood vents you only get those on the circuit not on the core and that's an easy way to distinguish the two when you're just seeing them on the street the circuit's got the vents now beyond that the circuit also adds more rigidity compared to the core So in theory it's going to handle better and it adds Michelin Pilot Sport tires which is a serious grippy High Performance Tire that will also help to improve its Track Performance and handling compared to the base model core version and next up I move inside where the circuit also add some upgrades over the core for one thing these suede seats which look very cool feel very upscale and performancey those come on the circuit you can't get them on the core also the circuit model adds some tech features compared to the core all gr Corolla models come standard with the center touch screen as you can see and with a full screen gauge cluster but the circuit model adds navigation to the touchscreen that's not available on the core the circuit model also adds a JBL 8 speaker sound system and it has a wireless charging pad as you can see down here again not available on the core now in addition to all of this the circuit is actually lighter than the core Toyota says the circuit model will be about 22 pounds lighter not a huge amount but a little bit when you add all this stuff up there are some real benefits for the circuit compared to the core that help the circuit to justify its seven thousand dollar price increase so the circuit is going to be the one that everybody wants only one problem it's not going to be the volume model so Euro says they're going to make 50 100 units of the core the base model and only 1500 units of the circuit this version the more upgraded model which I think is a mistake frankly I think those numbers should be flipped but I suspect those production numbers aren't finalized I have a suspicion that when Toyota sees the demand for this car they're probably going to do another couple model years and more production run and then maybe we'll get a different split of Prim levels or change the trim levels entirely who knows but for now that's how it's going to start now it's also worth pointing out there is one other trim level it's a special model called the morizo Edition I did a full walk around video with the mariso Edition earlier this year and I'm going to link that in the description below if you want to get up close and personal with a more reso but that car costs around fifty one thousand dollars it's limited to only 200 units and it doesn't have a back seat it's an ultra performance focused track Focus model that they add a lot of upgrade raids too they pull out the back seat and it's really supposed to be the ultimate performer for track use kind of like the Mini Cooper GP similar thing they pull out the back seat of that and make it even more performance limited edition at the top of the range that's what the Marisa will be for the gr Corolla but anyway let's talk through the quirks and features of this interior let's go back and start with those seats which are suede in the circuit model like I showed you but they're also cool grippy performance seats designed to keep you in place during hard quartering they're comfortable they look good they feel good they're good seats and they also have the gr logo embroidered into the headrests in fact the interior of this car is a bit of gr overload you have it in several different places the base of the steering wheel you can see gr at the top of the gear shifter you can see gr on the start stop button you can see gr and like I mentioned embroidered in the top of headrest you also have it on the gauge cluster screen gr always staring you in the face this is a screen so everything in here is dynamic and changing except for that gr which is always in that spot making sure you never forget now one other item you'll notice in here throughout this interior is red stitching to emphasize the performance nature of this car of course you must have red stitching so you got red stitching on the seats all throughout which looks nice you got red stitching on the parking brake and the parking brake boot you got red stitching on the shift lever boot as you can see and the trim that surrounds the shift lever you got red stitching on the steering wheel as well and there's more red stitching over on the door panel interestingly there is stitching on the dashboard but it's not red it's just black I guess they decided that was where you draw the line you can't put red stitching on the dashboard no no you just do it everywhere else and and then and then you stop at the dashboard but anyway let's talk through some cool performancy stuff in this interior probably the coolest is this dial here in the center console which you can use to adjust the torque split of the all-wheel drive system when you turn the car on in standard mode it's at 60 percent front and 40 percent rear wheel drive so a little bit front biased in normal driving if you twist this dial you can adjust that to 70 percent rear and 30 percent front so heavily rear biased in case you want to power slide get the tail out do some drifting that's the mode you want to be in or you can push the dial push it in for track mode which locks the all-wheel drive system at fifty fifty fifty percent front fifty percent rear an even torque split and Toyota says that is designed for the very best handling which is why they call it track mode that'll get you through the corners with the most finesse as opposed to front biased which you don't want and rear biased which may be a little too tail happy so those are the modes you can choose and decide on the torque split for the all-wheel drive system now also here in the center console you have this little switch that allows you to choose the drive mode you have a custom drive mode that you can adjust to your own specifications beyond that you have three others sport normal and Eco which strikes me as a little odd that there are two kind of lesser than sport modes and only one sport mode in this Ultra sporty car but I guess you do also have the custom mode that you can dial up still I bet this car is not going to be driven in Eco or normal all that often now one thing I couldn't figure out when I got in this car and started driving it is why it wasn't rev matching virtually all new manual transmission cars have a built-in rev matching feature that makes downshifts especially easy but this car wasn't doing it and I couldn't figure out why or how to turn it on I was playing around in the screens the gauge screen all the settings menus I couldn't find where to turn it on until finally I discovered this button to the left of the steering wheel which is labeled IMT and that turns on the rev matching very obscure location and a very obscure label which I guess stands for like intelligent manual transmission anyway the point is Once you turn it on the car will rev match but interestingly you have to turn it on every single time you get in the car it does not default to on it will turn itself off every time and you have to return it on to turn on rev matching but anyway next time moving on to some more General quirks and features in here one complaint of these high performance hatchbacks tends to be that they're not really all that nice inside because ultimately they're based on low priced low budget kind of cheap economy cars then they're just given a lot of extra power and performance but not a full interior makeover and that's certainly true in this case as well ultimately there's a lot of Corolla in this interior I complained about the new Volkswagen Golf R that it's not as upscale as it used to be well it's still better than the gr Corolla on the inside same deal with the new Civic Type R I was just in that looks like a Civic inside but that's nicer than the gr Corolla it definitely feels relatively inexpensive relatively base model Toyota in here with the exception of the nice seats and a few other areas you do feel a lot like you're driving a Corolla until you step on the throttle now with that said you do have some nice features in here that you don't necessarily have in all rivals for instance this little button turns on the heated steering wheel which is something you don't have in the Honda Civic Type R and you got heated seats as you can see these little switches in the center which again is something you don't have in the Civic type bar it's also nice to see that wireless charging pad there you don't always get that in cars like this but this one has it and so that's a pretty nice touch now moving on to the center screen like I said this car has a navigation system built into that Center screen being a circuit model and that's another advantage over the Civic Type R although other than that the infotainment screen doesn't really have a lot of great pluses it works fine but it's relatively small and it's fairly Limited in what it displays small screen can't display two items and not really all that much going on not a lot of crazy Innovations or cool features in here it works and that's about it you will also be disappointed by the resolution of the backup camera as you can see just really not all that great again giving you kind of that Corolla feel even though you're in the expense offensive gr Corolla now the gauge cluster screen is a little bit better for one thing it's far more configurable than other Toyota's gauge cluster screens that I've complained about in the past you can configure the left the middle and the right parts of the screen to show various information but it's not as configurable as Golf R which gives you a lot more functionality here you still can't get for example the music that is currently playing in the gauge cluster display I don't understand why that is and you also can't get the map in there so it's configurable but you're kind of stuck with the configurations that they've chosen which may not be exactly what you want to see still not that bad and a good high resolution screen but anyway next we move on to the back seat in the gr Corolla which is well small frankly it's really very tight back here I'm only fitting pretty well because I moved the front seat and the seat back pretty far up but otherwise it's pretty tight in back now that's really no surprise this is based on the Toyota Corolla which is a compact car and it's no different from Rivals this Civic Type R the Golf R the Focus RS they all feel small in back as well it's sort of the nature of the Beast of a hot compact hatchback but it is small back here just confirming now with that said it's pretty nice back here you do have the same suede seats that you had in front carried on to the back which is cool and some of that red stitching you got it on the seats as you can see which looks nice and you have it on the door panel which helps to add a bit of a luxury touch in back and you got a couple of nice convenience features back here too for one thing map pockets on the backs of both front seats which some cars don't have in this segment but the gr Corolla does more importantly you got charge points back here which is nice cigarette lighter style outlet and USBC for the back seats which is really nice to have and you got a lot of cup holders you got cup holders in the doors as you can see one on each side and fold down the center armrest and you have even more cup holders in case you want to have like a drink party in the back seat well then I suppose you can and by the way speaking of that center arm rest worth pointing out if you fold it back up there are three seats back here three seats with three seat belts it would be really tight to try to get someone back here but it does exist I point that out because the Civic Type R is a four-seater two in front two and back the gr Corolla is slightly more practical if seating capacity is what you're after and finally we move on to the cargo area of the gr Corolla which is actually kind of interesting the battery has been relocated to the cargo area in regular Corolla models it's in front here it's in back for weight distribution that's one more heavy thing that you don't have to have over the front axles you put it in back and weight distribution is a little bit more even but in doing that you then have a big battery in the truck so what Toyota did was they created this compartment to go around the battery and have little slots for things like a tire inflator kit and various tools and that sort of thing and then on top of all that you have the load floor in the truck now you can remove this compartment around the battery and just take it all out and then you'll have have the same lower load floor you get in the standard Corolla hatchback but then you'll have a random battery sticking up in the middle of the trunk so you probably don't want to do that so the result is you do have a higher floor than what you'd get in the regular Corolla hatchback and it looks a little strange especially because it's just stuck in the middle of the cargo area the spaces to the left and right of it stuff can just fall down in there it's not particularly well executed but it's there and you do have cargo space here just a little less than you might normally get now with that said just like in all of these hot hatchback models you can put down the rear seats if you want extra cargo space and as you can see with them down you do have pretty good cargo space back here you don't really pay much mine to the fact that you've lost like six inches of height in the back if you want to carry something large but still you have lost a little space and a little practicality all right driving the gr cor Corolla and there is so much to say I want to start off with my first impressions of this car when it was announced this car was revealed and people went crazy oh my God we're getting the gr hatchback this is so cool I can't wait I looked at the numbers and I was not quite as impressed I thought to myself 300 horsepower and all-wheel drive hatchback great that's what the Focus RS was five years ago when it came out you know what's so who cares it didn't seem like that special to me and that became especially cemented when I drove the gr Yaris not a lot of American journalists have had a chance to get behind the wheel that car but I did I drove one from Mexico and that car is amazing and it seemed to me like we were getting the gr Corolla as sort of a consolation prize the GRS is this purpose-built Ultra special hatchback that was a homologation rally car and they were like well we can't bring that to the us because we don't sell the yards there let's give them the Corolla instead and it just didn't seem like it was better than the other hot hatchbacks that already existed and so I wasn't sure I would like this car and then this morning happened I woke up incredibly early I'm a little sick um daylight savings time just happened and I decided I would car out and just beat on it it was 6 a.m there was nobody on the road and I just got on it and went on some really fun roads totally empty and it was one of those moments when you just totally connect with a car like you're in the right spot one of the things that I just I'm worried that EVS will never be able to replace and I've now come around completely about this car let me tell you my thoughts first off this car is pretty focused by that I mean I just had the Civic Type R I just filmed the review of that like a couple days ago and so I pretty much driving them back to back and I had the Golf R only a few months ago this car is more hardcore than those it just is for one thing the ride is rougher this car has very stiff suspension it's daily drivable it's usable but it is way stiffer feeling than the Civic Type R and definitely than the Golf R number two not as much luxury stuff you don't have a power sunroof you don't have there's a dual zone climate control you're missing some stuff in this car the tires feel loud on the road the wind noise is loud the blow-off valve is loud when you accelerate hard and then back off the throttle you easily hear that this car is more purpose built as a performance car and a sports car than the Civic Type R and the Golf R now for some people this will not be a benefit a lot of people buy these high performance hatchbacks so that they can drive them to work Monday through Friday and then on the weekends if they have time with their buddies they go out on a canyon and or a curvy Road or whatever and they can do that this car is more about the curvy roads and less about daily driving you can drive it every day but it's kind of punishing and it's not incredibly luxurious or nice and it's it's a sports car it really is a sports car and that's also true of the powertrain this car is not all that fast low in the Rev range the cool thing about it is it's the perfect amount of power and the engine is really responsive when you get high in the Rev range from four to six thousand RPM this car is a joy an absolute joy and it sounds good and then there's the handling to me this is the best part of the whole car the car absolutely comes alive when you throw it around and you feel incredibly confident I'm not sure if it's the wider track or The Wider tires or the fact that they're just stickier tires or the all-wheel drive probably more the all-wheel drive but this car feels so much more confidence inspiring to me than the Civic Type R that car has some understeer that car has torque steer this car doesn't deal with any of that all-wheel drive is absolutely the way to go in a 300 horsepower hot hatchback and this car proves it and driving it back to back to Pacific Type R it is no comparison the steering Precision might be a little better in the Civic but this car you flew Jordan Corners you feel like a pro you feel like you can't screw up you feel like it digs in and grips and goes forever and it is so confidence inspiring truthfully I'm filming this video and I wake up this morning and I'm sick and I'm like I just gotta get this done and by the time I'm actually out shooting it after I've had some fun with the car I'm like enamored with this thing like can I get one of these at sticker is that even possible okay fine if I have to pay over how much I love this thing but again huge caveat I don't commute I don't have a nine to five where I drive in the same route every day sitting in bumper to bumper if that's you this may not be the car but if it's not if you can buy this car to just screw around with [Applause] this is the car it is so exciting and so much fun and so thrilling and I find it a lot a lot more engaging than Civic Type R and less expensive if you get a Core now it's again worth pointing out I think Civic Type R is more civilized Civic Type R is also nicer inside and a lot of people will be looking for that but but the most like balls to the wall hardcore hot hatchback the Focus RS used to be that it's gone this is that now and I just love beating on this car keeping the revs high going around corners hard this car is a lot of fun and and kind of compromised and kind of Hardcore which I like and so that's the 2023 Toyota gr cor Corolla like I said I wasn't that excited about this car on paper it just didn't seem to move the hot hatchback game forward as much as all the hype around this car implied but after driving it I feel totally differently if you compare it to its Rivals the Focus RS and St the Golf R the GTI the Veloster and the Civic Type R all of them this is the one I would get just prepare for a bit of a hardcore Driving Experience anyway now it's time to give the gr Corolla a Doug score and the Doug score is here 63 out of 100 which is a huge score that ties the gr Corolla with the current Supreme reigning hot hatchback the outgoing Volkswagen Golf R it also means the gr Corolla beats out the new Golf R and the new Civic Type R and I think that's right the gr Corolla is more fun than both of those cars and the Doug score is meant to be biased towards performance cars but the gr Corolla is also compromised with an average interior and a harsh ride both the Civic Type R and the Golf R are more daily drivable the gr Corolla is just more fun [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 1,094,526

Keywords: gr corolla, gr corolla review, new gr corolla, new gr corolla review, 2023 toyota gr corolla, 2023 toyota gr corolla review, doug demuro, demuro, doug de muro

Id: Q4aAeS6bo9w

Length: 27min 14sec (1634 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Philo_T_Farnsworth]

The way Doug reacted in the road test reminds me a lot of how my 2005 STI was to drive. Built around a cheap car, loud inside, very firm suspension, few creature comforts, absolute blast in the corners, great six speed manual, fancy center diff, did the absolute basics perfectly but offered zero frills.

I daily'd my STI for ten years and the ride was punishing but I was younger then and it was worth it. I'm more of a GT car guy now. Give me those creature comforts with a side of performance.

[u/spiketeam]

What is Doug talking about that other hot hatches have similarly small back seats?

The civic type R back seat is HUGE! Golf R is very serviceable as well.

[u/Marchiavelli]

It makes me irrationally angry knowing how unavailable this Corolla of all things will be.

For 30+ years, my family's been exclusively Toyota econoboxers (a sea of bland Corollas and Camrys, with a sprig of Celica on the side). But like many here, I grew up on Gran Turismo, Initial D, and Fast & Furious.

This is a dream car. And it's a miracle that it even exists. Toyota took the Ambien of the car world and got people lusting after it. The biggest tragedy is that it seems it'll be produced at such limited quantities that it might as well not exist. Why create such high demand for a product just to dangle it in front of consumers like a carrot on a stick

[u/[deleted]]

I'm getting the impression that Toyota did this car a slight disservice by doing the first big press driving event at a fairly high elevation track in 100 degree weather. Seems like everyone who drives it on a twisty road raves about it.

[u/riding_steamer]

Not sure about that rear wide fender. It's shaped awkwardly.

[u/TravelingFlipper]

This thing will be well over 50k with markups. Lol no

[u/Promit]

This is the most excited and enthusiast driving section of a video I've seen from Doug in I don't know how long.

[u/Jimmaayy]

I have some conflicting thoughts on this car. On one hand, it’s really cool that Toyota decided to make a modern hot hatch that’s focusing on fun. On the other hand, a lot of the reviews(not Doug’s) say that the car understeers and doesn’t drive as well as the type r. It also feels like we’ve reached a point where cars don’t need to be uncomfortable/compromised to drive well. I’ve done the uncomfortable sports car daily thing before and wouldn’t recommend it.

All that being said, I can’t wait to see the snow drifting videos that are inevitably going to come out. I live in a ski town and all the wrxs have disappeared in the last couple of years. I wonder if these will eventually start showing up.

[u/Jtbros]

Bit of a mistake in the video with the “not available in the Core trim” for some options. A Circuit is effectively a fully loaded Core + carbon fiber roof, larger spoiler, vented hood, alcantara seats. The wireless charger is available on the core but not sure about GPS.

Loved the video and makes me all the more excited for when allocations start at dealers near me.