Add Yours: 2023 Toyota GR Corolla Reservation Tracking List

Rear Leg Room

14806 Views 68 Replies 32 Participants Last post by dleiv, 3 mo ago

grfour86c

Discussion Starter · Apr 10, 2022

2

I'd like to point out probably the biggest complaints I see with the already existing (non-GR) Corolla Hatchback, which is the rear legroom and a bit comprimised hatch storage. The latter isn't as big of a deal to me, but it'd be nice to have a bit of space for passengers since it's a four door afterall. I haven't personally had a chance to sit in the backseat of the Corolla Hatch, but it's on my to-do list.

So I naturally looked at the rear legroom of a Corolla Hatch, which is 29.9" and then I compared that to my daily driver which is an 86, also 29.9" 🤣.

Hair Nose Head Chin Hand

Anyone have some firsthand experience?

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ryun84

· #2 · Apr 10, 2022

Might as well make a 2-door GRC if rear leg space is the same as an 86. I know I heard some rumors about this somewhere.

slybee

· #3 · Apr 11, 2022

I own a 2019 hatchback. The things that gripe me the most about it is the rear seat room and hatch cargo space. At least with mine I can remove the spare tire to get more cargo, but not the case with the GR with the battery there.

I also can't picture fitting a full set of wheels. I had to strip the trunk out to fit a set of wheels comfortably.

Pre

· #4 · Apr 11, 2022

It's literally the same as the Focus RS I owned. I'm good with it. I'm 6'2" so the seat pan in my RS was all the way back. Seat back was straight vertical, no "gangsta lean". Nobody could sit behind me, not even a child. I'm happy for this too. This is supposed to be a drivers car not a family truckster nor grocery getter. In the RS I called the rear doors access doors. Not carrying adults back there. If that is a need please do us a favor and buy something else.

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NARFALICIOUS

· #5 · Apr 12, 2022 (Edited)

grfour86c said:
So I naturally looked at the rear legroom of a Corolla Hatch, which is 29.9" and then I compared that to my daily driver which is an 86, also 29.9" 🤣.

Anyone have some firsthand experience?

If you're in the back of an 86 and the car goes over a bump, you'll hit your head on the glass. Not really related to leg room but gives you a sense of the space back there. That won't happen in a Corolla hatch.
You also sit lower in the 86, so your legs sit up higher. The Corolla you sit higher, so the legroom may be listed as the same, but it's not the same.
It's been a while since I sat in back of the Corolla Hatch, in fact it was during the launch. But it's different than sitting in the back of an 86. You can tell even just by looking at the pictures of the back seats of both. I'm only 5'10 though so.

slybee said:
I also can't picture fitting a full set of wheels. I had to strip the trunk out to fit a set of wheels comfortably.

With the seats up or down? I guarantee you can do so in a Corolla hatch with the seats folded.

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TimeRacer

· #6 · Apr 12, 2022

slybee said:
I own a 2019 hatchback. The things that gripe me the most about it is the rear seat room and hatch cargo space. At least with mine I can remove the spare tire to get more cargo, but not the case with the GR with the battery there.

I also can't picture fitting a full set of wheels. I had to strip the trunk out to fit a set of wheels comfortably.

Wheels should be really easy unless the roofline is so low you can't just roll them in or stack two wheels on top of one another once you fold the rear seat down. But seeing the amount of room does give pause for this car as full 'single car garage' car like the Civic Type-R would. It's quite astonishing how much more space the Civic hatchback has.

kazoobaru

· #7 · Apr 12, 2022

Buddy has new Corolla hatch. I’m about 5-8; i have sat in the back seat of that car behind a 6-something person… I would not want to be back there for an extended period of time, my knees were in the back of the seat.

I don’t care though, this car will be the fun car/toy/commuter. In fact: I’ll probably do a rear seat Delete to shave a few pounds from the car… and to save anyone the misery of sitting back there

JTBros

· #8 · Apr 12, 2022

Holy crap is the rear leg room really worse than that of the Fiesta ST 😂 I usually don’t have passengers anyway and care more about trunk space but that’s pretty funny. Also at 5’8” people should have a decent bit of room behind me.

underscore

· #9 · Apr 12, 2022

I get a 2 door having worthless back seats, but if it's a 4 door they all need to be vaguely useable. Especially when part of the pitch for this car is the practicality. If I can't actually get people in the back then I may as well just buy a 2 door lol.

grfour86c

Discussion Starter · #10 · Apr 12, 2022 (Edited)

Pre said:
It's literally the same as the Focus RS I owned. I'm good with it. I'm 6'2" so the seat pan in my RS was all the way back. Seat back was straight vertical, no "gangsta lean". Nobody could sit behind me, not even a child. I'm happy for this too. This is supposed to be a drivers car not a family truckster nor grocery getter. In the RS I called the rear doors access doors. Not carrying adults back there. If that is a need please do us a favor and buy something else.

Okay speed racer, gatekeeping much?

Most buyers are going to be dailying this vehicle. Sorry for asking if a four door could... I don't know, fit four people comfortably?

Pre

· #11 · Apr 12, 2022

grfour86c said:
Okay speed racer, gatekeeping much?

Most buyers are going to be dailying this vehicle. Sorry for asking if a four door could... I don't know, fit four people comfortably?

Speed Racer? Because I’m actually going to take it on track, and drive it aggressively in my local twisties? You know what it was designed to do? Ok then, am I free to call you Grandma’s boy then? I always preferred Racer X to Speed anyhow. He wasn’t rolling around with a chimp.

You and everyone else is free to do with your money whatever you want. Nobody is gatekeeping anyone. I stated the truth. The back seat is not going to be some comfortable people/kid/fur baby mover no matter how much you want it to be. It just isn’t. First and foremost it’s supposed to be an AWD Turbo 6MT drivers car. The Corolla is truly a compact car say compared to the modern Impreza/WRX, Civic, etc. The Civic is now the size of an Accord. The problem with all this is everyone is trying to make everything a people mover. With the Corolla best of luck with that. Base model, XSE, GRC, whatever. It’s a small car with rear doors. Can you make it work for short trips for passengers in the back, sure. But it’s not going to be some cozy place to be. Any questions regarding this, get off the internet. Find a local stealer that has a Corolla hatch, new or used. Go sit in it. I did, weeks before I put my deposit down.

If everything is going to be a daily driver type thing there will literally be no affordable drivers cars left on the market whatsoever. I think that is going to happen anyway after this last gen of ICE vehicles for just these reasons.

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grfour86c

Discussion Starter · #12 · Apr 12, 2022

Pre said:
Speed Racer? Because I’m actually going to take it on track, and drive it aggressively in my local twisties? You know what it was designed to do? Ok then, am I free to call you Grandma’s boy then? I always preferred Racer X to Speed anyhow. He wasn’t rolling around with a chimp.

You and everyone else is free to do with your money whatever you want. Nobody is gatekeeping anyone. I stated the truth. The back seat is not going to be some comfortable people/kid/fur baby mover no matter how much you want it to be. It just isn’t. First and foremost it’s supposed to be an AWD Turbo 6MT drivers car. The Corolla is truly a compact car say compared to the modern Impreza/WRX, Civic, etc. The Civic is now the size of an Accord. The problem with all this is everyone is trying to make everything a people mover. With the Corolla best of luck with that. Base model, XSE, GRC, whatever. It’s a small car with rear doors. Can you make it work for short trips for passengers in the back, sure. But it’s not going to be some cozy place to be. Any questions regarding this, get off the internet. Find a local stealer that has a Corolla hatch, new or used. Go sit in it. I did, weeks before I put my deposit down.

If everything is going to be a daily driver type thing there will literally be no affordable drivers cars left on the market whatsoever. I think that is going to happen anyway after this last gen of ICE vehicles for just these reasons.

Yeah I get it, I just wasnt too fond of your last comment on your original reply, rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm 5'7", space isn't a deal breaker for me but I was expecting it to at least be a considerable upgrade from the 86. It's a four door hatch that's longer than a veloster, figured it would at least have as much room as that.

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NARFALICIOUS

· #13 · Apr 12, 2022 (Edited)

Pre said:
I stated the truth. The back seat is not going to be some comfortable people/kid/fur baby mover no matter how much you want it to be. It just isn’t. First and foremost it’s supposed to be an AWD Turbo 6MT drivers car. The Corolla is truly a compact car say compared to the modern Impreza/WRX, Civic, etc. The Civic is now the size of an Accord. The problem with all this is everyone is trying to make everything a people mover. With the Corolla best of luck with that. Base model, XSE, GRC, whatever. It’s a small car with rear doors. Can you make it work for short trips for passengers in the back, sure. But it’s not going to be some cozy place to be. Any questions regarding this, get off the internet. Find a local stealer that has a Corolla hatch, new or used. Go sit in it. I did, weeks before I put my deposit down.

You may be 6'2 but the average height for men/women is 5'9/5'4 in the U.S. The space is more than plenty for basic duty for someone young whose friends need rides, or a couple with a small family, or even for long trips with someone in the back seat.

Though low in number for the GR grades, there are many many more SE and XSE or whatever the other grades are, and believe me, people can and will daily this car and it will be a people mover. As well as mover of dogs, groceries, ikea/target furniture, tools, bikes, and any other crap people want to throw back there. People have been doing it for years and as you said yourself, cars are growing. So people have endured smaller, less comfortable cars in the past.

And even if it's meant to be a 'drivers car', plenty of people will only be able to afford this one car, so it stands to reason they want to know a bit about the back seats.

grfour86c said:
I'm 5'7", space isn't a deal breaker for me but I was expecting it to at least be a considerable upgrade from the 86. It's a four door hatch that's longer than a veloster, figured it would at least have as much room as that.

In addition to what I had mentioned earlier, forgot to say, since the GRC is a "5 seater", treating it as a 4 seater most of the time like the 86 purports to be, people back there will be a bit more comfortable than someone in an 86 because they can turn their legs to the middle and also put their stuff in the seat next to them.

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slybee

· #14 · Apr 12, 2022

NARFALICIOUS said:
With the seats up or down? I guarantee you can do so in a Corolla hatch with the seats folded.

Rear seats down, of course. The wheels were 19x8.5 and 19x9.5 With 235/35/19 tires. So OD was like 2mm more than 235/40/18. Rear doors don't open wide enough to fit the wheels through so I had to go through the hatch. I didn't want to get my interior dirty or scratched up too.

TimeRacer said:
Wheels should be really easy unless the roofline is so low you can't just roll them in or stack two wheels on top of one another once you fold the rear seat down. But seeing the amount of room does give pause for this car as full 'single car garage' car like the Civic Type-R would. It's quite astonishing how much more space the Civic hatchback has.

I wanted the wheels to fit nicely without messing up the interior or damaging the wheels so two wheels on the back seat and two in the trunk. One laid flat with the other reated off the side. Not stacked on top. I'll try see how well I can get my 18x9.5s placed.

Pre said:
It’s a small car with rear doors. Can you make it work for short trips for passengers in the back, sure. But it’s not going to be some cozy place to be. Any questions regarding this, get off the internet. Find a local stealer that has a Corolla hatch, new or used. Go sit in it. I did, weeks before I put my deposit down.

I've owned mine for almost 3 years, so I will say the interior space is a lot smaller than what I felt it was when I first bought it.

TimeRacer

· #15 · Apr 12, 2022

slybee said:
Rear seats down, of course. The wheels were 19x8.5 and 19x9.5 With 235/35/19 tires. So OD was like 2mm more than 235/40/18. Rear doors don't open wide enough to fit the wheels through so I had to go through the hatch. I didn't want to get my interior dirty or scratched up too.

I wanted the wheels to fit nicely without messing up the interior or damaging the wheels so two wheels on the back seat and two in the trunk. One laid flat with the other reated off the side. Not stacked on top. I'll try see how well I can get my 18x9.5s placed.

I've owned mine for almost 3 years, so I will say the interior space is a lot smaller than what I felt it was when I first bought it.

Surprised it's that small. Figure just a towel/moving blanket on the floor and just bring them in via the hatch and laying them on their side should be easy to fit 4 I would of thought. On their side 235x2 is say 20" tall and the OD is 26.4" so 54" x 27" x 20" rectangular area should fit your wheels off to one side of the car and then put the easy up/anchors, jack, air pump, food/water, oil on the other side/footwells? See someone on Reddit posting the dimensions with the seat down as 38" x 60" so it appears it should be fine? But dimensions vs actually fitting is always different. I knew the car was small but in use might be a fair bit smaller in practical use just because the floor is so high/roof so low relative to other hatchbacks.

Taroroot

· #16 · Apr 12, 2022

Isn't the point of the GRC a performance car with some utility? You want a performance car for just driving and not much else, theres the Supra, and for something a bit cheaper with a little more utility the 86. Note that before I inherited the Yaris I'm using as current daily, I dailied my FR-S and used it for work, cycling (even carried two bikes and two riders and gear), play, auto-X. I'll be getting the GRC and it'll be replacing both my FR-S and Yaris. Every time I get into the FR-S I'm reminded how great it is to drive, but I'll move on and hopefully the GR-C will be as good. And be easier to carry more junk, and even maybe carry friends and bikes. We've done bike runs in my friends FiST, three all-mountain bikes, three guys, and all the gear, and a kid seat still installed! Comfy? No, but it beats not doing it at all.

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jdm-v35

· #17 · Apr 12, 2022

Taroroot said:
Isn't the point of the GRC a performance car with some utility? You want a performance car for just driving and not much else, theres the Supra, and for something a bit cheaper with a little more utility the 86. Note that before I inherited the Yaris I'm using as current daily, I dailied my FR-S and used it for work, cycling (even carried two bikes and two riders and gear), play, auto-X. I'll be getting the GRC and it'll be replacing both my FR-S and Yaris. Every time I get into the FR-S I'm reminded how great it is to drive, but I'll move on and hopefully the GR-C will be as good. And be easier to carry more junk, and even maybe carry friends and bikes. We've done bike runs in my friends FiST, three all-mountain bikes, three guys, and all the gear, and a kid seat still installed! Comfy? No, but it beats not doing it at all.

I agree with this. in the end this is not a true "race car". it is still the same current gen corolla unibody with an upgraded drivetrain and engine. It does have nice performance qualities but I would think it is still meant to be able to daily. It may not be as roomy as a camry(like I am replacing with this) but it will be a good medium of practical and fun. I also was tired of driving a car that feels like a boat. With how many current gen corollas are being used to daily for families I do not see it as a problem and can be made to work. I do have other cars to fulfill other purposes as well though.

Everyone has a different purpose for buying it and i think it is sort of an all around car. For me I wanted AWD and a little more power for a practical daily year round. I also like that its a reliable toyota and budget wise is cheaper than the other cars I was looking at and should also get decent mpg.

MrBiggs

· #18 · Apr 12, 2022

There are plenty of videos on Youtube from people reviewing the current Corolla Hatchback in various heights and sizes. Yes, the backseat is useable. I'm 6'3" and have had access to the hatchback and put 3 kids in the back. So, it is more than useable. Now, will it be the best people mover for long distances? No, but that's to be expected in a compact/small car segment.

In comparison, the Civic Hatchback has about 7.5 more inches of rear legroom, but nearly the same front legroom as the Corolla. If more space is needed, then the Type-R is a possible option, but if it's like the previous-gen Type-R it may be a 4-seat configuration.

Either way, it has a useable rear seat and cargo IMO.

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fstumpfj40

· #19 · Apr 12, 2022

TLDR: I've sat in the back of a Corolla hatch, and it's not that bad. And I don't care what the legroom stats are, it's way bigger than the back of an 86.

I have two kids. Whenever I test drive a car, I set the driver's seat for my seating position and then try to sit behind myself. I'm 5'10", but I have kind of a long torso and shorter legs. People are different, but here's my summary having sat in all these back seats:

86: I have to spread my legs wide enough to effectively straddle the front seat. It's difficult to pull the front seat back into position from the rear, since in doing so I'm actually compressing my own body. I technically COULD ride back there, but it would need to be a very short drive. And the whole time I'd be angry at the driver for not getting a bigger car or agreeing to take mine.

Corolla Hatch: I can get in and sit comfortably behind myself. There's only about an inch or two of space between my knees and the seat back in front. I can sit up straight, with my head on the head rest without touching, but I have to lean down a bit to look out the side window. I could ride back here for 30-45 mins without any problem. Forward facing car seats should be no problem. Rear facing might be an issue.

Civic Hatch (10th and 11th gen): Plenty of legroom in the back behind myself. It's the size I imagine a full size sedan back seat should be. I can see easily out the side window, BUT if I lean back to put my head on the headrest, I hit the roof. I could ride back here for a long journey.

Take a look at the Alex on Autos videos on the 86, Corolla, and Civic hatches. He's on the tall side and give a good visual on what the back seat room is like on each.

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luluna

· #20 · Apr 12, 2022

grfour86c said:
Yeah I get it, I just wasnt too fond of your last comment on your original reply, rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm 5'7", space isn't a deal breaker for me but I was expecting it to at least be a considerable upgrade from the 86. It's a four door hatch that's longer than a veloster, figured it would at least have as much room as that.

Oh wow! Pure number-wise, I didn't realize how tight the rear seats are going to be. If you're comparing it to a Veloster (Turbo), the Veloster has a little bit more leg room, but a little bit less headroom.

IMO, headroom is probably the most important for comfort. It's pretty much inevitable that you're knees are going to crunch in a performance hatchback, but if you had to bend your neck the entire time and the top of your head is pushing on the roof - it's going to feel super claustrophobic. If it really does have a couple inches on height, it's going to be a little bit more 'comfortable' for the average height person.

I'm 5'8 with a longer than average torso (so I sit taller); my head rubs the roof of the Veloster Turbo, lol. An inch or so extra height would have been perfect.

Meanwhile, the GR86 has a rough 33.5 inches of headroom - that's 4 inches less than the CHB. Comfort-wise, the CHB is a huge upgrade to any adult, lol.

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