The GR Corolla has exceeded expectations
Three years into its U.S. run, the GR Corolla has, by nearly every measure, lived up to the hype as The Second Coming of the Hot Hatch. On paper, it’s an attractive enough proposition, with 300 horsepower, 295 lb-ft of torque, and a standard manual transmission. With rally-bred features like Toyota’s GR-FOUR AWD system, an adjustable differential, and a tiny turbo engine with a chatty blow-off valve, it’s a compelling package for wannabe Tommi Mäkinens on a budget everywhere. It’s been a media darling, too, with several automotive journalists buying one themselves: Jonny Lieberman owns a lovely (and heavily modified) Blue Flame example that was featured recently on Jay Leno’s Garage, and even Jay seemed to get a kick out of the thing.
Ryan Bahrke
Trading paces
By all indicators, the GR Corolla is the bee’s knees. But I have two friends who bought them new and then sold them within a year or so, replacing them with…Porsches. My pal Eugene traded his own Blue Flame GR for a 991.2 Carrera T, and my That Car Show co-host Dan Pilling gave up his white one for a Boxster GTS 4.0. A third buddy still owns his red GR but has his sights set on, of all things, a Lexus LC500.
If the GR Corolla is so wonderful, then why is the turnover—at least in my own friend group—so high? And, can someone at the upper end of the GR’s younger-leaning, 30-50 year old buyer demographic—yours truly—find room in his cynical heart (and crowded garage) for a hopped-up econobox?
Ryan Bahrke
But does it rock?
When Toyota dropped off the Heavy Metal Gray GR Corolla Premium Plus press car, I was a little underwhelmed. Even though it was dressed in the exact shade that someone in my cohort would probably go for, the GR, as delivered, didn’t scream excitement, despite its turned-up-to-11 name. But the longer I looked, the more I picked up the little things that make it so special: the widened fenders, the optional cross-bracing in the rear hatch, and the slotted brake rotors, for starters. But to most folks, it’s just another Corolla, and they don’t even bat an eye. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the only people who really paid any attention at all to the GR while it was in my possession were young guys in modified old WRXs.
Ryan Bahrke
Enhance, enhance!
The GR I drove was a 2025 model, but the same Premium Plus trim level continues for ’26, along with the base model. Both are well-equipped, at $45,965 and $39,920, respectively. While my car came with the six-speed manual, 2025 was the first year of the available automatic, an eight-speed, torque-converter unit. Notably—and appropriately—every GR Corolla comes with an actual, honest-to-god hand brake, perfect for J-turns and Scandi flicks.
Over the base car, the Premium Plus brings a forged carbon roof, a vented hood bulge, and a heads-up display, along with a heated steering wheel and front seats, a JBL audio system, and a secondary radiator. To me, these are nice-to-haves, but not necessary. While there are no significant exterior differences between the ‘25 and the ‘26, the ‘26 does bring a handful of updates that you can’t see, including improvements in chassis rigidity and an improved clutch. There’s also Toyota’s Active Sound Control (ASC), which generates synthetic engine sounds through the vehicle’s speakers to “enhance” the driving experience, if you’re into that kind of thing. I’m not, though there’s not much engine sound that makes it into the cabin, otherwise.
Toyota
The daily grind
For some reason, I thought the GR would be a blast around town. In traffic, it’s a bit of a chore, with a tricky-to-modulate clutch pedal and a three-cylinder engine that’s basically torque-less before the turbo kicks in. Launches can be difficult, too, and the car doesn’t seem all that quick off the line. To be fair, this same around-town clumsiness goes for other manually-shifted small-displacement turbo performance cars as well, including the base 718 Cayman I once owned. If your commute is more of the constantly-moving suburban variety, you’ll be fine. But a stop-and-go slog in a GR Corolla kind of sucks, even if you can get the rear end loose around city street corners from time to time. However, as I’d discover later, this car isn’t really about commuting.
Toyota
That’s entertainment
The JBL stereo is okay if you turn down the treble, while the rest of the infotainment system is nothing to write home about, either. Worth mentioning are the GR Corolla’s very comfortable seats; after years of chairs that bent this tall guy over into a croissant, Toyota has really upped its seating game across the lineup. The GR’s ride on city streets is harsh, but no more unforgiving than other cars in its class. While you can’t hear much of those three cylinders, the addicting sound the turbo’s blowoff valve makes when you lift off the gas kind of makes up for it. Thankfully, Toyota has decided against artificial pops and crackles on the Corolla GR, at least as heard from the driver’s seat. I’ll take this as the beginning of the end for what always struck me as a cheap and tacky OEM trend and a sign of better things to come from other manufacturers. Overall, the Corolla GR makes good music, but it is not a “tunnel car;” at least not in stock form.
Toyota
The little engine that (almost) could
So, the GR Corolla is not the point-and-squirt commuting weapon I figured it would be. But then I took it to the canyons, and good god does it shine in the twisties. Driving with a pack of Porsche pals—Dominic in a 991.2 Carrera T, TJ in a 992.1 Carrera T and Evan in a 991.2 GT3 RS—the GR somehow managed to hold its own. It was only when we approached short passing zones that I lost ground, forgoing group cohesion for safety; the GR just didn’t have the same shove. It also lacked the other cars’ finesse in mid-speed sweepers and their ultimate grip in high-speed ones. But in the tight stuff, it was right there with the Porsches.
It’s an easy car to drive fast—straight away—with flat cornering and predictable transitions that inspire confidence, despite the car’s modest rubber. The brakes are fantastic, too, and unlike in those Porsches, your foot doesn’t have to travel far to find real stopping power. While the steering isn’t Porsche-grade either, the GR Corolla is an incredibly capable car for the money, with handling and performance that completely belie its econobox origins. Also unlike those Porsches, the GR Corolla, in stock form, feels like a blank slate, with so much untapped potential. The GR is a car that I—like Jonny—would modify the ever-living hell out of, if it were my own.
Toyota
Man hands
As good as the car is, there were two times I thought I might actually have broken the thing. The first was while making (what I thought was) a rev-matched downshift from second to first, approaching a stoplight. The car did an Elaine Benes-like full-body dry heave—like a kid learning to drive stick was behind the wheel—despite me not having exceeded redline. A few days later, while executing a first-to-second upshift, under power, I felt a similar, sickening thud. Chalk it up to a hard-driven press car nearing the end of its village bicycle life. Or, maybe, just the driveline lash inherent to an AWD system, in combination with a touchy clutch and an imprecise gearbox that I was probably asking too much of. Interestingly, neither incident happened at speed; both were around town. While the GR forums will tell you it’s an issue that can be remedied by changing up the transmission fluid, both incidents seemed out of character for a nearly-new Toyota, and made me wonder about the car’s long-term reliability.
Ryan Bahrke
I do declare
“My” GR Corolla has been gone for two weeks now, and like the amazing (if imperfect) little fling that it was, I’ve thought about it every day since. Hopping back into my own Porsche 718 GT4 was a revelation, but, more so about the GR than the GT4. The GT4 is a completely different experience, of course, with an incredible four-liter flat six and the soundtrack to go along with it. But, at two-and-a-half times the price, it should be. I’ve declared right here on Autoblog that the GT4 is the best $100k car you can buy, and here I’ll give the $40k crown to the GR Corolla. It’s that good, and this old guy misses “his.”
Ryan Bahrke
Take the cannoli
But I’m not quite sure where a GR Corolla would fit in for me, since I already own a daily driver and a dedicated sports car. I think that was the case for my formerly GR-owning buddies, as well; they all had at least one other car in their garage. In Dan’s case, an Audi SQ5. In Eugene’s, an S4 and a Cayenne. The GR Corolla, as wonderful as it is, will never offer the uncompromised sports car experience that a 911 or Cayman can.
But as a one-car solution, especially for an enthusiast in a four-seasons state? I don’t know how you could beat a GR Corolla. There’s the Volkswagen R, but they no longer make it with a manual. The Civic Type-R has a wonderful six-speed manual, but it’s offered only with front-wheel drive. Subaru’s WRX hasn’t been available with a hatchback since 2014, and the GR Corolla would run circles around it, anyway. If you’re looking for both a manual transmission and AWD in a hot hatch, the GR Corolla is in a class of one. Besides, the GR is just fun in a way that those cars aren’t. It’s fun in a way that even my GT4 isn’t. Toyota’s GR Corolla feels alive, mechanical and special, like a modern-day Lancia Delta Integrale. And I think it’s the best new car an Autoblog reader can buy for forty-thousand dollars.
About the author
Ryan Bahrke
Contributing Writer, Autoblog