The 2023 Toyota GR Corolla Will RUIN the Hot Hatch Market

Finally another cool Toyota Corolla. The Toyota Corolla's legacy is all over the place. You have everything from the 86 Trueno all the way to a basic commuter car with four doors. Toyota's legacy of sports cars is absolutely incredible but for a while it was really lame. They weren't building anything cool. They weren't building anything that was an enthusiast car. The new GR86 is essentially a brand new AE86 and it's just such an amazing dedication to the legacy of the 86. I mean even the interior looks like an 86 interior modernized. It's so cool. It's incredibly fun to drive. It's affordable and it's manual and it's just great. And the new Corolla hatch, just the normal one, you can get it in manual and it's a ton of fun to drive believe it or not. I actually have a car review for that and I just haven't had time to edit it so my bad. To give you perspective back in 2016 at the LA Auto Show, they had a Prius on the podium. That was their highlight of the show. That was it. And even though the Supra wasn't the famed FT1 we all wanted, they were still able to give us a new two-door sports car. And if you want a big in-depth review of the Toyota Supra, I drove it for almost two weeks so I'll put that up here in the card. And the GR86 represents Toyota even more. Even though it has a Subaru powertrain, it still feels more Toyota than the Supra does. So why am I talking about the 86 and why am I talking about the Supra? Well, when I was at the GR86 press event, I was surrounded by very talented automotive journalists. And at dinner one time, we're surrounded by people from Toyota and their marketing and they all asked the same question. They said, you know, the GR86 is a really great car, but when are we getting that GR Corolla or GR Yaris? And they just responded with a freaking eating smirk on their face. Like it was just like a, and then they said, I can't really confirm that it's going to come or we're even building it. And you could just tell that they were excited about something. Toyota's employees were excited about building a car. In this time of four doors and boring crossovers, I can't be more excited to say that the Corolla GR is most likely going to come to the United States. So let's break it down. And just a quick pause to thank today's sponsor Off The Record. Getting a ticket absolutely sucks. It's not fun. It feels like the end of the world, but you're not alone. One in 12 drivers every single year get a ticket in the United States. That's 112,000 people a day and 43 million drivers per year. But the only problem is only 5% of people actually can test their ticket because it's easy to kick the problem down the road because the average ticket is 150 bucks. But over the next three years, your insurance premiums on average are a thousand dollars plus. So it's very important to have a clean driving record. Off The Record fights traffic tickets and misdemeanors for drivers across the country. 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If Off The Record fails to reduce or completely dismiss your ticket, complete money back guarantee. So there's literally nothing to lose. Side note, my discount code lasts the rest of the year. So if you want to go ahead and download that Off The Record app, it's free. So if you get pulled over, don't have to worry about it. You have a tool in your back pocket. So make sure to head Off The Record or go to the link in description below and use my code dudeinblue for 10% off your first ticket. That's offtherecord.com slash dudeinblue. So like on this channel, I love making predictions and talking about what we know. Side note, if anything I say you think is wrong, let me know in the comment section below because I just love conversation. So what we know so far is that it's probably going to be all wheel drive, which is amazing. This will be the first all wheel drive system Toyota has developed for a sporty car in over 20 years. And what's even better is that it's rumored to have modes where you can distribute the power 60% to the rear, 70% to the rear in 50-50 distribution throughout the differentials in the all wheel drive system, which is really advanced for a hot hatch. And by those percentages, by the way, specifically the torque band, not necessarily all the power, we don't know yet. But if this comes out to be true, that is a huge selling point and adds so much driving dynamics to a little tiny car. But the real highlight about the plausible United States Corolla GR is its engine. And it probably is going to be similar to the engine that's found in the GR Yaris. Recently at SEMA, I saw the GR Yaris and my friend Grayson informed me why the technology is so incredible with this engine. So take it away, Grayson. So it's a three cylinder with D4S, which is Toyota's gift to the automotive community because it's dual injection. So with ethanol, like on the FRS BRZ, you don't have to upgrade the pump. You don't have to upgrade the injectors. You just toss the flex fuel kit on and go. So it's an inline three cylinder turbo that will make 257 to 260 horsepower out of a 1.6 liter engine with three cylinders. To give you perspective, the Mitsubishi Evo X, when it came out, the four V11 engine, the four cylinder turbo made 276 horsepower. So think about the progress that we have made technologically. You take a three cylinder and it almost makes as much as the Evo, one of the most legendary Japanese cars ever made. When I think 1.6 liter, I think of like the B16 from Hondas. And that's like primitive compared to what we're talking about. The main reason Toyota wants to use this engine is not because it makes incredible power and it's those powerful three cylinder ever made when it comes to a production car. It's because it's lightweight. They want the weight in the nose to be super lightweight. So if you think about it, you have a super lightweight engine with low displacement. What does that come to mind? To me, my brain goes rotary, Dorito power. And the reason I say that is because when you drive something like an RX-7, an RX-8, things of that nature, it's almost like the engine isn't even there in the front. You barely feel it. So to have that feeling of a super lightweight engine in the front and it having piston reliability and not just piston reliability, Toyota reliability, it is checking some boxes, man. It's going to be a super fun dynamic car to drive. And very much like say the Civic Type R, the turbo is integrated into the exhaust manifold to reduce lag. It uses ball bearings to keep the lag low, in other words. And the good news is with Mitre Cosmetics, the car is going to look really good because the hatch already is easy on the eyes. In fact, the FD Corolla hatch, I think was drifted by Osbo. Every time I watched him drift that car, I was like, their marketing is working because I wish there was an all wheel or rear wheel drive Corolla hatch. That'd be rad to slide around. They actually might do it, which is absolutely mind blowing to me. Toyota, you are just, you're doing so good. I'm so proud of you, Toyota. Four years ago, I went from saying, Toyota, get your stuff together, in my opinion. You know, you had the MR2, the Supra, the Celica, all this cool stuff. And then it was gone. And now they're doing this really neat technology. That sounds like it's going to be so fun. So what's this car going to be up against competition wise? To be frank, I don't think it's going to be as fast in a straight line to say a Golf R or something along those lines. But I think the dynamics are going to be better. And I think it's going to have that Toyota reliability. So that's another plus. I think with its all wheel drive, it's super unique engine choice. It just makes the car neat. It's a neat idea to try this stuff. It's gutsy. It's not just, let's just throw four cylinder in it and call it the GR Corolla. They are innovating. They are doing things that are out of this world. And also another car comes to mind is the Veloster N, which I know is front wheel drive, but the Veloster N, I don't care what anybody says, that car is great. And it sucks because it has a branding problem. They shouldn't have named it the Veloster because the Veloster is associated with the bad Veloster, the first one. And if you drive the Veloster N, it just has great driver feel. It drives really nice. The engine is really fun. It burbles and cracks, but not too much. It has personality. It has character. In fact, it's kind of sillier than the Civic Type R in a lot of ways. And that's why a lot of people love it. And even if you don't like the looks, it drives really nice. This is also a rival of the Golf GTI in particular as well, because if it's priced right, it's going to be amazing. But the Corolla GR, in my opinion, is going to fill the huge void that the Ford Renaissance, I call it the Ford Renaissance, left behind. The Fiesta ST, the Focus ST, the Focus RS in particular. The Renaissance of Ford with the Coyote engine and the hot hatches they were building, that made that brand cool. It made it a cool brand for a while for a lot of people. I knew people selling their Evos to go buy a Focus RS, which I never thought would ever happen. But point of the matter is, is the GR Corolla has an amazing opportunity here to subvert the entire hot hatch industry, because there's really not many big dogs out there right now. You have the Type R, the Veloster, and the GTI overall. You have something that can sit in the middle between all these other hot hatches and the Golf in the Type R, and if it's priced right, will be under the Type R. And I would get this car over the new Integra. The new Corolla GR has more of a cool factor than the new Integra, for crying out loud. But that's enough. I'll make a whole nother video about the Integra, how they said it wasn't possible to make it cool, essentially. So we'll break that down in another video. Corolla GR, what do you think of it? Do you think it'll come to the United States? And if it does, would you pick the Corolla GR for its advanced technology, its neat kind of philosophy, or would you take the safe choice of the GTI or even the Veloster N? Let me know in the comment section below. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. And on that note, I upload on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and I will see you guys next time. Take it easy. Have a wonderful day. Goodbye. This video is brought to you by Patterson Car Care. Get double of premium original detail product for half the price. Head over to PattersonCarCare.com or go to the link in the description below.