You have to hand it to Toyota. Plenty of automakers would’ve rolled out a niche enthusiast car like the GR Corolla, forgotten about it after two or three years, maybe given it a mid-cycle facelift, and unceremoniously discontinued it. (See: the Focus RS.) But Toyota has continuously upgraded its hot hatch every trip around the sun since it debuted for the 2023 model year. In ’24, the GR received airflow and floor improvements, and in ’25, torque rose by 22 lb-ft, the suspension got better, and customers gained an automatic option. The pace isn’t slowing for 2026, though, unfortunately, all those refinements have had an inverse relationship with the model’s pricing.
We’ll get into the GR Corolla’s improvements for the upcoming model year below, but first, I wanted to call attention to how much more expensive this car has gotten since it burst onto the scene in late 2022. At launch, you could get a base GR Corolla—that was called the “Core” trim at the time—for under $37,000, including destination. The Circuit Edition, which was fully loaded and threw in a forged carbon-fiber roof, started under $44K. Today, the cheapest GR Corolla costs $41,115, and the Circuit equivalent, now called Premium Plus, starts at an eye-watering $47,160.
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