The Toyota GR Corolla is a very special car for me, but not for the reasons you might think. When I was a kid in the ’90s, my dad would wake me up in the middle of the night to watch a few stages of the World Rally Championship. In 1999, the GR Corolla’s predecessor, the Toyota Corolla WRC, was the most consistent. Although Carlos Sainz Sr. could not clinch his third WRC title, he did perform consistently enough for Toyota to take home the 1999 Manufacturer’s Crown. At a time when Mitsubishi and Subaru were competing at the top of their game with the Evo VI and Impreza, respectively, Toyota’s achievements with the hatchback Corolla were memorable.
Now, even having watched it as a kid, I was always more biased toward the Celica GT-Fours of the ’90s, as these cars (despite being caught cheating) with their Castrol livery were so iconic that I always leaned toward the Celica rather than the Corolla.
My dad had another thought, though. Always a fan of homologation specials, and having daily driven a Subaru Impreza WRX, I distinctly remember a remote-controlled, Castrol-liveried Toyota Corolla WRC Tamiya on display on his hobby desk.
Little did I know at that time that in 26 years since then, the Subaru homologation special my dad loved would have ceased to exist, while the Corolla has suddenly shockingly made itself available in the Philippines as the GR Corolla.
The GR Corolla is an all-wheel-drive hot hatch, hot on the heels of the GR Yaris. It is bigger, has a much wider stance, and, for me, has more aggressive styling. While some countries like the US only got the GR Corolla, the Philippines is lucky enough to welcome both the GR Yaris as well as the GR Corolla on our shores.
So, how does this rally car for the road perform? Does it live up to my childhood expectations? Is this a case of never meeting your heroes? Read on to find out in our full review.
ALSO READ:
The limited-edition GRMN Corolla is the ‘ultimate’ form of Toyota’s hot hatch
The all-new Toyota Hilux can be equipped with Gazoo Racing parts in Japan
Styling
When you first set eyes on the GR Corolla, you first think that it is a bit overwhelming; it just looks so crazily aggressive. Look closer, however, and the devil is in the details. A very aggressive-looking front grille is massively impressive, but since we don’t actually get the Corolla hatchback here, this GR model looks like nothing else in Toyota’s range. Vents on the hood in a contrasting black match with the maw, but they also provide some visual excitement to the piece of metal covering the engine.
I say metal because that isn’t the same material as the roof. The roof of the GR Corolla is made of carbon fiber, which, while designed to lower the center of gravity, is really cool to see in person.
The side profile looks just as aggressive, with extremely wide wheel arches that accentuate the stance this car has, along with side skirts with GR-Four engraved on them, just in case you miss the fact that the all-wheel-drive system is an integral part of the car.
The rear is where I feel it could have been improved. Yes, it still does look very aggressive, but I feel that the three exhaust tips with the center being of a different shape and size kind of throws off the proportions. At least the way the rear hatch comes to a point really makes the car’s rear complete and adds to the very aggressive stance.
Overall, I find that the GR Corolla is one of the most aggressive- and purposeful-looking cars on our roads today. It has a stance that is low, wide, and angry, and aside from a misstep with the exhaust (please, Toyota, just use two big ones next time), it really looks the part of a rally car.
Interior
Get inside and aside from the sports seats and steering wheel, you can tell that this was a hotted-up version of a regular Corolla. It is entirely decent, with smart placement of soft-touch materials on the armrests and dashboard. It makes it so that everything you touch feels soft and high-quality. You do have to reach down to parts like the transmission tunnel to find some scratchy plastics.
The seats are not entirely bucket seats, but they still provide very good support when you drive aggressively. You sit quite low down, which helps keep the car feeling sporty. Grab the wheel, and the GR Corolla completes a decently aggressive driving position, at least better than most sporty four doors.
Everything feels very Toyota, which means everything is built to a very high standard with no squeaks or rattles. Aside from the dashboard and infotainment screens, which could be improved, this is a very good interior.
Get behind the driver’s seat, and the rear seats have usable room; open the hatch, however, and there is a massive hump that reduces the practicality by quite a bit. It is where Toyota has placed the battery for weight distribution, but other than this, it’s still a hatchback, which means decent rear room and the flexibility to drop the rear seats (60/40 split-folding) for longer items.
Overall, the interior is everything you could want in a sporty five-door hatchback. Trunk space could be improved, but the quality and practicality are still there. This can still be your one-and-done car for all your needs.
Engine performance
The GR Corolla is powered by the same 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder from the GR Yaris, except it is tuned to a 296hp and 400Nm of torque. Eye-watering, given its displacement. Before we get to how it performs, can we just take a second and step back to appreciate just how insane it is that a tiny three-cylinder engine has been hopped up enough by Toyota to put out almost as much power as the STIs when Subaru was still selling them? But the STI had a 2.5-liter four-cylinder, so to be able to do it in an engine this small is some GR wizardry.
The engine is as characteristic as the numbers would suggest. It starts with a bark, and with an odd number of cylinders, it carries that bark into a crescendo of turbocharged noises, wooshes, pops, and bangs. It just sounds great for such a small mill.
This engine is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission. In normal driving, power is delivered very strongly, with the transmission logic programmed well enough that hard braking even has the engine doing some rev-matched downshifting, especially in sport mode.
Cruising has some issues, however, as while puttering around in seventh or eighth gear, if you gingerly apply the throttle, only two things can happen: either the car downshifts a few gears and you get the power you need, or the car remains in the high gear and you get some lugging from the engine. Not that it’s a negative—just an observation. This is the price to pay for turbocharging a car to this degree of performance.
Speaking of cruising, the GR Corolla was able to average 12.5km/L on the highway, which was quite decent for a performance hatch. Even when pushed through spirited driving, it rarely dropped below 6km/L, which is mightily impressive for a high-strung three-cylinder turbo.
The GR Corolla pulls very hard, and the eight-speed shifts very fast in manual mode, with the car willing to hold the revs while bumping on the limiter. What you get is a very engaging powertrain that has been pushed to the absolute limit for its displacement and layout. We love it.
Ride and handling
The GR Corolla runs the new GR-Four all-wheel-drive system, which, in itself (I would like to think) is a version of the famous GT-Four all-wheel drive system in Carlos Sainz’ Corolla of the ’90s. The last time we saw the GT-Four system was in the Celica, so making a comeback in the 2020s is something I did not have on my bingo card. The GR-Four system has various modes: Normal, Track, and Gravel, and because I never took this off-road, I stuck to the first two. The car also comes with a limited-slip differential, which helps with putting the power down and any sideways antics (not that I tried anything).
The above two combine to make handling almost telepathic. The car was extremely stable, even in the wet, and had so much mechanical grip that it inspired confidence to make you want to push the car just to see how far you can go in terms of lateral mechanical grip. This comes at a cost though; it was very firm over bumps, which made for a bit of an unpleasant ride over some really bad portions of SLEX and MCX.
It is a price worth paying, though. It grips so hard, and that combined with the power delivery from all four wheels makes you really feel like you are utilizing a track weapon. Or at the very least, the rally replica that this always was in my head.
Extra features
The GR Corolla is still a Toyota after all, so it comes fully equipped with a full suite of extra features headlined by Toyota Safety Sense. So yes, you can have almost 300hp and still have driving aids guiding you with lane-tracing assist and radar-guided cruise control. This just makes it so when you get tired from random blasts of acceleration down the highway, you can sit back, turn on the cruise control, and relax as the car takes care of rolling you down a long stretch of highway with minimal input.
The GR Corolla has two screens. There’s a 12.3-inch instrument cluster, which is clear, legible, and customizable, helped out by a HUD that shows you your speed as well as the ADAS status. All helpful, and all within the line of sight of the driver.
What isn’t so helpful is the tiny seven-inch infotainment screen. It was hard to see and quite low-resolution, and a shame, as the bezels clearly show that Toyota can easily fit a larger screen in the housing. Thankfully, Toyota does Apple CarPlay and Android Auto right, in that it allows you to choose whether you want wired or wireless connectivity; BMW should take note.
The car retains its practicality with a proximity key and a wireless charger above the shifter. Overall, a well-equipped car, but then again, at its price, it really should be.
Verdict
There is no beating around the bush; you have to pay to play, and the GR Corolla is priced at P3.955 million in this spec with the eight-speed automatic. Yes, it is a lot, but we have to remember that the ’90s are over. The Lancer Evolution series is dead and the Impreza WRX STI is dead. This icon from Toyota’s racing past is suddenly the last car standing in what has always been one of my absolute favorite categories of car.
Did I say last car standing? Well, as Yoda said on his deathbed: “there is another.” Like the Skywalker twins, these are siblings, as Toyota has the GR Yaris—another homologation special currently dominating the WRC circuit.
The GR Corolla may be the bigger brother, but that does not detract from the fact that this is one of the best, most exciting performance cars that you can buy in 2026. Sainz would be proud.
SPECS: 2026 Toyota 1.6L Turbo GR Corolla A/T
Engine: 1.6-liter turbocharged gasoline inline three-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic transmission
Power: 296hp
Torque: 400Nm
Drivetrain: AWD
Seating: 5
Price: Php 3,955,000
Score: 9.5/10
More photos of the 2026 Toyota 1.6L Turbo GR Corolla A/T:
