Unlike some of the hater-wankers on this chat, I've owned one and driven one for three years. Brilliant car. As for the cost? More welds, more structural adhesives than stock, aluminium doors, bonnet and rear hatch, proper handbrake that unlocks the rear differential for decent slides, bespoke body, carbon roof, forged alloy wheels, hand built 3 pot motor, tricky diffs, custom suspension set up, thicker sways, front brakes larger than the current Supra, corner weighted at Factory, built in the same joint as the Lexus LFA by engineers hand-picked for this particular purpose. This is a bloody bargain and if you know anything about cars you'd be scratching your head as to how Toyota actually builds this thing for the price.
It's always the classic: it's too expensive and it's a Yaris. These commenters have absolutely zero interest in performance cars, let alone basic knowledge of why the GR Yaris is so highly regarded
BUT….. it’s still a Yaris 😂. Jokes, it’s a different car underneath. Yaris in the name only. I was going to order one but unfortunately when I took one for a test drive, I’m too tall to fit properly. The face lifted version has a lower seating position so that may work🤞
@@boskojovanovic2770 Yeah, the OEM seat is far too high but having said that, I fitted a genuine GRMN Recaro seat from Japan to mine which is 3cm lower than stock and I'm finding it a tad too low when going over blind crests. I'd say the 2.5cm drop on the one is going to be spot-on
Because of what it can offer ,So many Porsche Ferrari and other performance car enthusiasts have chosen the GR Yaris as addition their garage ,that says more than anything else .
I own a fully built Evo and a stock GR Rallye (2 yrs now). I see the GR as an extension of the golden days of JDM cars. Not quite as raw and sharp as some but a brilliant car overall. It's lightweight, nimble and fun. Downsides are the high seating position, low end torque, visibility F&R and inconsistent stock ECU (Power can vary a lot depending on the day).
The facelift version which is due later in 2024 that addresses all of the complaints about the 'original' car, comes standard with the front and rear torsen LSDs, which makes the current Rallye irrelevant.
I get out mine with a big mile o my ace every time. I live in Scotland. Is wet here and we have lots of twisty roads. Then there’s the snow. Big smiles😀
Amazing cars. I bought mine from Japan Jan 2022 and into NZ. fully optioned with intercooler water spray etc. The "Rally" as you know it in Aus is the standard model we got here in NZ. I agree completely, this is a weekend hoon car - it's not a daily driver. Its transmission shifting feels like a 1990s hilux (solid) its noisy inside, I wear noise cancelling earphones as on our chip seal we're at about 75-80Db inside, Its a tiring car also in that it's almost as wide as it is long wheelbase-wise so it's always moving around. Having said that add a fraction of turn and everything falls into place. On any undulating or bending road - nothing even comes close. Just leave it in 4th and ride the torque from corner to corner....There is nothing close nor as specifically built as these things. Love them.
@brentsherriff7738 - totally agree! Finally got my RZ High Performance 1st Edition into NZ mid 2023, well worth the effort. The car just eats the undulating windy narrow roads common here, you grin your head off each time you learn what more it can do, how it good it is. The next drive you take in traffic is akin to solitary confinement. If anyone wants to properly enjoy driving again, get one and thank yourself while grinning like an idiot.
Has anyone else noticed the lines of the door to the a pillar are off near the wing mirrors. It’s a horrible fit. The door line finishes 10mm too low and dips in and you s not flush. Big oversight by Toyota.
I noticed they have this available as automatic, not available in North America. North America has the Corolla GR, but it only comes manual kind of upsetting.
It's so weird that the rallye/circuit pack edition was limited for you Aussies, and launched later. In Europe almost every GR Yaris is the circuit pack and only a small percentage bought the standard pack.
Get this though - the original non-Rallye launched at AUD 39,990 or about 20k quid at today's exchange rate. As you can imagine they sold out pretty quickly! People who bought those cars before Toyota Australia upped the price from the intro price, can probably still sell their cars at break even or even potentially a profit 3 and a bit years later.
Different national markets ticked options and that's what they got. I ordered mine in Japan ticked every option and freighted it to NZ. It's both circuit pack and convenience pack and with intercooler water spray kit etc.
It’s a bespoke car designed for the World Rally Championship. It has very little in common with a Yaris…basically a different car…they could’ve called it something else. Doesn’t share any body panels of the Yaris, bespoke chassis, bespoke engine, bespoke gearbox, bespoke lightweight AWD system based on the WRC car. All these bespoke components were built with the intention of racing in the WRC. How many other bespoke cars can you list that have been built in the last 20 years?
@@EastWood2004 It's got a bespoke, WRC homologated 1.6l 3 cylinder, the most powerful production 3 cylinder in the world. Assembled by hand on each car. Which is not a part it shares with the regular Yaris. This engine is great, loads of character. This is literally a Yaris in name only. Probably a marketing decision. They might as well have called it the Toyota Rally. The only parts it shares with the regular Yaris are interior stuff, front and rear light clusters, roof antenna and door mirrors. Everything else is bespoke to this car.
GR Corolla is a heavier car that runs the same drivetrain, so its components are less optimised and subject to overheating… Watch the Savagegeese reviews. Having spent a significant amount of time in a GR Yaris: - I have had more fun in this than in modern Porsches and Ferraris - this is a more bespoke car than the Corolla - the only area where the Corolla beats the Yaris is that there’s somewhere to put your phone while driving in the Corolla 😅
I wouldn't care even if it could do 10 sec quarters and lap n'burg in 5 minutes - it's a Yaris.A Toyota Yaris. And an ugly little one at that with the ridiculous rear track. Sorry.
That's a pretty wild statement, seeing as it's one of the most common cars you find at any time driving around the Nurburgring. That it's been awarded performance car of the year awards from multiple outlets. That it has set a faster lap time around Tsukuba Circuit than a McLaren F1. That super car owners around the world have one of these in their garage. That it's hand built by hand picked engineers at the same factory where the Lexus LFA was produced. That it's the first proper WRC homologated car in decades, partially designed by Tommy Makinen, the same guy who helped Mitsubishi make some of the greatest EVOs.
Meh. Drove one and the whole time I was thinking for the price Toyota is asking, with all the cheap hard plastic adorning the interior, and the little 3-cylinder engine, and what other equivalently priced cars I can get for around the same price ... no thanks Toyota. .
There isn't a single car at even twice the price that can carry the same speed in corners and roundabouts. I don't give a damn about hard plastics, this thing leaves anything in the dust on a bumpy b-road, and when the roads are wet it's in its own league alltogether.
A niche car with a touch of inflation, so the price is about right imo. It was only 6 years ago that a Golf R was priced at 60k, and now it's around 80k(AUD)