But we’re getting greedy and want all your hopped-up funsters, including the new GR Yaris with a crazy powerful turbocharged three-cylinder engine, manual transmission, and all-wheel drive. So while attending the Daytona 500, we asked Toyota execs if we should hold out hope of seeing the subcompact GR Yaris arrive in North America in any form. First the verbose version of no: “U.S. and North America have the harshest crash tests in the world so it’s not homologated for the U.S.” said Bob Carter, executive vice president of sales for Toyota Motor North America. “That’s why you see so few B [segment] platforms.”
Then the glimmer of hope: “But stay tuned, we got an answer for it,” Carter said. “It’s possible that we bring something else. I’ll leave it at that. Come to our future events.” Wait, what? If we’re readin him correctly, it sounds like we will get a GR version of an existing vehicle that is a little larger and already meets safety standards. There are a couple of choices, as we see it. The Toyota C-HR small crossover, which could definitely use more power, although GR C-HR reads more to us like a medical billing code than a thrilling performance car. We like the idea of GR-ifying the compact Corolla, which comes in a hatch with a manual and could get the GR Yaris’s three-cylinder and/or additional GR wizardry.
Toyota showed the two-seat GR Yaris at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. A limited-edition version of the hatch for Japan has a 268-hp, 273-lb-ft 1.6-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine mated to a six-speed stick. The regular GR Yaris, which also goes on sale in Europe, gets 257 hp and 265 lb-ft of torque. The rally-inspired GR has a lower roofline and wider track than the conventional Yaris, as well as a new, retuned suspension. It’s worth noting the GR Yaris is based on the global Yaris, which rides on Toyota’s TNGA platform; it should not be confused with the Yaris sold in the U.S., which is an older model based on the Mazda 2.
The Corolla hatchback also has migrated to Toyota’s TNGA platform and is one of the best-driving versions of the car yet. It currently gets 169 hp and 151 lb-ft of torque from a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine and comes with the choice of a CVT or a six-speed manual transmission depending on trim.
