2023 Toyota GR Corolla

EMME HALL: Hold up, Subaru, because there is another rally car in town. I'm talking about this, the 2023 Toyota GR Corolla. Now, this all wheel drive hot hatch joins its bigger brothers, the GR 86 and the GR Supra. And trust me, this little guy is nothing like the front wheel drive Corolla hatch that we already have. So I'm out here at beautiful Utah Motorsports Park. There's a track right over there and I'm going to get on it. But before we get to the fun stuff, I'm going to have to ask you to like and subscribe and let me know in the comments, what do you think of this hot little hatch? And if you're looking to buy your own GRC or maybe sell your car, just go over to edmunds.com/sellmycar for all the cool tools. So Toyota's going to be offering this vehicle in three different trims, Core, the launch only Circuit trim, and then the bonkered Morizo trim. But under the hood of all of them is a 1.6 liter, 3-cylinder. That's right, 3 cylinders of Japanese fury producing 300 horsepower and 273 pounds feet of torque. Although, the Morizo one gets a little bit more torque and we're going to talk about that later. Now, power goes down to all four wheels through a 6-speed manual transmission. Thank you very much, Toyota. You guys always complain about not having any manuals. Well, here it is, so don't complain anymore. So this little bad boy goes against the Subaru WRX, of course, but also the Honda Civic Type R, the Volkswagen GTI, probably the Golf R as well, and of course, the not long for this world Hyundai Veloster N. But this is really aggressive looking, right? I've got a lot of little arrow bits that actually do something. They're functional. The one thing that I don't like is this giant, wide-mouth grill. But then again, when you've got three cylinders that are just going ding-a-ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding, ding ding to get out 300 horsepower, it's like, you've got to get some air in there, right? So if you come along back here, you will see that we've got this cool GR FOUR along the sill here. It's just reminding you that you got all wheel drive, baby. You can go pretty much anywhere you want. We go around here to the back. I really dig this spoiler here. Also, on the Circuit and Morizo trims, you've got a carbon fiber roof on a corolla. It's nutso. And then coming around to the back here, you've got this nice triple exhaust, which I really love. I love a three piece exhaust. I think it looks really good. And on the whole, this thing is super aggressive. I mean, look at these fender bulges. These are like Sears catalog underwear model fender bulges, am I right? So the interior of this GR Corolla, now you guys, this is the Core trim, so this is the base model. I've got some cloth seats here. I do wish they were suede, because that's a little bit more grippy, but there's plenty of bolstering here and I do feel like it's going to keep my butt in place and keep my shoulders in place. Other than that, it's pretty utilitarian. There's some soft touch features here, like here on the steering wheel, up here on the dash. But trust me, they've put their money into the drive train, not into the interior. I do have an eight inch touch screen here and it's got Toyota's new infotainment system, so let's see what happens. Hey, Toyota. SPEAKER 1: What do you want to do? EMME HALL: What do you think of the Honda Civic Type R? I think torque steer is quite a lot in the Civic Type R. Oh. I mean, this system here is much better than what we've had on older Toyotas, so definitely an upgrade here. And I do want to say, you guys, we are here in Utah. It is 11 billion degrees. We've been running these cars all day long. I've been in a bunch of different cars. Air conditioning on full blast and that temperature gauge has not moved. Now, Toyota already has a hot hatch in the form of the GR Yaris, but alas, that is not for the American market. I know, boo. It sucks. But they took that power plant and they gave us just a little bit more power and we've got 25 pounds of boost coming out of this little 1.6 liter. It's like, I don't know how this whole thing doesn't just blow up. It's nutso. This has got a driver controllable center differential, although it doesn't give you quite as much variety. So I can option to put 60% of the torque to the front wheels, put 40 in the back. It's kind of boring. I can go with 50/50 split, like what I am here on the track, or we can go 30 in the front, 70 in the rear. Yes, please. Now, this Circuit edition also gets limited slip differentials in the front and rear, but the Core edition does not. And let me tell you why that is a bad idea. So when you have an open differential, it's going to put the power to the wheel that has the least amount of grip. And in a slippery situation, like oh, I don't know, rally racing, like what this car is supposed to be, that's really a bad idea. And an LSD solves that problem by putting power to the wheel that has more of the grip. So it's going to give you more ability to keep that car moving and going forward. But the good news is that you can get the limited slips in a performance package for the Core and that is going to cost you about $1,100. And trust me, that is money well spent. All right, now let's put some power down, baby. What I love about this is the differential gearing. I'm at 4.058, so I'm going to get a lot of great power right off the line. In fact, Toyota says that this guy will do 0-60 in 4.99 seconds. I mean, that's 5, right? But they like to say that it's under 5 seconds. Now you guys, this is not a high horsepower car. I mean 300 horses is a lot for a Corolla, but it's not really a lot for a track car. So what that means is that it's pretty easy to drive. I mean, I haven't felt any under-steer or over-steer from this. With this 50/50 torque split, it's pretty well balanced. I really love the steering feel here. It's a little heavy, which I enjoy, and then turn in feels great. It feels very accurate. I'm not having to make a lot of mid-corner corrections. So far I'm feeling a lot of grip out of these Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires. Now, what's interesting though, is that Toyota is really positioning this as a rally car, and yet, here I am on the pavement, right? That doesn't make any sense. So I would personally really like to get some gravel tires on this or get it out into the snow on some snow tires and see what happens. But even right here on the pavement, it's a blast. All right, let's talk a little bit about this 6-speed manual transmission, right? Because, we all love the manuals and we want to save the manuals. First of all, the throws are pretty short and I like that it's really close to my steering wheel. I don't feel like I'm reaching forward or anything like that. It's pretty easy to get it into gear and the clutch uptake is pretty neutral. I mean, there isn't one crazy, big engagement point. So I think if you're going to have to drive this in traffic, you're not going to be doing a leg workout every single time. Now, this also has a rev matching feature which you can turn off if you want to heel toe yourself. But honestly, you guys, this is a pretty unfamiliar track to me. And there, it just did it for me. I didn't even have to think about it. Now, when I would get to my home track, would I turn it off? 100% yes, but for right now, when you're just learning something, it's pretty dope to have. All right, let's see how these breaks are doing. They're about 14 inches, so not giant breaks, but you know what? I don't need that much. I mean, this is a momentum car, right? You're going to lose it in the straights 100%. People are going to fly by you. But in the turns, yeah buddy, good luck. You're going to kill it. Now, Toyota has not announced any kind of fuel economy, but I can tell you right now, this computer says 10 miles per gallon. But we're on the track, so that is 100% not accurate, but I find it hilarious. 10 miles per gallon in a Corolla. [MUSIC PLAYING] OK, you guys, I did not think I was going to get into this Morizo, because they're only making 200 of them, and I was like, no, they're not going to let us drive this thing on the track. And I'm in here and right away I can tell this is a completely different vehicle. There's more structural bracing in this, so it's way stiffer. There's got more torque, 295 pounds feet of it. The gearing is a little bit shorter. There's a back seat delete and a couple of other weight saving things. It's great. Oh my god. OK, wait, whoa, too hot, too hot. There we go. There we go. Down shift, all right, now we're cooking with gas. Yeah, I can tell right away this thing is much quicker. The mid-range torque, it just comes on a lot faster. Oh, it's so good. I got a break sooner because I'm so much quicker than in the standard one. Would I buy this one? Yeah, I'd probably get this one. It's a little bit expensive, though. It's right around $50,000, but I don't care. I don't care. I can flap with this thing all day long on this track and just have so much fun. Yeah, this is a completely different vehicle. The steering still feels great. The throws still feel great. What I really like, though, is I've got a little bit of extra bits. I've got the suede steering wheel, which is good because, sorry, my palms sweat like a Mo, so I'm really glad to have this here. I've got a little red marker here for my top dead center, so I always know what's happening with my steering wheel. I mean, I would know because the car is rotating, but still it's nice to have a little bit of an extra marker. Brakes still feel good. Steering feels great and I'm out of breath because I'm so excited. Can you believe I get paid for this? It's amazing. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now, with the purchase of a GR Corolla, you get a one year membership into the National Auto Sport Association. And you guys, trust me, they know way more than you do, so check that ego at the door and get yourself a good driving instructor. You're going to get the most out of this vehicle. Now, if it were me, I would definitely want the Corolla GR over, say, the Honda Civic Type R. Why? I mean, yeah, that's got more power, but it's also front wheel drive and I would rather over-steer than panic and under-steer. The same could be said of the Volkswagen GTI. Now, my colleagues here at Edmunds, they really like the Golf R, but I was not a fan. And you can also look, of course, at the Subaru WRX, but listen, that thing only comes in a sedan. And sorry, not sorry, the hatch is way cooler. We're going to get the 2023 GR Corolla in the Core trim in November of this year and it's going to cost you right around $37,000. But remember, that does not come with the limited slip differential, so definitely pony up for that. For the Circuit and the Morizo trim, you're going to see those next spring. That cool Morizo, right around $50,000. Now, as an off-road gal, I cannot wait to get this thing on some gravel. So I want to swap out these tires, throw some underbody protection on there and hit the dirt. Now, if you guys want to know more about this GR Corolla and all of its competition, you know we got written articles. So head on over to edmunds.com and you can find out everything you need to know. [MUSIC PLAYING]