Over the last few years Toyota has been on a mission to inject excitement back into its lineup. From the GR Supra to the rally-bred GR Yaris, the Gazoo Racing badge has become a promise of performance and personality.
The Corolla got its shot of adrenaline when Toyota took the 4WD turbocharged manual driveline from the highly acclaimed GR Yaris and created the GR Corolla.
Now the GR Corolla is available with an 8-speed automatic, broadening the appeal for those who want GR thrills without the manual commitment. I spent a week living with the GR Corolla auto. Does it offer the ideal combo of day-to-day convenience, and driving thrills?
What We Like and Dislike About The 2025 Toyota GR Corolla
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Looks Handling Performance Sound at high revs Good stereo | Feels numb at normal speeds Needs a track to realise performance Sound in normal driving Heated seat switch placement |
What’s In The 2025 Toyota GR Corolla Range?
Toyota have kept it simple with the GR Corolla, you can have a 6-speed manual, for $65,995, or an 8-speed automatic for $69,995.
Both variants use the same turbocharged 1.6-litre 3-cylinder turbo-petrol engine which makes an impressive 221kW of power and 400Nm of torque (370Nm on the manual). Both have Toyota’s GR‑FOUR all-wheel drive system.
2025 Toyota GR Corolla Colour Range
- Glacier White
- Precious Metal
- Ebony
- Emotional Red
Interior trim can be specified in black or red.
For a full list of specs and options available for the Toyota GR Corolla head on over to Toyota New Zealand’s website.
How Does The 2025 Toyota GR Corolla Compare To Its Competition?
| Make/ Model | Engine | Power/ Torque kW/Nm | Drivetrain | 0-100 seconds | Fuel L/100km | Boot Space litres | Price |
| BMW M135i xDrive (auto) | 2.0 L inline-4, twin-turbo | 225 / 400 | AWD | 4.9 | 7.4 | 380 | $100,600 |
| Mercedes A35 AMG 4Matic (auto) | 2.0 L inline-4, turbo | 225 / 400 | AWD | 4.7 | 7.3 | 370 | $95,900 |
| VW Golf R (auto) | 2.0 L inline-4, turbo | 245 / 420 | AWD | 4.6 | 7.7 | 341 | $80,490 |
| Honda Civic Type R | 2.0 L inline-4, turbo | 242 / 420 | FWD | 5.4 | 8.1 | 410 | $72,000 |
| Subaru WRX tS Spec B | 2.4 L flat-4, turbo | 202 / 350 | AWD | 6.0 | 8.5 | 355 | $69,990 |
| Toyota GR Corolla (auto) | 1.6 L inline-3, turbo | 221 / 400 | AWD | ~5.3 | 10.6 | 313 | $69,990 |
| Hyundai i30N (auto) | 2.0 L inline-4 turbo | 206 / 392 | FWD | 5.4 | 8.5 | 381 | $65,990 |
| Toyota GR Yaris | 1.6 L inline-3, turbo | 221 / 400 | AWD | ~5.5 | 8.2 | 141 | $61,990 |
Please note that DriveLife does its best to ensure the information above is correct at the time of publication, however, prices, specifications and models can change over time. Please bear that in mind when comparing models in the comparison table.
First Impressions Of The 2025 Toyota GR Corolla
The Corolla is already a smart looking car, and has quite a modern, aggressive look to its front end. For the GR version, they’ve sent it to the gym, and maybe slipped some steroids in its energy drink. The front and rear arches bulge out, and there’s a new front grille with big twin air intakes. The rear has a similar treatment with a more aggressive looking rear bumper, and three exhausts – one each side and a fat central exit.
Other external changes include vents in the front wings, and a carbon fibre-reinforced plastic roof. Black 18” multi-spoke wheels finish off the package, with red GR-branded brake calipers showing through.
Overall I think it looks excellent – recognisable as a Corolla, but very much advertising its power and potential.
What’s The Interior Like In The 2025 Toyota GR Corolla?
It’s a similar story inside the GR Corolla – standard Corolla plus extras. The dash layout is uncluttered, with a central 8” touch screen, with a physical volume knob. The main aircon controls are physical buttons, placed underneath the screen, with temperature displays for each of the dual zones.
Tucked in the back of the centre console, where you can’t be distracted by your phone, is a Qi wireless phone charger. The heated seat switches are right in front of this, and it’s easy to accidentally switch on your heated seat when grabbing your phone, giving you an accidentally warm butt next time you drive the car.
There’s a conventional lever-type gear shifter, and behind that a rotary knob that controls the transmission mode for gravel or track modes.
Then you’ll find a proper old-school handbrake lever, useful for getting some sideways gravel action (on a private road of course), and next to that, two cup holders.
The driver gets a fully-digital main display which is split into three sections, each of which can be customised to your liking. It’s clear and easy to read, and updates smoothly. There are also shiny alloy pedal covers for that sporty look.
The steering wheel is a pretty basic-looking, no fancy grips or sporty flat bottom, but it’s trimmed in leather and does the job. There are controls for stereo, cruise control, and for adjusting the display settings, and it all works well and is laid out in a logical way.
The GR seats are rather nice! Brin-Naub vegan suede in the centres, synthetic leather on the outsides and on the fixed headrests. They have decent bolstering and hold you nicely during cornering. The red contrasting stitching gives that sporty touch, and the same design is carried to the rears. The rear seats are 60/40 split and fold almost flat to give more luggage space. Rear leg and head room is decent, four would be comfortable in this car, five at a push, but the dark head liner might make them feel more closed-in in the back.
The rear doors each have a padded armrest which has an integrated cup holder.
At 313 litres the boot is on the lower end for a hatchback, partly because under the floor there’s the battery, and a big (GR branded!) polystyrene piece that contains the tyre pump and gives you a few spaces to put those useful items you want to keep in the boot. There are tie-down loops either side of the boot.
What’s The 2025 Toyota GR Corolla Like To Drive?
As is common with a review car, my first few drives in the GR Corolla were normal town and commuting trips. And..well.. it was okay. One thing to note was there were very few beeps or interruptions from the safety systems. The Corolla has Lane Tracing Assist, which will give active assistance if the radar cruise is active, but in normal driving it very rarely even beeps. This is rare in a new vehicle and few interruptions are definitely welcome in a sporty car!
The steering is very quick, and feels heavier than the standard Corolla, it goes where you point it, but it’s numb and uncommunicative, and just doesn’t feel sporty or special to me.
There’s a noticeable amount of of tyre noise from the 235/40 Yokohamas, even on smooth 50kp/h roads, and it’s really loud once you get onto the ubiquitous highway chip-seal. My passengers commented on it too. To distract you from the tyres, there are plenty of turbo sounds – whooshes and pshh-es and generally pleasant indications that the turbo is doing its thing. The 3-cylinder engine, on the other hand, sounds like a truck in normal driving. It’s just kind of coarse and doesn’t really have that growl that I expected from a sporty 3-cylinder. Putting it into Sport mode makes it louder and deeper, but no more pleasant.
To distract from this, 9-speaker JBL stereo is very good, clear and with good sound separation. It has wireless Android Auto and Apple Carplay, and the display and interface are very good.
Once you get out of the city, put your foot down and the GR Corolla will kick down three or four of its 8 gears, and show you that it can really pick up and move. It’s definitely fast!
After a couple of days, I was really struggling with the GR Corolla. It has all of the elements to make me like it. I wanted to like it, but I just didn’t like it. I was driving along, wondering what I was missing. Sure it’s fast, but you quickly find yourself 20kph over the limit and need to back off.
There’s a back road near me that heads towards Taranaki Maunga from the coast, it’s a good test for a sporty car with sharp bends, undulations, straight bits, and 100kp/h speed limit. When I took the Civic Type-R down this road, I couldn’t stop grinning, it literally left me breathless as I hadn’t realised I was holding my breath as I concentrated on piloting the Civic. The manual shifts, torque steer, scrabbling for grip out of corners, it was a visceral and physical experience!
The Corolla, on the other hand, just dealt with the road with ruthless efficiency. It was probably faster than the Type-R, it definitely cornered quicker, and put the power down better out of corners, but I didn’t smile once, I wasn’t loving it. Even now I can remember how the Civic made me feel, but the Corolla, meh.
Was it me? Was I still missing something? The more I drove the GR, the more I respected its speed and handling. It really is quick if you keep it on the boil, and it sounds way better at high revs. The boosty noises are great, and the pops from the exhaust when you lift off, plus the handling is really impressive. But you have to drive it like you stole it to get that performance, I feel like I never got anywhere even close to its limits driving on the road, even taking 45 corners at 100, it felt like it could go much harder.
This might be what you’re looking for, but for me, it left me numb. I don’t want to have to break the speed limit just to get some feeling from a car. I imagine that on-track the GR would be an absolute weapon, but as a road car it’s just not for me.
Over a week of mixed driving, I averaged 12.0L/100km, a little over the stated figure of 10.6. Pretty high for a smallish hatchback.
READ ON TO CHECK OUT OUR SUMMARY OF THE 2025 TOYOTA GR COROLLA.
2025 Toyota GR Corolla – Specifications
| Vehicle Type | Hot Hatch |
| Starting Price | $69,990 |
| Price as Tested | $69,990 |
| Engine | 1.6 L inline‑3, turbocharged (G16E‑GTS) |
| Power, Torque kW/Nm | 221/400 |
| Transmission | 8‑speed Direct Shift auto |
| Spare Wheel | Space saver |
| Kerb Weight, Kg | 1,510 |
| Length x Width x Height mm | 4408 x 1851 x 1479 |
| Boot Space / Cargo Capacity, Litres (seats up/seats down) | 313/1,052 |
| Fuel tank capacity, litres | 50 |
| Fuel Economy, L/100km | Advertised Spec – Combined – 10.6 Real-World Test – Combined – 12 Low Usage: 0-6 / Medium Usage 6-12 / High Usage 12+ |
| Towing Capacity Kg, unbraked/braked | N/A |
| Turning circle metres | 11.0 Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+ |
| Warranty | 5 years / 100,000 km Warranty 5 years Roadside assistance5 years WOF coverage 5 years Capped price servicing |
| Safety information | ANCAP Rating – not yet listed Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – QYF610 |
