2023 Toyota GR Corolla (inc. 0-100, 100-0 & autonomy test) review

CarExpert

The GR Yaris has a big brother! The 2023 Toyota GR Corolla has finally arrived and Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to see what it's like. In this detailed review you'll see regular driving, fast driving, performance tests and autonomy tests.  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Toyota content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota More Toyota GR Corolla content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota/corolla  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:05 Interior: 03:19 Infotainment: 04:59 Safety Tech: 06:35 Practicality: 07:12 On the Road: 10:24 Driver Aids: 19:22 Performance: 20:43 Verdict: 24:20  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #toyota #grcorolla #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day I'm Paul, a little while back we drove the GR Yaris,

00:02 and that was so much fun.

00:04 We even did a drag race with my Supra.

00:05 If you wanna watch those videos,

00:06 you can go down to the description below.

00:08 But now it's time to drive this,

00:10 which is like the grownup brother of the Yaris.

00:13 It's also got a three cylinder,

00:14 but it's got more power, more torque,

00:16 just more everything.

00:17 This is called the GR Corolla, unsurprisingly.

00:20 This one here is the entry level in Australia.

00:22 It's called the GTS.

00:23 It's priced at just under $70,000.

00:25 There is a more hardcore version of this

00:27 that doesn't have back seats.

00:29 It's got more torque.

00:29 It's called the Maritzo, and that's coming later.

00:32 That's priced at just under $80,000.

00:34 Now, this competes with things like the Hyundai i30 N,

00:36 the Volkswagen Golf R, the Honda Civic Type R.

00:39 There's a stack of competitors in this little segment,

00:41 and all of them do this formula differently.

00:44 So I'm keen to see what Toyota's take on this is like.

00:47 Today we're gonna do a detailed review of this car.

00:49 So if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,

00:51 you can use the time codes that are up on the screen,

00:54 or if you're on YouTube,

00:55 you can scroll down and use the chapters below.

00:56 And if you haven't done so already,

00:57 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.

01:00 That way you'll find out every single time

01:01 we drive a car with gills.

01:03 Let's talk exterior design.

01:06 So you've got seven exterior colors to pick from.

01:08 Some of these are unique to the top spec version,

01:11 but you will pay $575 upwards,

01:14 depending on which color you pick.

01:15 How's the design on this?

01:17 When you see this in person, it looks seriously aggressive.

01:19 You've got these big gills on top of the bonnet there

01:22 that are actually functional.

01:24 Then down the front here, you've got the GR badge,

01:26 a lot of piano black down there,

01:28 big Toyota logo there as well.

01:29 But if you look at it from the side profile,

01:31 the hips extend out the back there.

01:33 Down the front here, it has pumped arches too.

01:35 It is a sensational looking car.

01:37 And I reckon in five or 10 years time,

01:39 when EVs are the norm,

01:41 this thing is still going to look absolutely unreal.

01:43 And if you park this next to something like,

01:45 I don't know, Golf R,

01:46 Golf R just looks a bit sort of basic in comparison.

01:49 This looks really cool, so big fan of this.

01:51 Over here, you have a set of full LED headlights,

01:54 little air vent there that spits out

01:56 just ahead of the wheel.

01:57 And then around the side here, have a look at this,

01:59 you've got a set of 18 inch alloy wheels.

02:01 Now, if you do go for the top spec version,

02:03 you get lightweight wheels.

02:04 This one is fitted with Yokohama Advan tires.

02:07 So they're kind of not exactly a semi-slick,

02:10 but they're sort of on their way to that.

02:12 It is a very sporty oriented tire.

02:14 Big set of stoppers under there as well.

02:16 So 355 mil rotor, four piston caliper,

02:19 and a single piston caliper

02:20 on a slightly smaller rotor at the rear.

02:22 These are slotted as well.

02:24 So it gives you that little bit

02:25 of extra heat dissipation too.

02:27 GR badge just here,

02:28 and have a look at these vents here as well.

02:29 So they're functional too.

02:31 It really is just a work of art,

02:32 the way they've made this look nice

02:34 and sort of tough and aggressive.

02:36 Up the top here, you have a little bit of aero

02:37 on the side there, piano black on the wing mirror

02:40 with an indicator built into there.

02:42 This side section here has GR4 insignia on it.

02:45 And this is where you have those bolt-on guards

02:47 at the rear that really flare this out

02:49 as you come towards the back.

02:50 Privacy glass there as well.

02:52 Come to the back with me.

02:53 Now this looks seriously meaty as well.

02:55 So GR Corolla badge just there,

02:57 but you have one, two, three exhaust pipes,

02:59 which I reckon is unreal.

03:01 Piano black down this bottom section here.

03:02 And again, a really aggressive rear on it.

03:05 Sort of sits out nice and fat at the back there.

03:08 So that looks awesome.

03:09 Let me know what you reckon about the design

03:10 in the comment section below.

03:11 Do you think this looks good?

03:13 In person, this just takes on

03:14 a completely different character.

03:16 It looks so much better than in the pictures.

03:17 So let me know what you reckon

03:18 in the comment section below.

03:20 So we're inside the GR Corolla.

03:21 Let's start off with the key.

03:22 You've got lock, unlock, Toyota down the bottom.

03:26 Then on the back there, you've got GR.

03:28 This is a proximity sensing key.

03:30 So you leave that in your pocket.

03:31 Once you're inside, you've got a push button start here.

03:33 Love that it has GR written on that as well.

03:35 Then in addition to that GR logo there,

03:36 you've got one here on the gear stick.

03:38 You've got one here on the steering wheel,

03:39 on the seats as well.

03:41 And this little section here is unique

03:42 to GR Corolla as well,

03:44 'cause this is where you can set your torque bias

03:46 and also engage the track mode and stuff.

03:48 So we'll run through that a little bit later on

03:49 when we go for a drive.

03:50 So what do we think about the interior?

03:52 Look, just in terms of presentation,

03:55 I actually think it looks nice enough.

03:56 You've got a screen up the top there,

03:57 although I wish the infotainment screen

03:59 actually filled that whole section.

04:00 It kind of looks strange

04:02 that you've got this enormous area for it.

04:04 And then it's just this tiny little screen

04:06 in the center there.

04:07 So I wish that was bigger,

04:08 but outside of that,

04:09 everything else here feels really nice and premium.

04:12 And it really should be when you consider the price tag.

04:15 It isn't sort of until you get to this back section here

04:17 that it kind of falls apart a little bit.

04:19 Typically it is with cheaper cars

04:20 that you don't get a center console

04:22 and all that sort of stuff.

04:23 And it is a bit weird that you don't have anything here,

04:25 but you can kind of live with that.

04:27 Now, in terms of your touch points,

04:30 nothing to really touch over here,

04:31 but on the door armrest, that is nice and soft.

04:34 How soft is it?

04:35 Well, we've got our durometer.

04:36 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.

04:39 If you want to see how this car compares to others

04:41 that we've tested before,

04:42 look at the link in the description below.

04:44 Build quality.

04:45 Yeah, that's fairly wonky there in the center.

04:49 It all feels okay, but yeah, that's not great there.

04:52 Door slam test.

04:54 Yeah, it sounds okay.

04:59 Now let's talk infotainment.

05:01 So it's all built into this cluster here,

05:04 eight inch infotainment system.

05:05 Like I said before, it kind of just looks a bit weird

05:08 that it doesn't go all the way to the edge,

05:09 but the good news is that it is a huge leap forward

05:12 from the old infotainment system

05:13 they used to have inside Corolla.

05:15 So this has been derived from a system

05:16 they use in Lexus vehicles and it is light years better.

05:20 So nice and quick, everything's nice and responsive.

05:22 You also have now the ability to connect

05:25 with your car over the phone,

05:26 and that brings with it an SOS button up here as well.

05:28 So it does have remote connectivity.

05:30 On the radio front, you have AM/FM/DAB digital radio,

05:33 and that's plumbed through an eight speaker

05:35 JBL branded sound system.

05:37 Sound quality is actually pretty good for a car this size.

05:40 Smartphone mirroring comes in the form of Apple CarPlay

05:42 and Android Auto.

05:43 Apple CarPlay is wireless.

05:46 This is what it looks like here.

05:47 So not too bad, nice and snappy without any dramas there.

05:51 And this is what Android Auto looks like.

05:54 So again, full screen integration,

05:57 nice and snappy there as well,

05:58 but keep in mind Android Auto is wired

06:00 while CarPlay is wireless.

06:02 Now, if we move away from this,

06:04 oh, and by the way,

06:05 this has inbuilt satellite navigation as well.

06:06 If we move away from that

06:07 and go to the screen ahead of the driver,

06:09 this is actually pretty impressive.

06:10 So it's a big 12.3 inch display,

06:12 full sort of display.

06:14 There's no analog stuff here.

06:16 And the amount of configuration you have here is unreal.

06:19 You can get it to show you

06:20 all kinds of different things on here.

06:22 And I think that when you are driving hard

06:24 and it gives you an idea

06:25 of when you're approaching the limiter

06:27 and that type of thing,

06:28 it really is just the complete way to do this.

06:30 So I love that they've gone just boy racer with this

06:33 and given us all of the stuff we wanna see.

06:35 Now, what about your safety tech?

06:36 So you have autonomous emergency braking

06:38 with pedestrian and cyclist detection.

06:40 Unfortunately, no auto dimming rear vision mirror.

06:43 It's just this manual unit.

06:44 You do get blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror.

06:47 You get a radar cruise control

06:49 with a lane departure warning

06:50 and a lane keeping assistant.

06:51 We'll have a little bit of a play with that later on.

06:53 Rear cross traffic alert.

06:55 And then you also have front and rear parking sensors

06:57 and a reverse view camera.

06:59 I'll show you what that looks like.

07:00 So yeah, the quality is fine.

07:02 Sort of nothing too crazy.

07:03 It's good enough for what it is.

07:05 You can clearly see what's going on

07:06 on the suitcase as well.

07:07 And this is what the horn sounds like.

07:09 (horn honking)

07:12 Moving on to practicality

07:13 and we'll start off with your connectivity.

07:14 So down here, you've got a USB-C port.

07:17 You have a wireless phone charger there.

07:20 You have another USB-C port back here under this cover

07:22 and a 12 volt outlet as well.

07:24 It's a bit sort of disjointed

07:25 having it all over the place there,

07:27 but in terms of storing your phone,

07:28 it can live there in the cup holder

07:30 or on the wireless charger up the front there.

07:33 What about your coffee cup?

07:34 Where's that gonna go?

07:35 So it can go there,

07:36 but it will end up getting de-lidded.

07:39 You can put it up the back.

07:40 There's actually two different heights there.

07:41 So if you stick it up the back, it's fine,

07:42 but up the front there, it'll end up falling off.

07:45 Bottle storage is fine there,

07:47 but there are no teeth.

07:48 So that does move around a fair bit.

07:50 Storage inside the doors, little bottle fits fine.

07:52 We'll try the big bottle.

07:54 See if that works.

07:55 No, no bingo on that one.

07:56 In terms of other storage,

07:57 there really isn't a great deal of storage around here.

07:59 So, I mean, that spot up there is taken by the phone charger.

08:02 You've got two cup holders here.

08:03 This is virtually useless.

08:06 You do have a glove box there

08:07 that is actually pretty reasonably sized

08:10 and no sunglasses holder either.

08:11 So not a huge amount of storage inside the cabin here,

08:14 which I guess you come to expect from a Corolla.

08:16 Okay, now comfort.

08:17 So you have dual zone automatic climate control.

08:20 You have heated seats here for the front row.

08:22 In terms of the seat adjustment,

08:23 it's all entirely manual,

08:25 but the seats do hug you in really nicely.

08:27 So if you are gonna go for a fang,

08:29 they will make sure you don't move around too much.

08:31 Steering wheel offers both tilts and reach adjustment.

08:35 And on the reach test,

08:36 all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.

08:38 Okay, so second row.

08:39 Yeah, first thing I noticed is door aperture isn't very wide.

08:43 So it is a little tricky to get in and out.

08:45 Once you are inside, it is a pretty compromised space.

08:48 There's really no knee room, toe rooms, terrible.

08:51 Headroom's really not very good either.

08:52 So yeah, not a great place to be seated

08:55 if you are in the second row, unfortunately.

08:57 Outside of that, you do have this center armrest here

08:59 with two cup holders.

09:00 So you can stick the bottle in there if you need to.

09:02 Then you have one bottle holder there

09:04 inside the door as well.

09:06 You've got two map pockets just here,

09:08 two ISOFIX points with three top tether points.

09:11 It's also worth pointing out

09:12 that because you don't have the center console here,

09:14 it means you don't get rear air vents.

09:16 So it'll be disappointing.

09:17 You do miss out on cooling for the second row.

09:19 Window test.

09:20 So it's auto up and down.

09:21 Does it go all the way down?

09:22 Boom, it does.

09:23 Excellent job.

09:24 So let's talk cargo space.

09:26 There isn't much of it, which I'm not surprised by.

09:31 So you have a little over 200 litres worth

09:33 of cargo space available here,

09:34 but you don't have a spare tyre.

09:36 There's a tyre repair kit,

09:37 but there is this giant thing here

09:39 that I'm sure you could remove.

09:41 It kind of doesn't give you a flat load floor,

09:43 but if you did need more room,

09:44 you could just take that out and away you go.

09:46 They have put the battery here,

09:47 so it is a little compromised in terms of space,

09:50 but it is what it is.

09:52 This is what it looks like with your bags in there.

09:54 So laptop bag there.

09:55 Suitcase doesn't fit that way, but should fit that way.

10:01 So you've got just enough room for one sort of

10:03 reasonably sized suitcase plus your laptop.

10:07 You can then drop your second row

10:09 if you do need a little bit more space

10:10 by getting rid of this guy.

10:13 And then once that is out of the way,

10:16 you can just drop this and this,

10:20 and it gives you pretty much a flat load floor

10:22 to put a tyre or two in.

10:24 Okay, we've just hit the road in the GR Corolla.

10:29 I'm probably gonna have to speak up a little bit here

10:31 because it is pretty noisy inside the cabin.

10:34 You get this really rumbly exhaust note at idle,

10:36 and then when you're accelerating as well.

10:38 So they've definitely dialled in as much noise

10:41 as part of that experience as they possibly can.

10:44 So let's talk about the engine under the bonnet.

10:46 So it is similar to the engine that's in the GR Yaris,

10:48 but it does make more power and torque.

10:49 So it's a 1.6 litre turbocharged three cylinder petrol engine

10:54 makes 221 kilowatts of power and 370 newton metres of torque.

10:58 If you go for the more expensive, sportier,

11:01 lighter weight version of this,

11:03 it actually bumps the torque up a little bit as well,

11:05 and it's lighter.

11:06 So in theory, it's also quicker too.

11:08 So all of that stuff adds up

11:10 if you are serious about your track times.

11:12 How does it all feel behind the wheels?

11:13 So we're just sort of in the normal sport mode at the moment

11:16 and start with the gear shift.

11:17 So look, the gear shifts are okay.

11:20 They're sort of nice and tight,

11:21 but I reckon they could be tighter.

11:23 I sort of think back to stuff like the SS Commodore,

11:25 the V8, it was just great in terms of the gear shift.

11:29 It was a nice and tight sort of change.

11:31 This is a tiny bit sloppy in comparison,

11:33 but perhaps a short shift kit is something

11:35 you can actually work on if you do own one of these

11:37 and you are sort of serious about track driving

11:39 and all that sort of stuff.

11:40 Yeah, and the clutch is sort of fairly heavy as well.

11:43 It's obviously not race car heavy, but it's heavy enough.

11:46 And it makes you feel like you're actually doing something,

11:48 which is great.

11:49 And then the steering as well at low speeds is really good,

11:51 even in normal mode, it's very communicative, which is great.

11:54 So what does it feel like when you do plant the throttle?

11:56 Let's dial this back to second gear here

11:58 and just lay into it.

11:59 Yeah, nice.

12:02 That feels great.

12:06 The sound is so cool as well.

12:07 You can actually hear like whooshing from the engine bay.

12:10 And then when you let off the throttle,

12:15 you can hear all of that pressure releasing.

12:17 Like it is a really cool sounding place to be seated

12:21 when you are getting stuck into it.

12:22 And this is just in the normal mode as well.

12:24 And like I said before,

12:25 these gauges are so cool ahead of the driver.

12:28 We've got that right one set up at the moment as a G gauge.

12:30 But if I sort of flick through the menus here

12:32 and we go over to things like boost pressure as well.

12:36 So if I dial this back to second here

12:38 and we just give it a boop full.

12:40 You can see that whip around.

12:43 So yeah, pretty unreal set up.

12:45 And as a bit of a boy racer theme,

12:47 I really like what they've done here.

12:48 Now, what about your day-to-day driving?

12:50 What's it like to live with?

12:51 Look, the ride is firm, but it's not ridiculously firm.

12:55 Like it is, I don't know,

12:57 it feels like it's firmly sprung, but softly damped.

12:59 So you don't really get that big sort of harsh

13:02 sort of bumps through the cabin

13:03 every time you hit a speed hump or something like that.

13:06 It feels firm enough for the type of car that it is.

13:08 And I don't think it's going to get tiresome

13:11 like some sort of overly firm sports cars do.

13:14 Now, fuel economy.

13:15 Toyota claims a combined average

13:17 of under 10 litres per 100 Ks.

13:19 I'm not even going to bother showing you what ours is.

13:21 In fact, I'm curious now to see what it is, but 18.1.

13:25 Yeah, we've just been having an absolute ball

13:27 here this morning.

13:28 So we didn't really record fuel economy

13:30 like we normally would because, yeah.

13:33 So yeah, it is going to use a little bit of fuel.

13:35 Keep that in mind.

13:36 So let's talk tire noise.

13:37 Unfortunately, as you can tell,

13:39 I'm having to kind of yell at you

13:40 and you are going to get that effect from these tires.

13:43 They are very much a track focused tire.

13:45 And it means that when you are driving

13:46 on coarse chip surfaces,

13:47 you do get a fair bit of noise coming into the cabin.

13:50 So yeah, don't expect it to be blissfully quiet

13:52 like a Corolla Hybrid.

13:54 It is going to be significantly louder than that.

13:56 What about your visibility?

13:57 So I can see clearly down the front there.

13:59 I love that I can see those little gills there as well.

14:01 Visibility down the side is great

14:02 with those big wing mirrors.

14:04 Visibility out the back is okay.

14:05 It's quite a narrow envelope.

14:07 So you're not going to see a great deal out of there,

14:08 but it is fine for what it is.

14:10 Okay, let's go for a bit of a fang.

14:11 I'm going to pop this down into sport mode.

14:14 So instantly I can feel that throttle

14:16 become a bit more responsive.

14:18 We'll leave it at the moment in 60/40,

14:21 but I will put it into expert mode,

14:23 which gives us a bit more slip.

14:26 And I'll dial in throttle through here.

14:28 Wow, it has got some absolute mumbo.

14:35 So at the moment we are predominantly sending

14:37 torque to the front axle.

14:41 Holy shit, this thing is moving.

14:43 That is unbelievable.

14:47 For such a small car,

14:49 it is absolutely hammering.

14:54 Yeah, this is nice.

14:59 So steering feels great.

15:00 Brake pedal feels good.

15:01 Coming into that section back there.

15:04 See what it's like up the top here.

15:06 It is absolutely moving.

15:12 Wow.

15:15 I am seriously lost for words.

15:18 Let's give it a little punt here onto the back straight.

15:21 Roll onto this and grab fourth.

15:24 It is all right.

15:25 Get stuck into this.

15:26 Far out.

15:28 That is unreal.

15:36 Oh man, I just didn't even have time to speak then.

15:38 I think we're going to go for another lap here

15:40 because that is seriously cool.

15:42 Wow.

15:43 It just piles on power.

15:44 Like if you sat somebody in this car

15:47 and didn't tell them it was a three cylinder turbo,

15:52 like you would never believe them.

15:53 It just has legs, absolute legs.

15:56 Like it's a bit hard to explain.

15:58 I think because you're doing all the actions here yourself.

16:00 Everything is happening.

16:01 It's quite a sort of visceral experience.

16:03 It really just staggers me

16:04 they've been able to extract such potency

16:07 from such a small package like this.

16:09 Even something like a Golf R feels quick,

16:11 but you know, it's a two litre four cylinder.

16:14 You've got so much more capacity there.

16:16 This is a three, three cylinder 1.6 litre

16:18 is just stupendously good.

16:21 So that was, that was fun.

16:22 So that was in the front wheel drive bias.

16:25 Let's go over to 30, 70, which is our rear bias mode.

16:30 We'll go for one more lap around here

16:31 and I'll try and actually do some speaking this time around.

16:34 So expert mode gives you a little bit more slip.

16:37 So it means that when you do tip it in,

16:38 you are getting just a little bit more action from the car,

16:41 especially here in the rear wheel drive mode.

16:43 If I just plough onto that,

16:45 actually this mode feels much better to me.

16:48 I can feel a bit more torque getting sent to the rear.

16:51 So both the front and rear axles

16:56 have a Torsen limited slip differential.

16:59 And that means that when you do plough

17:01 into some of these corners

17:02 and you get on the throttle on the way out,

17:04 you actually have a mechanical differential

17:07 that's ensuring that you're not getting a flare up

17:09 on the inside wheel.

17:10 On the faster sweepers like this,

17:12 you can really confidently stay in the throttle.

17:14 This is remarkably quick.

17:16 I'm genuinely, genuinely impressed by this.

17:20 It is seriously, seriously good.

17:22 It has so much traction and these tyres are great as well.

17:25 They're Advan's, the sort of semi, semi slicks.

17:28 All right, one more punch up the back here.

17:32 It is.

17:34 Far out.

17:37 Brakes are fantastic as well.

17:40 That is stupidly good.

17:42 Wow, good job Toyota.

17:43 This thing is unreal.

17:44 Then you also have the not man mode,

17:46 which is this button here.

17:48 It allows the vehicle to rev match on downshift.

17:51 So if you're not confident doing that,

17:53 you can just do that yourself.

17:54 Hey, let's dial up 130 as well for our sine wave.

17:57 We'll see what it feels like across these.

17:59 Yeah, no problems at all, as I expected.

18:02 Typically with the firmer cars,

18:03 they're fine over the sine waves there.

18:05 But yeah, look, this is quite a package.

18:07 And yeah, to say that Toyota has done a good job with this

18:11 is an absolute understatement.

18:13 When Toyota said they were going to do like a GR Corolla,

18:15 you either go full hardcore with it or you go half-arsed.

18:19 They have definitely gone hardcore.

18:22 And this isn't even the lightweight version.

18:24 I'm keen to have a crack in that

18:25 and just see how much more aggressive that is.

18:28 Yeah, excellent job Toyota.

18:29 This is an absolute smile maker.

18:30 I should also call out, there is a track mode as well.

18:33 When you engage that, it's a 50/50 torque split.

18:36 So they're the three settings you have to choose from,

18:39 front bias, rear bias, and then 50/50 as well for the track.

18:43 Now, the test we do in each of these cars is our bumpy road.

18:47 And we do that at 90 k's an hour.

18:49 This just simulates a dodgy stretch

18:51 of Australian country road.

18:54 Obviously not going to be driving your GR Corolla

18:56 on something like this, but just in case you do,

18:59 good to know how it's going to fare.

19:00 And it's actually going really well here.

19:03 Whoa, even on that tighter, condensed sign wave there,

19:08 it's actually doing a really good job.

19:10 So you can see there is actually compliance

19:12 within this suspension system.

19:13 If you do find yourself on maybe a rally stage

19:17 or something fun like that,

19:18 it's not going to rip your car apart

19:20 as you bounce over some of this stuff.

19:22 Okay, let's do a little bit of our safety system testing here

19:26 with the autonomous driving function.

19:28 So we'll get it up to 70 k's an hour

19:32 and I'll set the cruise control.

19:34 So what we're waiting for here

19:36 is our little indicator to go green up there

19:39 to suggest that steering control is active.

19:42 And we're going to do this in the three outer lanes.

19:44 So we're not testing to see how well the car banks.

19:46 What we're testing here is to see how much torque

19:49 it's willing to apply to the steering wheel,

19:51 which simulates a corner.

19:52 So lane one here, it's doing a great job.

19:55 It's holding us nice and centered there without any dramas.

19:58 We'll jump over to lane two.

20:00 Okay, so same story there.

20:04 It's actually doing an excellent job holding us in this position.

20:08 Like we're dead center in the lane there.

20:09 That is awesome.

20:11 All right, lane three.

20:12 Let's see how it goes up here.

20:14 Okay, that is lane three.

20:18 Look out the steering wheel.

20:20 Okay, so it's coming down towards that line.

20:23 It's putting us back into the center.

20:27 Yeah, nice.

20:29 It is actually doing a really good job.

20:31 So it's keeping us in the center there.

20:32 It's willing to apply a fair bit of steering torque there

20:34 to hold us in that position.

20:36 So, yeah, very impressive.

20:38 So that's a pass in lane one, two and three.

20:41 Good job, Toyota.

20:42 Okay, time to do a little bit of performance testing.

20:44 So I'm going to caveat this by saying

20:46 if we were doing this as like a performance test

20:49 and we're benchmarking this against its competitors and stuff,

20:51 I'd sit here all day and try and get the manufacturer claim,

20:54 which is about 5.3 seconds.

20:55 But I don't want to do that because, A, we don't have time

20:59 and, B, I don't want to destroy the car.

21:01 So what I'm going to do is just try use launch control once

21:04 and we'll see how that goes.

21:05 Then what I'm going to try and do is just do it myself

21:08 and see if I can get a better time.

21:09 Then we'll have a look at the results and that will be that.

21:12 We're going to go from 0 to 100

21:13 and then also to 120 to see our 80 to 120 time.

21:16 And, yeah, let's see how we go.

21:17 So I've got it in sport mode.

21:18 I've got it in... I'll put it in rear drive, so 30, 70.

21:22 And then all I'm going to do is mash the throttle

21:24 with the clutch in until launch control activates.

21:26 Slip the clutch and then we'll just power our way through to 120.

21:29 So here we go.

21:30 So throttle flat to the floor, slip the clutch.

21:34 (ENGINE REVS)

21:36 All right. Feels good.

21:43 All right. And that's 120.

21:49 Okey-dokey.

21:53 Okey-dokey.

21:54 So let's have a look at our time.

21:56 0 to 100 in 6.42 seconds.

21:59 So about a second off the mark there.

22:02 And then our 80 to 120, 3.68 seconds,

22:05 which is really damn impressive for a three-cylinder engine.

22:09 That is ridiculous.

22:10 So, all right, let's go back and we'll try it once more

22:12 without launch control active

22:14 because it has, from what I can tell,

22:17 only a rev limiter at redline.

22:18 It doesn't have one of those silly things

22:20 where it doesn't let you rev it.

22:21 So I'll be able to play with it just a little bit more.

22:23 OK, second time around.

22:25 This time we're going to forego launch control.

22:28 We'll put it into expert mode, which, watch this...

22:31 (ENGINE REVS)

22:33 ..lets us rev pretty much all the way out to redline, which is cool.

22:36 So I'm going to manage the revs myself

22:38 and we'll just see if this gives us a better time, potentially.

22:41 But here we go.

22:42 So a few more revs there.

22:45 And then slip the clutch and see what happens.

22:49 (ENGINE REVS)

22:51 That's better.

22:56 All right, and...

23:02 ..there's 120.

23:04 So, 0-100 that time, 5.79 seconds, so significantly better,

23:09 and then 80-120 in 3.61.

23:12 So, yeah, like I said, I think if I sat here

23:14 and attempted this a few more times -

23:16 it's literally the first time I've tried it today -

23:18 I think you could easily hit the manufacturer claim

23:20 of about 5.3 seconds it is.

23:23 It is pretty damn quick for a three-cylinder car,

23:25 so very impressed with that.

23:27 OK, brake test time.

23:29 We'll stop from 100km/h.

23:30 Let's get it above the 100km/h mark

23:32 and then we'll hit our braking marker, which is just up here.

23:36 Here we go.

23:37 (GRUNTS)

23:41 So, 100-0.

23:46 2.77 seconds in 38.08 metres,

23:51 which is actually not a bad number there at all.

23:54 So, very impressive.

23:55 And last thing we're going to do is reverse speed test.

23:58 Let's see how quickly the GR Corolla goes in reverse.

24:02 Now, with all other Toyota's,

24:03 when you turn off traction control, it goes faster.

24:05 So, let's see how this goes.

24:07 Whoa!

24:10 (CHUCKLES)

24:12 70km/h.

24:14 Holy crap!

24:15 Hold ass up to that point as well.

24:18 That is unbelievable.

24:19 So, the GR Corolla.

24:24 Look, it is about as fun as I thought it was going to be.

24:26 It's like a... I don't know, just a bigger,

24:29 slightly more capable version of the GR Yaris.

24:32 It's just a barrel of laughs.

24:33 I love all the configurability

24:34 and all the stuff that the driver sees ahead of them.

24:36 The brakes are fantastic.

24:37 It's really fun through corners

24:39 and it's just not over the top for day-to-day driving either.

24:42 So, it is a really enjoyable car to drive.

24:45 So, let me know in the comments section below,

24:47 have you bought one of these

24:48 or are you going to wait for, like, the full hardcore version?

24:50 And are you a GR Yaris owner?

24:52 Are you going to upgrade to one of these?

24:53 Let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.

24:55 If you did enjoy this video,

24:56 please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.

24:59 And if you haven't done so already,

25:00 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.

25:02 But until next time, take it easy.

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