2025 Toyota GR Corolla: Old School Fun

Hatchbacks
July 7, 2025
Dan Gunay

The GR Corolla isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t try to be. It’s fun, mechanical, and unapologetically old-school in all the best ways

The Toyota GR Corolla shouldn’t exist – but we’re damn lucky it does. A rally-bred, turbocharged, three-cylinder lunatic sending 300 horsepower to all four wheels through Toyota’s trick GR-Four AWD system? That’s already a unicorn in today’s hybrid-happy landscape. But now, for 2025, it comes with a brand-new eight-speed automatic transmission to prove that going automatic doesn’t mean giving up on enthusiast cred. This isn’t about softening the GR Corolla. It’s about making its old-school, boost-happy, torque-vectoring chaos more accessible.

The GR Corolla’s front end isn’t subtle – and that’s entirely the point. Toyota ripped the friendly face off the regular corolla and replaced it with an angry snarl that screams “boosted and belligerent”. The bumper is dominated by a massive functional grilled flanked by two gaping intakes that actually do something – feeding air to coolers and brakes, not just looking fast at stoplights. Even the mesh pattern is different from the base car’s plastic slats, because this car wasn’t designed by a marketing team. Slim LED headlights with aggressive black housings sit under a bulging hood that’s actually aluminum, and the subtle “G” and “R” badge up front? It’s the only warning you’ll get that this is not your Uber driver’s Corolla.

From the side, the regular Corolla hatchback’s econobox roots are barely visible under the GR’s widened, rally-spec stance. The fenders are nearly 2.5 inches wider than stock – actual metal, not tacked-on plastic – giving the car a squat, planted look like it’s ready to claw into the next apex or snow berm. The side skirts are unique to the GR, with subtle aero sculpting that’s more function than form. Then there is the roof – carbon fiber-reinforced polymer, not for show, but to shave weight up high and keep the center of gravity low. Even the wheels – 18-inch forged alloys wrapped in Michelin PS4S rubber – poke out with attitude, backed by beefy brakes and functional cooling vents that say “Yes, I track my Corolla. Any questions?“

Then there is the rear: three exhaust tips, no waiting. And no, they aren’t for symmetry – they are tuned for flow, sound and turbo-back attitude. The center pipe? It opens up at high RPMs like a party trick you can hear from two blocks away. THe bumper is aggressively chiseled, with a big functional diffuser and zero fake vents – because this isn’t a cosplay Type-R. The taillights are standard Corolla units, but blacked out slightly to match the GR’s darker, angrier theme. Oh, and the roof spoiler? It’s not some dealer add-on – it’s a high-mounted, rally-style wing designed for downforce, not decoration. From the back, the GR Corolla looks like it’s ready to launch off a gravel stage, even if it’s just merging onto the Highway 401.

Step inside the GR Corolla and you are immediately reminded that Toyota spent the budget on the drivetrain, not the cabin. Sure, the GR logos stitched proudly into the sport seats, and the steering wheel feels like it came out of something much more expensive – but the rest of the interior? It’s economy-class all the way down. The dashboard design is pure base Corolla: slabs of hard plastic, dated HVAC controls, and a center console that feels more airport rental than rally weapon. Then there is the glaring omission – no center armrest. Just an open cubby where your elbow goes to feel abandoned. For a car built to carve corners and crush long drives, the lack of basic comfort features is baffling. Even the base Yaris in Europe gets a lid.

Interior space is passable – Toyota didn’t shrink anything in the name of speed. The front seats offer solid bolstering without squeezing the life out of you, and there is a decent room in the back for average-sized adults if you don’t mind knees grazing plastic. Visibility is excellent, and the upright windshield with thin pillars give it that classic hatchback openness.

The infotainment system continues the theme: competent, but clearly built to the price. The 8-inch touchscreen runs Toyota’s latest software, which is clean and reasonably responsive, with wireless smartphone integration doing most of the heavy lifting. The 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster redeems things a bit. It’s quick, sharp, and focused on driving, not distractions. There are no silly animations or fake engine sounds piped in through the speakers, and it gives you the kind of real-time info that reminds you this car was built by people who track cars, not spreadsheet warriors.

Build quality is typical Toyota – tight, solid, and free of creaks – but don’t confuse that with premium. The materials feel basic, because they are. There are nice creature comforts for the front seat passengers such as wireless charging and heated seats, and that’s pretty much about it. The door panels are scratchy, the center stack is nothing special, and if you were expecting Alcantara-lined fantasy land like the Civic Type-R or the Golf R, you will be disappointed. You do get a mechanical handbrake (thankfully), some red stitching, and suede inserts – but it is all functional, not flashy. The GR Corolla’s cabin doesn’t try to impress, it just tries to survive the abuse. Which, to be fair, is kind of the point.

The GR Corolla’s drivetrain is the mechanical equivalent of Toyota kicking in the door to the hothatch segment and yelling, “We still care.” At the heart of this madness is the G16E-GTS, a 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine that makes a completely unhinged 300 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque. Yes – three cylinders. It sounds like a malfunctioning rally car at idle, and a chainsaw on meth at full tilt, and we mean that in the best possible way. It’s a little engine with big energy, forged internals, direct and port injection, and a single-scroll turbo cranked up to 25 psi. No, this isn’t some parts-bin leftover – they literally designed it for motorsport. It’s absurd, glorious, and borderline stupid. We love it.

The transmission is new for 2025 – or at least, optionally new. Toyota’s eight speed GAZOO Racing automatic joins the six-speed manual, and while it risks angering the “manual or nothing” crowd, it’s honestly great news. This isn’t a torque-converted slushbox, it’s a fast-shifting plantery box with paddle shifters, rev-matching, and proper programming. Toyota claims it shifts in just 0.3 seconds in Sport mode. It’s not dual-clutch fast, but good enough the keep the car’s rally-rat vibe intact. For daily driving or aggressive backroad carving, it’s a viable alternative for wider range of audience and opens the door to more buyers without watering down the experience. That said, the six-speed manual is still the enthusiast pick, complete with a short-throw shifter, light clutch, and just the right amount of notchiness. Either way, you are not losing.

The reason the GR Corolla isn’t just another overpowered front-driver with torque steer is the GR-Four all-wheel-drive system. It isn’t some Haldex-based, front-biased setup. It’s a motorsport grade AWD system with a center coupling, mechanical front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials, and driver-selectable torque splits: Normal, Gravel and Track. For 2025, Toyota retuned the system to reduce the understeer that plagued earlier models when pushed hard. Revised yaw control and recalibrated torque vectoring allow the car to rotate more willingly under throttle, giving it a noticeably more neutral feel in corners without making it tail-happy or sketchy. It’s still confidence-inspiring, but now it plays a little dirtier like it finally got permission to misbehave.

When it comes to rein it all in, the brakes are more than up for the job. The GR Corolla uses big 14-inch ventilated front rotors paired with four-piston aluminum calipers and 11.7 inch rears with two piston calipers, which is massive for a car this size. Pedal feel is firm, consistent, and fade-resistant even after repeated hard stops. This isn’t just a “sporty Corolla”, it’s track-day capable out of the box. You can dive into corners with real confidence, knowing the hardware can back you up. Combined with the updated AWD setup, the result is a car that no longer fights you in the mid-corner, it invites you in, asks how brave you’re feeling, and let’s you find out.

On the road, or preferably a rally stage, the GR Corolla feels like it was tuned by people who genuinely love chaos. The suspension setup is simple but serious: MacPherson struts up front, a multi-link rear, and fixed-rate dampers that lean more toward aggressive than plush. There is no adaptive damping here, what you feel is what you get, and what you get is a chassis that’s taut, communicative, and unafraid to transmit road texture straight through the seat. It’s stiff, yes – but not punishing by any means. There is minimal body roll in a controlled fashion with sharp turn-in response.

The whole car is eager to rotate mid-corner, especially after the changes made in the AWD system. The car doesn’t feel overengineered or overprocessed, there is rawness to the way it moves, like a proper homologation car should. The steering is electrically assisted but well-weighted, with just enough feedback to let you know what the front tries are doing. It’s not a precision scalpel like a Civic Type-R, but it’s more playful and alive, especially on imperfect pavement. This is a car that wants to be driven hard, and rewards you for doing it badly, loudly, and often.

The GR Corolla is a love letter to the golden era of hot hatches – the early 2000s. It’s an era when cars were loud, raw, a little unhinged, and didn’t care if your elbows brushed hard plastic as long as you were smiling behind the wheel. In a time when performance cars either num, bloated, or buried under layers of digital filters, the GR delivers something rare: an actual analog experience. Real mechanical grip. Real engine noise. It’s flawed, noisy, and borderline crude in places, but that’s exactly what makes it brilliant. It captures the rebellious spirit of cars like the Mitsubishi Evo, or Subaru STI – but with more power, more grip, and a level of seriousness that makes modern competitors a little too polite.

Engine	1.6-litre turbocharged and intercooled inline-3
Transmission & Drivetrain	8-speed automatic & all-wheel-drive
Max power	300 hp @ 6500 rpm
Max torque	273 lb-ft @ 3000-5500 rpm
0-100 km/h	5.3 sec
Curb Weight (estimated)	3300 lbs – 1497 kg
Fuel Economy (observed)	22 MPG – 10.7 L/100 km
Price (as tested)	$61,882 CAD
Website:	www.toyota.ca