15 Things I Think You Need to Know About the GR Corolla From the Viewpoint of Owning a GR Yaris For a Year Already

Edited to make it 16 things as I missed something very important (read #16)!

1) The paint is extremely soft on these cars and is very prone to stone chips and scratches. Full PPF is recommended. People in UK that opted for no PPF regret it now. PPF should be applied to any forged carbon roof anyway, or it will deteriorate over time.

2) GR wheels use a two-tone effect to achieve their colour, so Toyota will be unable to provide a paint code should you damage a wheel. If you do damage a wheel, opt for a smart repair. A decent smart repairer should be able to match the colour and repair the affected area only. If you opt for a fully refurbished wheel, it will not be an exact colour match to the other three wheels.

3) The bedding in period for this engine is 621 miles/999 km’s, so if you are looking to protect your engine, you will need to avoid pushing the car hard until after 621 miles/999 km’s has been done.

4) Every time you start this engine from cold, power will be severely limited for around 5 minutes until the engine oil has warmed up. You will get a message on the dashboard advising to avoid using heavy acceleration. Whilst it is in this warm-up phase, you are not beating anybody in a race. Once it disappears, you are good to go.

5) The tyre pressure sensors are annoying. Even when the tyre pressures are correct, they will report as the incorrect pressure when it is colder weather than usual.

6) Lane assist and steering assist are turned on by default. They ruin the raw driving experience. You will have to turn these features off every time you start the car. Takes around 10 seconds. You can not turn off collision prevention though.

7) These cars achieve significantly better track times and a better driving experience with the Torsen LSD's fitted. Many UK buyers opted for no LSD's to save money as they assumed that the difference was in the tyres only. They now regret it. Resale values reflect this as well. Now that both variants have been tested thoroughly, the LSD variant is much more valuable in the second hand car market. It is a lot more expensive to add LSD’s on as aftermarket parts. Toyota also change the weight of the steering for LSD models from factory to suit the LSD’s, this is not something you can really replicate afterwards.

8) The best cost per horsepower modification that you can do on this engine is either a remap or a tuning box. A tuning box will retain your warranty as it can be removed before dealership servicing and leaves no footprint on the ECU. A remap will void your warranty on any failure that the dealerships can hold it accountable for. An ECU remap will also be wiped if your dealership decides to update the ECU for a recall when your car is being serviced. The Yaris has already been recalled once for changes to the radar functionality, which is tied into the ECU.

9) The top speed limiter can be removed on this engine via a tuning box that supports V-Max removal. This involves splicing one of the cables in the engine bay though, so it puts people off doing it.

10) The following aftermarket modifications do not make any difference to the performance of this engine at any state of tune. This is confirmed by multiple, reputable independent tuners that have all pushed this car to over 400bhp. The only parties that claim power increases for these modifications are the parties that are selling the products and are set to make money from them. Believe it or not, Toyota actually knew what they were doing when they developed these parts:

Air intakes
Panel filters
Cat-back exhaust systems
Intercoolers

Some people will argue that intakes and intercoolers will reduce intake temperatures, which will allow the car to hold boost for longer, but in the real world, they do not make a difference. Toyota's standard equipment handles the job perfectly well.

Anti-roll bars have been proven to not really improve handling on the Yaris either.

11) The exhaust is extremely quiet on these cars. These cars rely on engine noise pumped in through the speakers of the car. If you want a loud car, you will need to change the exhaust. A straight through centre section and a rear silencer is recommended. If you opt for a straight through system, or a centre silencer and straight through rear, these cars suffer from drone when cruising on longer journeys.

12) The engine noise that is pumped in through the speakers can be turned on or off by using the Carista app, paired with an OBD2 adapter if you just want to hear the sound of your exhaust. On the Yaris, changing to a 3 inch aftermarket exhaust system creates a cool blow-off valve noise when you change gears, I expect the Corolla will be the same. It can still be heard over the pumped in engine noise though.

13) The service intervals for this engine are every 6000 miles/9656 km’s, or every 12 months, whichever comes up first.

14) If you install an aftermarket ECU (Motec etc…), you will lose all radar functionality, automatic braking, cruise control features etc…

15) If you want to protect the seats, the only place that currently sells GR tailored seat covers are Dream Automotive, but they are very good seat covers.


16) MOST IMPORTANT ONE. DO NOT MIS-SHIFT THE GEARS WHEN YOU HAVE INTELLIGENT REV MATCHING TURNED ON, PEOPLE HAVE F'CKED THEIR ENGINES ON TRACK BY DOING THIS. IF YOU'RE GOING 110MPH AND YOU ACCIDENTALLY PUT THE CAR FROM 6TH TO 2ND GEAR, THE CAR WILL NOT PROTECT ITSELF AND WILL ATTEMPT TO MATCH IT AT 11000 REVS!!! IN FACT, IF YOU REGULARLY MIS-SHIFT, KEEP REV MATCHING OFF!