All signs point towards the GR Corolla being in its twilight years. Toyota’s raucous little hatchback with a trick all-wheel-drive system and proper differentials has been with us for roughly four years now, and it’s not going out quietly. The Toyota GRMN Corolla is what happens when you turn a modern hot hatch up to eleven. Every single thing about it is insane, and now we know that extends to the price tag.
First, a little backstory. When the GR Corolla was first announced, Toyota added a flourish to its compact hot hatch by way of the limited-run Morizo edition. With a rear seat delete, shorter gearing, stickier tires, and a variety of tweaks almost solely focused on performance, it felt pretty crazy. However, it didn’t bear the letters “GRMN,” Toyota’s designation for its most bonkers factory hot rods. With a new Corolla just around the corner, Toyota’s going all-out with the GRMN Corolla. Hide your WRXs, hide your Golf Rs because the top-dog Corolla is serious stuff.
Like the Morizo Edition, the GRMN Corolla ditches its rear seat, rolls on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, and gets a carbon fiber roof. Unlike the Morizo, it takes full advantage of years of ongoing development. Its carbon fiber hood and aggressively vented front fenders were forged through the crucible of motorsport, and new dampers and bump stops, along with final aerodynamic tweaks, were tuned on the Nürburgring. There’s an intercooler sprayer to keep a lid on intake air temperature, unique all-wheel-drive system and steering tuning, and all the tweaks you’d get on a new GR Corolla compared to the original. More structural adhesives, more cooling, the works. Add in a torque boost from 295 lb.-ft. to 302 lb.-ft., and the result is the wildest Corolla yet.
The wildest thing about the GRMN Corolla, however, might be the price. Oh my word, is it ever expensive. This limited-run Corolla starts at $64,360 before any freight charges or other fees. That’s $280 more than the MSRP of a Ford Mustang Dark Horse and $1,615 more than a stick-shift GR Supra 3.0 Premium. You can buy two Honda Civic Si sedans for the price of the GRMN Corolla, or a pair of Mazda MX-5s. That’s simply an enormous sum of money for a 300-horsepower sport compact car with no rear seats.
It’s also worth mentioning that a standard GR Corolla carries a pre-freight MSRP of $40,520, which is some $23,840 or more than one entire Corolla LE sedan cheaper than the GRMN Corolla. Think about that for a second: You could have a largely similar car and buy your parents or grandparents or adult child a nice economical commuter car for just about the price of the top-dog Corolla.
Perhaps that’s part of the reason why Toyota is only planning on building 730 GRMN Corollas for the entire world. Out of the roughly 8.3 billion people on this planet, only around 0.00000879 percent of them live in a market that will get the GRMN Corolla and are both well-heeled and wild enough to spend $64,360 plus freight on a stripped-out two-seat hatchback.
Top graphic image: Toyota
Corolla Grumman 😛
Like James May says, every car tuned for the Nurburgring is shit to drive on a normal road.
Got to say your comparison on the price of a Toyota Supercar vs a bargain basement Toyota is pretty much an explanation of why some cars cost more than others
Do they even sell the GR Corolla outside of North America? I thought the rest of the world gets the GR Yaris.
In Australia we get both
i’d rather buy a nice used sti, drop $5K on mods, and save like $30K.
until the head gaskets give up 😛
Hopefully that 30k is enough to have a garage built and all the permits and shit, so at least you can drop the engine in any weather
I can’t remember the last time I was behind a WRX or STI more than a few years old where I couldn’t smell something other than gasoline being combusted.
I had a 2006 sti from brand new, and sold it at 75K miles with all sorts of bolt ons and a heavy right foot. no head gaskets ever gave up on me during that time. I did have the fuel pressure regulator go bad around 60K miles though, so that was weird. Had a 2004 wrx wagon with downpipe and tune, no head gasket issue either. I think that the head gasket issue isn’t as wide spread of an issue as people make it out to be.
Subaru Coolant Conditioner to the rescue
aka Holts Radweld stop leak lol
More than price I’m pissed they’re only offering this color exclusively on the GRMN. I’ve been window shopping regular Corolla GRs lately and imho they offer a pretty meh selection of colors, I’d get this one in a heartbeat. Same with the GR86 they offer a fantastic green…if you get the special Hakone edition.
I’m really happy with my ’24 core, and something about the absurdity of the grmn appeals to me. Not even close to enough to actually trade up, but if it was 10% cheaper and I was forced to replace mine I’d think awful hard about it. The probably re-buy what I have, but not in black and with heated seats/wheel.
Good to hear, I’ve been seriously considering buying one as a bit of a splurge purchase to replace my aging turbo Legacy. I put this above but imo Toyota has a pretty weird selection of colors on these. I’ve been debating between black and white lol
I wish them made them in more interesting colors… The blue looks good but isn’t available, and the red is just sorta ok.
Yeh if they offered a classic fire engine red I might actually be into it, instead it’s this weird reddish-metallic, that’s not quite burgundy, not quite red. Made even more irritating because Toyota has been on kind of a roll with offering some cool colors on their trucks and SUVs lately. I’d love to see that green gray from the GMRN offered as a regular paint color option.
Agreed on the trucks colors, there’s been a bunch of really good ones semi recently. We got our 4runner at least partly because it was orange. Extremely orange.
Price is silly, but considering the small run of carbon, and interior parts this one gets it isn’t that all that absurd. The regular GR Corolla is $48k. Aftermarket Carbon Fiber Fenders, Spoiler, seat delete and Hood from a company like Seibon will set you back $6900 and the fitment or quality will not be as good as Toyota’s. This also gets special Front seats, and a different Dash pad.
It’s a bit Ferrari-esque. Overpriced, limited-production, special edition, aimed solely at people with too much disposable income.
> …aimed solely at people with too much disposable income
Thing is, this is actually a real market segment that manufacturers are increasingly cater to, and it’s far from cars where it happens.
Obviously there’s Hermes with the Birkin bags, where you need to buy a brazillion bags you don’t want to have the pleasure of even being offered to buy one, but it’s also for increasingly pedestrian items not intended to be luxury goods.
A great example right now is in vidya game land, there are trim levels of gaming handhelds (Steam Deck-a-likes) that are over $5000. It’s entirely for marketing. Basically, by releasing the crazy version, they get free advertising BECAUSE they made a crazy version at an unreasonable price. As another example, Vertu has done this with phones forever.
Of people putting gold flake on their food before eating it and posting themselves eating it on social media.
It’s done for one reason:
There are actual customers that buy them to dab on others with, and to flex.
Me? I don’t get it. It’s beyond crass. Yet there’s a segment of the market that manufacturers can rake because they’ll buy this stuff to flex with.
They really made a mistake not offering this in white, in order to show off the carbon bits to maximum effect. I mean, if you’re going to jump on the crazy train, you might as well travel first class.
7 extra torques for $28k? That is a heck of deal. I also got that True Coat to sell you too. Let me check and see what my manager can do to knock off a few bucks.
Jerry Lundegaard, you’re a ffffFUCKing liar!
You’re gonna want that True Coat
But, I need to tow! And I have three kids! They should never make these cars!!
Yep, I’d totally buy it if it was a regular cab. 🙂
It’s a good thing VW pays closer attention to their naming schemes than Toyota does. Otherwise they would be releasing the new Golf R GRMN TRD.
The GRMN TRD package has been standard equipment on every VW since inception…
I was going to comment on being able to get a lightly used ZL1 for less, and decided to hop on Autotrader to check. Holy hell, I did a search for manual ones and it looked like more than half that came up in the nationwide search were going for close to or above MSRP. Not counting the nutters trying to sell the 2024 final edition ones for $200k+…
I have an irrational desire for this car. Full stop.
2 years in, still love my 23 GR Corolla. Complain/laugh about the price of this thing, but they will sell every single one. Not to me, I’m at about $15k left to pay and plan to do that within the year.
I’ve had a 24 for almost a year, and hell yeah. And pretty reasonable to live with as a daily.
Even gotten it out for RallyCross. Do I want to go fast or do I want to hang the ass out on every turn. (Hint – 30/70 torque split and traction control off.)
I really like the way it rotates on pavement, I bet it’s an absolute riot on gravel…
We’re going to squawk now about how the price is ridiculous and not “worth” it in a traditional sense, but the final paragraph is the whole story.
Sell your weird nonsensical thing in low volumes at high margins to the select few who dig it and have the money.
It ain’t me, btw. I ain’t no fortunate son.
I mean I’d rather have this than a Dark Horse and I’d certainly rather have it than a Zupra. I wouldn’t pay that for any of them (I’d buy an Ionic 5 N if I was spending that much) but I don’t think noting that a regular production Mustang also pushes deep into 60 grand makes the Mustang look any better.
You could name a whole lot of vehicles that go well north of $60k.
Most full-size pickup trucks, for example, can be trimmed up well past 60 and getting to 6-digit-adjacent despite having starting tags in the 30’s.
I’d rather have this than a King Ranch F150.
This only gets you an XLT with some options; King Ranch will set you back another $20k
AWD, 6MT, Hatchback.
Is the GR Corolla on a list of one?
Yes, the sole survivor. The Mini Cooper is also currently on a list of one. It’s the only 2-door hatchback you can buy new in this country now.
See, also, the Access Cab Tacoma.
Trying to beat Trueno prices, I see…
I’ll keep my Evo, it’s got more power, a better AWD system, and actual rear seat, and cost less than half the price. It is currently on jackstands, but that is not what’s important here.
I swear, everyone with an Evo has it on jackstands currently……..
The jackstands are the natural habitat of Evo’s
I have 3 friends with them, and all are “just a few days away from being running again”
I bet all their uncles work at Nintendo, too
I had a new Evo 8 and kept it for about 50000 miles. It was a stage 1, and thougt the motor felt solid the transmission felt as if it were made of glass, so I never dared to do a true rally start.
The rest of the vehicle and paint was truly fragile.
The issue is that people keep paying these prices. There is no reasoning with JDM bros, when they want something they’re going to have it come hell or high water, they’re going to have it first, and it’s going to be all over social media within .5 seconds of the paperwork being signed. Paying $65,000 for $40,000 car with a rear seat delete and a tune is patently absurd….but people do it!
It would be funny if it didn’t make things worse for everyone else. I might consider buying a CTR but they still go for over MSRP on the east coast. I might consider a Toyobaru as a second car down the line but they’re now $40,000 by the time you get them off the lot. I’d love to consider a Supra for the same role but they don’t depreciate.
I saw one with 65,000 miles listed for $60,000 the other day. It’s just silly. You can get a similarly equipped version of its mechanical twin for like 20% less on the secondhand market.
You’d think with the demand for these hot hatches that it would support manufacturers to offer more options.
I do agree in part. It bothers me less for hyperniche vehicles like this, but for more mainstream vehicles it is irritating.
Case in point: genuinely curious about the new Land Cruiser now that our 4Runner is a decade old. Toyota allocates only a few to dealerships at a time so they’re all sold before they hit the lot and no one has one to even sit in. People are buying them without even a test drive. It’s not just a specialty trim, the entire model is inaccessible because supply is constrained and the Toyota stans will pay it.
I could have put down a $500 deposit on an incoming unit for a test drive. I squinted at the salesman and went to the Honda store to look at the Passport, of which numerous were in stock. Nice SUV but the engine is a terrible match.
My wife wants a regular hybrid Highlander. She was confused when I told her we’ll either need to fork over $60,000 or get on multiple dealerships’ lists. Shit is absurd….
Would a hybrid Pallisade or Telluride work for her? Specs look pretty good.
Ugliest fucking vehicles I’ve seen in quite some time, but a lot of them are showing up on the road so they are striking the right chord with somebody.
She says she doesn’t trust a first gen Korean turbo/hybrid system, and you know….I can’t blame her
Yeah…I’d have questions as well. But if I could find a good lease deal relatuve to the Toyota and not be on a wait list I might risk it and pull the trigger.
Being financially responsible is truly lost on most people. You’re right in that they will all be sold either at/above sticker, and there are myriad better options new and used when you are coughing up $60k+ on a car.
The Auto supras have come down, a few locally for sub $45k. Manuals are still trading high.
You already know the answer. M I A T A
Was the answer, is the answer, forever will be the answer. My aunt has already said she’ll pass her NA on to me when the time comes so I’m fortunate enough to have that in the bag, but I do lust after an ND RF.
I remember reading about oil starvation issues on the GR Corolla as I was tempted to buy one. So I wonder if that issue has been fixed yet? Especially on a 65k+ special edition hah.
That was on the GR86
rear seat delete, but you get a roller coaster lap bar, for reasons
To prevent unintended use? They could have taken better ideas in any american city park benches.
It’s clearly there to extend the load floor forward so you can carry sheet goods. Everyone knows no self-respecting American is ever going to buy a car if it can’t transport full length sheets of plywood.
I imagine the dealer markups on these will be an additional base Corolla MSRP
They’ll price them to the moon, I’d expect six figures. Some chucklehead influencer will buy it for the clicks.
Beaman Toyota in Nashville TN already has theirs listed for $81k