Why is The Toyota GR Corolla So Special? A Comprehensive Technical Review

hello and welcome to the car care now channel and welcome to a video that I've been wanting to do for a very long time this is the 2023 gr Corolla a car that Toyota should be very proud of in today's video we're not going to look at how many cup holders this car has and how what kind of infotainment system it does have we're going to do a proper technical review from a mechanic we're gonna see why this car is special and why Toyota should be very proud of this car right after this let's start our technical review with the engine this is the g16e GTS 1.6 three-cylinder 12 valve engine very interesting to hear the words 12 valve because there's not a lot of three-cylinder engines out there in the world and for Toyota at least in the US this is a first usually people when they hear a three-cylinder engine they think of something like this but in reality this is more like this very close to this engine is all Toyota I mean you look at the construction of this engine and everything around it and all the wiring and the way things are designed this is a hundred percent Toyota and actually the development of this engine is pretty interesting because me as a mechanic looking at this I see a lot of shared parts and people say that's a bad thing that's a good thing folks let's dive into some of the mechanical bits of this engine so you will get a better knowledge with this engine so starting from the top we have a plastic valve cover jury is out on that but again this is not a car for reliability you just have this has to be said plastic valve cover with a very very interesting oil spray nozzle system inside of it which is pretty cool it has a little odd shape now we go to the cylinder head and that's where things are kind of on the unique side and a little bit on the old school side if you ask me so most modern Toyota engines will have a two-piece cylinder head basically there's a cylinder head where the valves are and then there is another piece attached to it where the cam sits cam tower cam cradle whatever you want to call it this one actually has a single piece cylinder head with hydraulic lifters with roller rockers very similar design to the a25 they're actually identical to the a25 if not the same that is a very interesting design because they're basically the same Parts there's nothing unique or kind of special part no they're just normal Toyota parts and then we go into this the valves themselves so the seats of the valves are laser clad and they have an interesting positioning so they have that round tumble flow pretty intro first thing this is very similar again to the a25a and in the m20a basically the dynamic Force engines they use that in this engine not for a really just efficiency it is actually a better flow for performance and then from the cylinder head we move into the head gasket the best part here is they if you read the technical data they will say this this head gasket is a tri-layer head gasket metal head gasket so is every single Toyota Modern Toyota out there nothing really special about it it works it works very well in the end of that story head gasket is very really standard Toyota stuff there is nothing out of this world about it then we move into the cylinder block the block is this is where the surprise is now the rods are forged some Toyota engines do have forged rods but most of them don't this one does but other than that the cylinder walls for example or the liners they're a spiny or spinny type basically exactly the same as your Camry Corolla abrasively every single engine there is it's an aluminum all aluminum block the cylinder liners are cast into it so basically they put the liners and they cast everything around it so they're not serviceable they're super thin if they get damaged block is goes to the garbage and you get a new one very tough block and unless you have severe conditions going on you're not really going to wear it down these things last very long time so it's a very familiar design now the crankshaft is offset on this engine and the other thing that is interesting is they have two oil pans one upper one lower that's pretty standard but what is interesting and I actually like this is a good idea they have a balance shaft this is a three cylinder engine it just it does need a balance shaft to balance it out the balance shaft is geared to gear mesh so it sits right underneath the crankshaft and it's meshed with it very interesting design doesn't have a separate chain for it doesn't have just sits right underneath the crank basically It Bolts onto the block some of the other Toyota models like the balance shaft will bolt on to the second oil pan or the upper oil pan this one it actually bolts to the block directly makes it more compact now there's something they did here that is super interesting to me as we move into more of the mechanical bits of this engine so the front timing cover is actually a unique design I initially thought it was similar to the a25 but looking at this it's a unique design so there is an area between the cylinder head and the block where the head gasket is that actually does not have anything around it there's basically the front cover is two pieces one at the top one at the bottom and that's it and the chain goes kind of through that area between the the cylinder head and the block and there's an opening in the head gasket where the chain goes usually that design you'll see in German cars they love to do that not for the same reasons they did here but the reasons they did it here is for compactness and you will not have an Infamous front time in cover leak which makes the front timing cover extremely simple to service this is a timing chain engine has one timing chain very simple extremely simple actually and this is what I love about it moving on to the vvti system this engine has dual vbti of course they are both oil controlled there's no clever evvti or whatnot they're oil controlled very very simple the oil does not travel through the valve cover there's two actuators on the outside on the top front cover as you see here there's two actuators they're electronically controlled all they have is a little plunger that pushes on the oil control valve inside very simple if you look at an a25a the exhaust side that's exactly how it is if you look at the V6 from a Tacoma 3.5 to grfks that's exactly the same design down to the Gear down to the oil control valve inside the gear and then the actuator in the outside nothing exclusive that's going to cost you a small fortune if it ever goes bad one day that is pretty cool yeah this is where Toyota is everywhere here now let's talk about the fuel system in this engine which is also a Toyota special this engine has a d4s system basically like your Highlander like your Tacoma like every single car out there with a d4s system you basically have three port injectors and three direct injectors there is times where Port injectors are better for performance missions and everything and there's times where direct injectors are better in this you have Best of Both Worlds you have the times where you can use direct injection for their efficiency and their direct spray and then you have the time where you can use port for their advantages and the biggest thing is you don't have carbon buildup I did do a video investigating did this system actually work and it did here's that video if you want to check it out but this is very familiar stuff you basically have two fuel pumps one field bump in the fuel tank that sends fuel to the front then it splits into two one of them goes to the regular injectors the three port injectors like your mid-2000s Toyota had and then one of those splits goes to a high pressure fuel pump which is driven by the camshaft sits right on top of the valve cover that pressurizes the fuel to 3000 psi up to 3000 psi and then that goes to the direct injectors very very basic if you go get the regular version of this Corolla with hubcaps it'll have exactly that which is pretty interesting that this high performance car has very similar systems like that and then the cooling system is actually the biggest surprise of them all I mean we see cars these days they're going to electric water pumps and valves and all kinds of complications this one skipped all that all together this probably has one of the most basic cooling systems there ever is for high performance cars actually very surprising the cooling system in this is basically mechanical it's for lack of a better word mechanical water pump belt driven mechanical thermostat no distribution valve no nothing there's coolant that goes to the radiator coolant goes to the engine coolant goes to heater core inside no valve in between and cooling goes to the turbo talk about the turbo in a little bit but it's a super super basic cooling system it's pretty interesting hey if it works why change it that's what they did here it works pretty good of course this has an electric cooling fan nothing no Hydro fan or none of that complication for high performance engines just sufficient and it works now the other thing that it's the little stuff now this is also not exclusive to this most of your grandpa's Avalon actually has that but here they kind of took it to the next level the air box did you know that your grandpa's Avalon has a system where if you under hard acceleration it starts to channel air from the front of the car into the intake yeah this has the same thing add a little bit more exaggerated level now this does have a mass airflow just standard Toyota stuff through the air box there's actually a little solenoid you can see it right in the front that solenoid is vacuum controlled when you accelerate hard actually opens a passage that gets air from in front of the bumper pretty cool and when you're driving normally it quiets down because that actually makes the intake louder so you kind of have better air intake when you're driving fast and then normal air intake so it's quiet when you're driving normally which contributes to how quiet this car is we'll talk about that in a bit now something else that is very interesting to me and this is what gets Car Guys super excited if you look at the air box it not only says gr and Toyota Gazoo racing it has three stripes on it this little stuff is what gets us all excited isn't it three stripes for three cylinders let's talk about the PCV system usually turbocharged engines and high performance engines are problematic when it comes to PCV systems because they have so much pressure they're under a lot of flow there's a lot of heat there's a lot of blow-by all kinds of stuff so here's where Toyota kind of did this the basic way and I have a feeling this might not cut it down the road but it's just my hunch PCV system on this is basically exactly the same as your grocery getting Camry nothing wrong with the Camry it's not meant to do with this thing does so the PCB system has an oil separator it's a plastic oil separator very small very basic sits right underneath the intake manifold and then the PCV valve sits just like the a25 and the M20 it sits right between the intake manifold and the cylinder head there's no way to replace it without removing the intake manifold absolutely no work around it and they the reason they did that and this is kind of interesting because every car has this problem well sudden this is such a big problem they say this prevents the PCV valve from freezing so now it's a very hot spot it will always be warmed up and not never get frozen what about all the cars basically almost every single car out there in the world that's not very new which has the PCB valves are sitting on the valve cover I don't know that's what they did that's what they decided to do so yes if you want to replace a PCB valve on this it's a job and a half just like your a25 just like the M20 and just like the g16e now the turbocharger this is what everybody wants to talk about yes this engine has a single turbocharger not really super big but it is really pushed to the Limit here but there are some interesting stuff about it because the way they designed it this is what I told you there's toyotiness here unlike the tundra where I feel like they didn't go the normal Toyota route here they really did there is old school and old school now this turbo is cool and cooled like we talked about very simple cool and goes in cool and goes out nothing really special same thing with oil oil goes in oil goes up nothing special now the turbo is it has ball bearing bearings in it and all this fancy stuff of course every single modern turbo is like that it's nothing really unique about it the only thing in my opinion that is unique is it is integrated into the exhaust manifold so if you want to remove it all you got to do is remove the exhaust manifold and the whole thing just comes off there's no exhaust manifold and then the turbo attached to it makes service a little bit better however the location of it being in the back and being that even though this is small engine the engine is actually pushed toward the back and that is intentional to try to keep the engine as close to the back as possible not really Push It Forward where it hangs over the where the drive axle is make service for this turbo extremely difficult it is a very tight space but that's what they did I wish they went to Honda Route where the turbo was in the front that would have been really nice but that's what they did now something else about this turbo the wayscape so the wastegate is what controls how much this turbo spools so exhaust basically spins the impeller of the turbo on one side other impeller generates pressure and that's how turbos work in three seconds but how do you control that you keep rubbing the engine well this exhaust keeps coming out at a faster velocity and then this turbo just over spins and blows up the engine the wastegate is a little door that opens and lets some of that exhaust escape to control how fast that turbo is spinning very simple concept here very old school you go back to the earliest turbo cars that's exactly how it is and it's still the same however here things are exactly like they were when the turbos came out it's vacuum controlled so there's a little vacuum modulator when you apply vacuum to it it pulls a rod that opens the wastegate all mechanical stuff you stop the vacuum to it it closes that gate simple as that that's exactly how it is if you have a little valve with vacuum lines when the computer controls the little solenoid it applies vacuum and actually pulse modulates it so it can control how much that gate is open I mean it cannot be more reliable than that there's two hoses and a little solenoid that's super accessible if you have any issues with it that's all it is and then the other part of this turbo that is very very old school and usually I don't like this but in this it just feels proper and I suppose it was sufficient so that's why they did it this way they want to kept keep things simple most modern turbo cars are moving towards air to liquid intercooler so basically liquid cools the air charge that goes into the engine cooler there the denser the oxygen in it the more good it is so in this engine they decided to go basically the 90s route this has an intercooler that sits very proudly in the front which in certain trims like this very one it actually says GR4 that is something that will make every single car guy just smile even though we know that this system is not as efficient as the liquid to air ones but it's just it's just better to have a giant intercooler in the front so this massive Grille this thing have actually does something other than cool the radiator in the condenser you have a massive intercooler in the front that is very nice and it's more nice when it says GR4 so this is a very very basic turbocharging system I mean this is as basic as they come very simple to service very simple to operate yes there's more hoses and stuff but it's very basic and that's a surprise now there is something else about this car because they were obsessed with the weight distribution of this car and I don't blame them because they really did that well they had to move the battery in the trunk of course spare tire is gone you have an inflate kit but you don't expect that in a car like this they move the battery in the back for just put a little bit more weight in the back and instead they gave you a little terminal here in case you need to jump start the car back door is electronic can't open if the batteries that you can mechanically unlock the door pop the hood open and then you can jump it right here and to wrap up the engine section of this video let's talk about the exhaust now the exhaust for the most part is pretty standard right up to the moment where you get to the back two catalytic converters standard stuff one next to the turbo one cleanup cap it's very special then you get to the very back this car has three exhaust tips and the joke is one personal there why not I guess uh this is a trend now it is a little boyish when you look at it it just doesn't it feels like too much but it grows on you and that's the best part but it actually it's not just for show there is a slight purpose to it so the way the muffler is constructed it's a big Muffler two pipes on the side one in the middle the one in the middle actually has a cut off valve so it's shut off when you're driving normally exhaust is routed through the whole Muffler to the side pipes and that's where it exits when you accelerate hard then you want better flow louder noise it actually opens that valve and now air has a less straight path to through the muffler outside and that's how this Exhaust Works unfortunately you cannot control it with a button and this is where Toyota's conservativeness comes in but hey we're not complaining this is a beautiful car and we really are in love with it let's talk about the all-wheel drive system which is a pretty sophisticated system here so this is called the GR4 and it is flat out a rally car all-wheel drive system in a production car at first for Toyota for modern Toyotas in the past they've had a few cars that are like this but this system is so sophisticated but at the same time so simple and basic and it will shock you how basic it is the basic premise of this system is it has three modes one of the modes sends 70 percent of the power to the rear thirty percent of the power to the front the second mode sends sixty percent of the power to the front 40 to the rear and the third mode sends 50 to the front 50 to the rear and you can easily adjust it with a little toggle on the interior very very simple now here's how that actually works this has a manual transmission we're going to talk about that in a moment that manual transmission is connected to a transfer case it is a mechanical transfer case basically all it does does takes the emotion that is going this way sends it that way that's all it does there is no electronics there's no fanciness there's nothing it's just a rugged piece of metal transfer case always spinning sends power to the rear the front wheel in the back axles Wheels axles in the front but on the nose of the track of the differential in the back there is an electromagnetic clutch and that's really where all the magic happens it's unlike a say a RAV4 which has a tiny little magnetic clutch this has a massive magnetic clutch it has a multi-plate very very sophisticated what that can do it's not there's no friction it's electromagnetic it's basically a magnet that does that does this thing they vary how strong that magnet is if it's stronger you're at 70 to the rear because now you're engaging that rear differential more and then most of the power is going to the rear very little in the front which is the 70 in the rear thirty percent front when they want sixty percent in the front 40 percent of the rare the magnetic force decreases so now you have kind of an air slippage if you would and now you have more power going in the front less power going to the rear when you want 50 50 it just evens it out it becomes the same thing as the front now you have 50 in the back 50 in the front in theory that is a very very simple operation there is nothing really about it so reliability of the system is going to be very good except when you keep jarring it hard acceleration hard acceleration eventually one axle is going to give or something is going to happen but as far as wear to that electromagnetic coupler in the back there is nothing to wear it's like it's electricity it's frankenberg It's Magic and I love it there's something about this also in the core model they're open divs the front differential is open rear differentials open nothing about it in the circuit Edition you have torsion limited slipped in the front and the rear now the core package you can core package being like the base model if you would you can option it out or torsion limited slip in the performance package so that's pretty cool so let's talk about the breaks of the gr Corolla and things are anything but normal here the front brakes are 14 inch rotors 14 inch rotors there was a time where the corolla's wheels were 14 inches now the brakes on the gr Corolla are 14 inch routers the rotors are very interested they have little slits for cooling and they are a two-piece rotor in the front sounds like a very expensive router and it is the caliper in the front is a four piston caliper again never thought I'd see a day where a Corolla has a four piston caliper but here we are something interesting about these calipers so the bolts that bolt them to the knuckle they're not from the back like basically every single Toyota they're kind of like some Lexus models there in the front very interesting design I think it's a better design very easy to service and it works really well now the rear brakes they're almost 12 inches big which is still very big there are very some very big trucks with rotors that are smaller than the rear rotors on this little hot head the rear calipers are two piston calipers and they are fixed same style bolt that goes in the front and then the parking brake is actually mechanical in this and it is the parking brake shoes in the rotor hat standard stuff and this is the interesting part because the normal Corolla in this generation has electronic parking brake this does not and that's intentional and that's good now the rotors are directional because they have the slits in the front and in the back now in the front it's simple there is a clear L arc on the inside of the rotor height I don't know why it was on the not on the outside but it is on the inside relatively simple but the rear rotors this is where things got a little weird so to distinguish between the left side and the right side there are there is a Groove if you have a groove it is one side if you don't have a Groove it's the other side I don't know why they couldn't just mark them but that's what they did and other than that and this is where things are very very gonna get very interesting other than the actual rotors and brakes everything else is exactly the same out of your very nice family hatchback Corolla with CVT the master cylinder exactly the same the booster the ABS unit everything is exactly the same all the regular amenities and all that stuff the only thing that is missing is break hole I guess you can't do brake hold in a manual transmission can you but the only thing that is different about the rest of the brake system or specifically the vehicle stability control or VSC so they have something called enhanced VSC of course this is a car that's going to be on the track but more interestingly than that there is a Mode called expert mode that's basically a mode that in Toyota's own word do not use on the rows use it on a track and only reserve for professional drivers and I don't blame them because that's when it just lets you lose you the road the car and the ditch that's basically what expert mode is it's just this engages everything you're on your own go crash this car let's talk about the Transmissions because actually there's two versions of the transmission in this car so the first one which is the most popular one is the ea67f six-speed manual transmission very rugged transmission it's actually a compact unit specifically designed for this thing then there is the ea68f which is actually only available in the maurizo Edition they're exactly the same the only difference is the mariso Edition x actually has different gear ratios very interesting I'm going to put both comparison in case you're interested now this transmission what can be said about it recently we reviewed the gr86 in my second channel in my only complaint about it was the transmission was clunky and the clutch was just too harsh and the car didn't even make that much power here's this car that makes a lot more power and it's a lot more serious than the gr86 Subaru thing whatever and the clutch is super smooth I mean extremely smooth you could baby drive this and it won't Tire you out the shifts are very smooth and crisp transmission engages very softly you don't need to jam it and push it and it's clunky and weird no it's very smooth but then if you drive it hard the shifts are very rapid the shifts between one two three four that butter smooth that is the only way to describe it it is beautiful how this transmission works and it's so fitting of this car no matter how you drive this Transmission in this clutch you won't feel like it's not performing it's beautiful and then there is something about it that is very interesting about the clutch so the clutch in this something I haven't really seen before possibly somebody has done it before but this is definitely a first for Toyota the clutch in this thing has something called Tac or travel adjusted clutch what that means is so normally in clutches clutch is a very basic mechanical thing you have a pressure plate that puts pressure on a little friction plate for the disc and that gets sandwiched against the flywheel and off we go when you let go of the pressure of the pressure plate that disc no longer has pressure pushing on it and it backs off and now you're basically not engaged or neutral well in most cars as the disc wears down starts to slip because the pressure being applied to it is exactly the same so when the disc wears down it gets thin you start slipping that's just how the cycle of life or clutches work well that's not how things work in this car because the pressure plate in this car has adjustability and it's automatic and that's the best part as the clutch disc wears down there's actually an over complicated mechanical gear that increases the pressure on the clutch disc so as this squares down it's just going to keep pushing on it harder compensating for the thickness of the clutch getting smaller that is such a great idea and now that makes me wonder why does every single manual transmission car have this especially heavy duty stuff like big semis and rigs they should all have that that is very smart because now you're going to get every last bit of this clutch basically this clutch will last until the rivets hit the flywheel now that's not a good idea right there what I just said but that's basically what's going to happen here basically you're never going to lose contact unless there's nothing to make contact anymore now the interesting thing about this and this is actually new in the service World usually when you go buy a clutch from Toyota you can buy the disc and the pressure plate or they call it the clutch cover separate they're two separate pieces you can buy whatever you want in this however they come as a unit you can only survive them as a couple together can't buy them individually and I see why that does make sense actually what about maintenance for the gr Corolla this massively exciting car is this kind of bankrupt you in maintenance and everything else actually that is not the case at all folks this is all Toyota this is not the BMW super with all the special oil and whatever talk a little bit about the maintenance here oil changes 5000 miles please or six months the most oil that it takes zero w20 with a specific requirement API SP RC or ilsac gf6a so you basically either use API sprc or ilsac GF 8A now that sounds like a bunch of jargon basically don't use oil for your tractor use newer oils that's what they're trying to tell you here and the first one I had to do an oil change here actually I have it on video it was a very confusing debacle but use good oil in this engine and actually I said 5000 miles six months do it earlier if you drive it hard with performance cars are not daily drivers typical daily drivers where you gotta you can extend the maintenance whatever take care of this engine because it is a truly a masterpiece something else about this this only has one cooling system that uses the typical pink coolant super long life coolant from Toyota nothing special about it nothing special about the bleeding procedure actually the coolant bottle is exactly the same that of The Irregular Corolla very interesting then we move to the transmission which uses lovous viscosity gl4 fluid very simple 75 weight very available same thing with the differential very simple stuff there's nothing really special about those two pour the engine oil this takes four and a half quarts of zero w20 as we talked about and it uses Toyotas and one filter I'll leave that part number right here but there's something very interesting about the service procedure for this car for checking the oil level it's because the way the internal bafflings and everything is designed in this engine normally we tell you mechanics will tell you when you shut off your car wait a minute check your oil level in this you gotta wait at least eight minutes to check your oil level because oil actually takes a longer time to get from everywhere to the bottom so you can get an actual reading so wait eight minutes when you check the oil level on this engine that is the only thing that is different than the rest otherwise this is basically the exact same maintenance as your any car with hubcaps from Toyota exactly the same that's the best thing about it let me share with you some of our impressions of this car kind of the outside and inside it's not really a car for a proper review and how many cup holders it has or whatever let's start with the outside I mean one thing has to be said this generation Corolla even the regular hatchback does look pretty cool it does look pretty good in my opinion I think I did a really good job but this is truly special even non-car people when they see this this just looks special extremely special let's start from the front bumper I mean this is a massive Grille but it is functional it is not fake and you see the GR4 right sticking out it's very easy to see it it's super cool I I think I wish this was not an option this was every single one of them because you cannot mistake this for anything else but a gr Corolla of course we have our gr logo right here I think it looks very nice that it's to the side small but very important now this car has fog lights which is interesting to see very large grill that is just the way they did it for cooling of course Toyota Center badge in the middle does have the radar sensor behind it this has the latest Toyota safety sense radar sensor right here and then this is interesting there's two little cutouts here and the rest is closed it just gives it like a unique look not like the regular one this is actually of course open for extra Cooling and then the biggest thing is the hood is completely different it's like raised up more and then the hood scoops folks for the first time Toyota puts real hood scoops let me pop the hood and you guys will see that these are actual hood schools not some fake ones now the gr Corolla does have a a stick for the hood no hood insulation but these are actual hood vents so what these do is as you drive this opening in the front that we talked about right next to the emblem right here they actually push air through here into here and then it comes out and what that is meant to do is not to push the heat from the radiator into the engine bay it actually pushes it outside the car that is so cool to minimize the kind of the temperature under the hood these are functional and that is pretty cool now the hood doesn't have insulation it's pretty much otherwise pretty standard but as we wrap around we first see the first brake vent this is an actual functional vent this is not a fake vent and I love the design of the wheels and these massive rotors that just you can add any not even none people see this these are massive brakes for a car this small you know this is something truly special then as we come here you have more vents this is actually an actual vent as well for cooling gr logo right here then the front fender is actually completely different than the normal one it is more pushed up it is wider and that's what gives it that very special stance as we walk our way around the doors our standard doors they're exactly the same as a hatchback but the rocker panel right here is wider and it says GR4 on it engraved in it that is super nice I really like it even though it sticks out from the car it never really you never really hit it when you sit in the car it's just a perfect design here is what they did in the back which I can understand why they did this probably cost cutting because changing the front fender simple Fender is a bolt-on part but the corner panel is extremely difficult to redesign basically they have to redesign the entire body to make this Coral panel wider so they didn't this is the cool part they put these two plastic pieces that make this body wider perhaps ideas for non-gr Corolla Owners to get this upgrade get the rocker panels and the fenders these are actually bolt-on parts that makes sense fuel door is the same everything else is the same as the regular Corolla just these two are added then we come to the back and this is where things are extremely different I mean the previous Corolla looked nice it had a lot of Curves but look at this there is this plane and then there's this and then there's this and this and then there's this turn there's a lot going on you cannot mistake this for anything but a gr Corolla and of course the optional wing pretty pretty interesting look in the back now the wing is some people will say this is too much I think it is properly fitting for a car like this this is a car it's meant to move your emotions and this nothing moves emotions for car people more than Wings and More Wings of course the GR aph Corolla badge is proudly pronounced here but there's something else about this that is pretty interesting the angle of the front of the hatch door is actually bigger and you could see it like really comes out more than the regular hats that is pretty interesting now you do have some reflectors on the side and then the three tailpipes it just the whole package especially to me personally in white this car really stands out just the Accents in the back the little fake diffuser in the back looks just looks the part and looks folks look this car is not just all show no go this car is go but the looks need to match the character of the car and it definitely does in this I love the way this looks it is so striking get so much attention I mean in the end it's just a Corolla but you know what I've never been this excited about Corolla in a very long time probably since the AE86 if you want to really tell tell you the exact time now the best thing about this car is it's a functional car you could drive it every day I mean let's look at the hatch area right here now this is not the biggest storage area in the planet but it's very similar to the regular hatchback they really didn't Rob any space underneath here we have the battery is right there but there is a small little touch just to make you feel special if you notice this little foam piece is actually specifically designed for the gr Corolla because it has the gr logo right there engraved on it see it right here it says GR and the reason for that because the batteries here they had to redesign this foam piece of course you have the tire inflator there is no spare tire underneath here there is just the battery nothing really else that's about it we don't have a spare tire in this I can understand this is not the car to have a spare tire do you have storage space not the biggest but you can use it every day of course the backup camera is right here just like the right or Corolla nothing really special rear wiper standard stuff and of course in the circuit Edition you have the carbon roof now when you look at this roof initially it has a texture even when you touch it it almost feels like it's not well made but folks this is naked carbon very cool to see in a car and especially in the gr Corolla and I wish this was standard in all of them but it's not it's an option and I suppose it does kind of make sense but what I do like is when you look at the shark fin they change the color to match now one thing I wish they also did I wish they made the piano black Wing right here in this section the same color so it would match because you have this matte color and then all of a sudden it's shiny but that's a very small thing and if you get the one without this it'll look perfectly fine take a look inside this car for a few things that are very interesting now the at first glance this looks exactly like a normal Corolla and it is for the most part except there are a few things that are unique about this gr Corolla that is very different than the regular Corolla the first thing is the mint you sit in the seats these are special seats for the gr Corolla they're bucket seats they are a very extremely nice design but the best thing about it they're heavily bolstered but when you sit here it's a very comfortable seat I have a bad back I'm a mechanic sitting here for hours didn't really bother my back this is a very well made seat I still remember 2014 Corolla I bought a new one I really didn't like those bucket seats in the s model these are a lot more comfortable I love these seats they're super comfortable even for long drives but then after that the rest is the same but here are the differences the steering wheel is completely unique to this car I mean according to Toyota they did not want to put the regular steering wheel it would have been fine if they did but they did not want to because they wanted the driver to feel special behind this wheel and especially you do feel because you have a gr logo you have different buttons it's just this very sophisticated steering wheel feels very right there's a tri-spoke proper three spoke steering wheel it looks very nice now something else that they did here of course you notice the mechanical parking brake but there's something about it the handle is very big it's wrapped in leather it just feels right doesn't even feel flimsy and about to fall off normal Corolla actually has electronic parking brake the shifter this is manual only now in this specific one this is the special shifter that apparently everybody wants it says gr on it and it has maurizo's signature on it some models and we're not not really quite sure which one exact ones it's not really clear from the data some models will have Akio Toyota signature on it not pretty sure if that was a one-off thing on a prototype but this one has maurizo's signature and supposedly it's a weighted handle I guess that is pretty cool doesn't really do anything but looks very cool it gets Car Guys excited something else that is unique about this is the the little thing that changes the modes so if you look in the screen right here right now it says gr46040. when you change it you have 60 40 you have 30 70 and then you have track is the 50 50 mode so this is a little knob that changes that pretty simple pretty familiar you know very easy to use it's right here there's nothing really else here in the center stack that's it you got some round things to put some round objects and not even a Saturn console nothing because this is a focused car HVAC controls exactly the same as the Corolla the infotainment system exactly the same as the Corolla by the way this is the latest generation infotainment system from Toyota it works pretty good pretty glitchy but hey it's better than the old stuff now the only other thing that is different about this other than the badging they're all over the place especially on the start button it says gr start stop is the gauge now the gauge is in all screen it's kind of unique to the gr Corolla does have a pretty cool gr logo when you start and shut it off it does have some information turbo boost various temperatures and whatnot I suppose that is pretty cool but it's not the highest customizable one if this had a mechanical gauge nobody would have complained because this car is beautiful to drive there is something to see said about this interior it is very comfortable it's very well made and they are the little stuff they did here just made it very special but the biggest thing about this and it's kind of a surprise I mean you don't expect this in a kind of a hot version of a car it's very quiet I mean I wish the regular Corolla was this quiet this is super quiet and the car itself is also quiet unless you really push it then it gets a little louder but if you drive it you drive this I can see myself daily driving this I mean you have heated seats you have all the amenities adaptive cruise control all the good stuff this is a very very nice thing that they did here they did not ruin the interior for the sake of this being a special hot car there is only one thing that I wish and this is where Toyota starts a little bit so you you get this really nice red stitching on the doors you get it on a shifter you get it on the seats but not on desk you just have black stitching here don't know why they did that but they did and that's just okay it's not the end of the world but I was it was red everywhere I mean this is the halo car after all but we can live with that right so should you buy a 2023 gr cor Corolla folks as you've seen across this video I love this thing that is the only way to describe it this is 100 Toyota's work this is not some BMW Subaru whatever this is all Toyota's work and it shows throughout it this is completely designed by Toyota and they should be very proud of it best part about this car is it is civilized when you drive it normally I mean even inside when you drive it normally or not racing or driving hard it's quieter than the normal Corolla it's not the smoothest car in the world of course with the suspension that it has but it's actually not jarring or bad seats are comfortable things are normal even get good gas mileage that's the best part engine is not loud you won't exhaust is not loud you won't really attract a lot of attention but then when you put your foot down it will put a very large smile on your face right up to the moment when you start getting in trouble and speaking of trouble this car can seriously get you in trouble because the way it accelerates is very smooth and it's not really loud all of a sudden you're breaking every single speed limit and you don't even realize realize it it is super stable I mean for a car this small it is super stable at very high speeds that seriously will get you in trouble Toyota and the Gazoo racing team truly deserves a round of applause for this one because they really outdid themselves this is how a hot version of a car should be not the TRD Camry and not the f-sport from Lexus that's right they can do it so just keep doing it this way you take the exact original car original model and you do it from the ground up completely different make it unique in every single way without losing the original Focus this is a car you can actually drive every single day it is a hundred percent made by Toyota so you know reliability is still a factor it is not horrendous on gas it is fun to drive when you want it but it also can be a daily driver because it's comfortable it has five seats four doors you have store origin the back it's just a Corolla in the end but when the time right time comes it'll put a giant smile on your face folks they really did a good job if there is only one complaint I have about this car is please make more of it and please clamp down on your dealership so they wouldn't start marking this thing up up to the sky and then nobody can buy it and then we're back to square one folks I hope this video was helpful informative I hope you learned something new if you like it consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my other videos and until the next video folks may the Lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 264,122

Keywords: gr corolla, corolla gr, toyota corolla gr, gr corolla 2023, toyota gr corolla, gr corolla review, gr corolla core, gr corolla morizo edition, gr corolla reveiw, toyota gr corolla review, gr yaris, technical review, car review, gr, gazoo racing, toyota, toyota corolla, car reviews 2023, toyota supra, gr corolla exhaust, gr corolla engine, new gr corolla, 2023 toyota gr corolla review, 2023, 2023 toyota, the car care nut, car care nut, doug demuro

Id: ojPG1Ouszps

Length: 48min 38sec (2918 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 15 2023