2025 Toyota GR Corolla Review, Redesign, and Specs. The new 2025 Toyota GR Corolla– a tire-smoking, corner-carving, turbocharged, all-wheel-drive, stick-shift version of the Corolla five-door hatchback– exists to stimulate a little excitement. It’s likewise right here to remind individuals that the automaker can develop awesome cars– and perhaps bring in a few brand-new customers a lot more curious about S curves than spreadsheets.
The speedy-small-car recipe has historically brought driving-enthusiast reputation to other brand names, even for short durations. Today, in addition to the 2025 GR Corolla, the entrances serving a highly engaged consumer base include the Honda Civic Type R, Hyundai Elantra N, and Subaru WRX, to name a few.
The GR Corolla hatch, which supplies components of Toyota’s motorsport-focused Gazoo Racing, comes in Core, Circuit Edition, and Morizo Edition trim degrees. Base prices range from the mid-$ 30,000 s to the low $50,000 s, including the destination charge to ship the car from the Motomachi, Japan, factory that constructs it to your regional dealership.
For this GR Corolla review, I test-drove the range-topping Morizo Edition in Tucson, Arizona. It included extra-cost Smoke gray matte-finish exterior paint, bringing the producer’s recommended market price to $52,640, consisting of the $1,095 destination charge. Toyota provided the vehicle for this GR Corolla review.
2025 TOYOTA GR COROLLA REVIEW: THE DRIVE
Under the GR Corolla’s hood prowls a turbocharged 1.6-liter three-cylinder engine rated to create 300 horse power at 6,500 rpm. In the Core and Circuit Edition trims, the engine supplies 273 pound-feet of torque from 3,000 to 5,500 rpm. The Morizo Edition, with more turbo boost, punches out 295 lb-ft however with a richer midrange from 3,250 to 4,600 rpm. With the lighter, 3,186-pound Morizo Edition, Toyota says the hot hatch can scoot from no to 60 mph in 4.9 secs. That’s not push-you-back-in-the-seat quick, however it’s plenty quick.
All GR Corolla models have a six-speed manual transmission. The shifter has brief throws and precise gates, although it’s not quite as fascinating to make use of as the stick in the Honda Civic Type R. The GR Corolla’s clutch provides a generous involvement zone and smooth changes with moderate effort.
A permanent GR Four All-Wheel Drive system is additionally common. The driver can adjust the percent of drive torque sent to the front and rear wheels making use of a console dial with 3 settings. For everyday driving, the suggestion is the 60:40 setting. Toyota advises the 50:50 setting for track usage, which sends each tire the exact same quantity of drive torque. There’s additionally a 30:70 setting for drifters looking for a tail-out driving experience.
All GR Corolla models gain performance cred over the standard-issue Corolla with 18-inch summertime performance tires, quicker guiding, and bigger four-wheel-disc brakes with aerated and slotted blades.
The Morizo Edition ups the GR Corolla performance stake with a larger back track, a reduced trip elevation, and extra-wide 245/40R -18 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 performance tires on built alloy wheels.
Last autumn, Toyota supplied me the opportunity to drive the GR Corolla Morizo Edition on the track at Utah Motorsports Park. The GR Corolla verified itself an authentic performance car comfy with a well-calibrated mix of velocity, cornering, and stopping capacities.
Those very same dynamically balanced attributes additionally served the car well when I drove the GR Corolla for a week on public roads, albeit with website traffic. Toyota’s latest hot hatch is fun to run up with the gears, and I found the car dealt with the turns and twisty stretches of the road with agility, responsiveness, and unfailing four-wheel-drive traction with nary a peep out of the sticky Michelin Cup 2 tires. The kindly sized 14.0-inch front, 11.7-inch rear aerated disc brakes provided a company pedal and drama-free quits.
Regarding gas economy, the GR Corolla’s 24 mpg EPA quote does not call for bragging legal rights. I saw a mere 19.5 mpg in a week of driving with a heavy right foot. With the GR Corolla’s little 13.2-gallon gas container, the observed 19.5-mpg typical gas economy created a brief, action-filled, 257-mile travelling variety– yet what a cruise it was.
2025 TOYOTA GR COROLLA REVIEW: THE DESIGN
The new 2025 Toyota GR Corolla is anything yet refined, which’s the factor. With long-established opponents vying for the same customers in the sport-compact-car room, such as the Honda Civic Kind R and Volkswagen Golf GTI, the GR Corolla should stick out.
The program begins with lumps in all the ideal areas. On the Circuit Edition and Morizo Edition, a bump in the hood houses the GR Corolla’s vibrant 300-hp three-cylinder turbocharged engine. Toyota stuffs the obvious fender flares with huge summer season performance tires. In advance, substantial brake air conditioning air ducts flank a tough bulldog grille, and practical air-extractor vents embellish each front fender. These variations of the car additionally have actually a roofing built of carbon fiber. At the rear, there’s a functional roof looter and a rear bumper stressed by a brassy three-pipe center-exit exhaust.
You’ll locate a set of heated, manually flexible, high-back front sporting activity seats with hostile side upper leg and lower torso support in the cabin. Still, the seats are remarkably comfy. Cloth is basic in the base Core trim, while the Circuit and Morizo Editions update to synthetic leather and simulated suede. All GR Corollas obtain a 12.3-inch digital driver display.
With the Core and Circuit Edition models, you can bring additional travelers along for the ride, thanks to a back bench seat. The car’s trunk holds 17.8 cubic feet of cargo, yet you can expand the room by folding the rear seats.
The Morizo Edition abandons the back seat to conserve weight and rather includes a tilted barrier to stop cargo from moving forward into the front seatbacks during hard stopping. There’s also an architectural cross brace in between the rear wheelhouses of the Morizo Edition to enhance body rigidness and handling reaction. The support bifurcates the freight area, making complex the capacity to lug long products level on the freight flooring.
Aside from a set of cupholders and a small level location underneath the dashboard, console storage space is minimal because of the console-mounted mechanical handbrake, all-wheel-drive setting selector, and hand-operated shifter. The glovebox, nonetheless, is a respectable dimension, and there is a fair quantity of storage in the door pockets.
2025 TOYOTA GR COROLLA REVIEW: THE TECHNOLOGY
The bulk of the technology in Toyota’s new hot hatch connects to its special mechanical little bits and go-fast tweaks that make it a blast to drive. The infotainment system, safety features, and progressed driving-assistance systems (ADAS) are similar to the standard-issue 2025 Corolla hatchback.
The 2025 GR Corolla Morizo Edition examination car’s infotainment system runs the latest Toyota Sound Multimedia system with an 8.0-inch touchscreen display. Highlights include cordless Apple CarPlay and Android Automobile, SiriusXM satellite radio, and a number of connected services plans with complimentary trial subscriptions of differing sizes.
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The linked service strategies include Safety Link (SOS emergency calling, automated collision alert, stolen vehicle monitoring), Wi-Fi Connect, Remote Attach (remote accessibility to door locks, car-finder feature), and Drive Link. With an active subscription to Drive Attach, the infotainment system features natural voice recognition and a cloud-based navigating system.
I had no trouble swiftly and conveniently pairing my Samsung Android phone making use of the triggers on the infotainment display. It also asked me if I wished to make use of Android Vehicle, which was a smart call since Toyota had actually not yet developed the examination vehicle’s Drive Connect account. Android Auto made it easy to release voice commands to request instructions to neighboring point-of-interest places and seamlessly offered map and turn-by-turn voice guidelines to reach them.
I likewise utilized Android Car to stream my preferred songs from my Pandora app to the GR Corolla’s no-frills stereo. Truthfully, the songs that the majority of delighted me was the interesting soundtrack broadcasting from the GR Corolla’s melodic, three-outlet exhaust.
Toyota gears up the GR Corolla with 10 air bags, a back-up camera, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert. In addition, it includes the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 collection of ADAS. Components of TSS 3.0 consist of a forward-collision caution system with pedestrian, cyclist, and motorcyclist detection and automated emergency braking. The GR Corolla likewise has lane-departure warning, lane-keeping help, lane-centering help, road-sign aid, automatic high-beam fronts lights, and flexible cruise ship control.
The backup electronic camera, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert systems were the most useful during my analysis. The improved lane-keeping and lane-centering technologies did better than previous models of the systems at keeping lane discipline where distinct lane markings were not always existing. Still, I discovered them most suitable for usage on major, well-maintained freeways.
Neither the National Highway Website Traffic Safety Management neither the Insurance Institute for Freeway Safety have posted crashworthiness examination results for this version.
IS THE 2025 TOYOTA GR COROLLA A GOOD CAR?
Few people most likely need a four-door, two-seat car. Maybe a couple of even more would want a sporty Morizo Edition to play show and tell at the next Cars and Coffee gathering.
As a performance by-product of the standard-issue Toyota Corolla hatchback, the GR Corolla already has the value, reputation for reliability, and safety equipment to be competitive in the hot-hatch segment. To stand out, I believe Toyota was right to opt for the cobbled-together, tuner-car look of the GR Corolla.
The GR Corolla is an unrelenting blast to drive. And Toyota has enough authority with performance-minded customers who traditionally have favored Hondas, Subarus, and Volkswagens to do well in this space.
