Review: Toyota GR Corolla 8AT - Proof an Automatic can still have character

There are more refined performance cars than the Toyota GR Corolla. There are cars with better ride quality, more polished interiors, more sophisticated damping and steering that feels more delicate in your hands.

There are probably cars that carry more speed through a corner with less effort too. The GR Corolla is not really trying to win that argument. What it does instead is make you feel something almost every time you drive it.

It whistles, it flutters, the exhaust changes its voice, the engine sounds busy and slightly angry, and the gearbox suddenly drops a ratio because it has worked out that you are about to need one.

Then there is the four-wheel-drive system, digging into the road and pulling the car out of corners with real determination. There is constantly something happening around you, and the more time I spent with the automatic GR Corolla, the more I realised that a surprising amount of this particular car’s character actually comes from the automatic gearbox.

That sounds backwards. Normally, the manual is the emotional choice and the automatic is the sensible one. But the GR Corolla AT does not feel like a diluted version of the manual. It feels like a different type of GR Corolla, and in some ways, it might actually be the easier one to have fun with.

Easy to enjoy

The first thing you notice is how little effort it takes to enjoy this car. You get in, start it, put the transmission in Drive and go. You do not need to wait for the perfect empty road or immediately reach for the paddles. Even on an ordinary drive, the car starts giving you little reminders of what it is.

Squeeze the throttle and you hear the turbo starting to whistle. Lift off and there can be a little flutter. Give it more throttle and the 1.6-litre three-cylinder changes character completely. Brake harder approaching a corner and the gearbox decides you probably want another gear, so down it goes, the revs rise and the engine wakes up.

That ease of access is a big part of the automatic car’s personality. The manual asks you to contribute more to the experience, while the automatic constantly serves it up to you. You spend less time thinking about operating the car and more time noticing everything happening around you.

It has a whole collection of noises

The GR Corolla is not the loudest performance car around, and it is not constantly popping and banging for attention. Its soundtrack is more interesting because there are layers to it.

The G16E-GTS is a 1,618 cc turbocharged three-cylinder producing 296 hp, and because it only has three cylinders, it already sounds different from the usual four-cylinder hot hatch. There is a busy, slightly uneven quality to the engine note. Then you hear the turbo: sometimes a whistle, sometimes a rush of air, and occasionally some flutter when you lift.

Then there is the exhaust. Toyota gave the GR Corolla that distinctive triple-outlet setup, and the centre pipe actually opens and closes depending on engine speed and load. You do not need to know exactly what the valve is doing while driving, but you notice that the car’s voice keeps changing.

The automatic adds another layer because a downshift changes the whole soundscape. The engine jumps higher into the rev range, the exhaust gets louder and the turbo is ready to come back in. None of these sounds individually is outrageous, but together they make the car feel busy and alive.

Quite often, you just end up smiling.

A small engine doing very serious work

It is worth remembering that all of this comes from just 1.6 litres and three cylinders. With 296 hp and 400 Nm of torque, the GR Corolla is producing roughly 183 hp per litre, which is an enormous specific output for something that still has to idle in traffic and behave like a normal road car.

Toyota has not simply wound up the boost either. The engine gets serious hardware, including multi-oil-jet piston cooling, large-diameter exhaust valves and a part-machined intake port.

There is a very small amount of turbo lag, and I actually think that adds something to the experience. You put your foot down, the boost builds and then the car surges forward. The acceleration has a beginning, middle and end rather than arriving instantly, and that gives the powertrain a more mechanical feel.

Once it comes alive, 296 hp feels like plenty. It is fast enough to be properly exciting without being so overwhelmingly quick that you cannot enjoy it on normal roads.

The gearbox is a big reason it works

This is not some soft automatic that Toyota added just to make the GR Corolla easier to sell. The GR-DAT is a proper performance transmission, and importantly, it is a torque-converter automatic rather than a dual-clutch.

Toyota developed its shift logic through the Super Taikyu endurance racing programme in Japan, with drivers actually racing cars in automatic mode. That becomes more meaningful once you drive it, because the clever part is not simply shift speed.

The gearbox watches how you use the brake and throttle and tries to predict what you need next. Brake assertively into a corner and it will often prepare the downshift before the car has fully settled. By the time you get back onto the throttle, the engine is already sitting where you want it.

That gives the gearbox a sense of involvement. It feels like it is participating in the drive rather than simply serving gears when asked.

And because it works so well, you stop thinking about it. You can concentrate on the steering, the grip and the road instead.

The handling gives you a different kind of sensation

The GR Corolla handles very well, but I would not call it the most delicate or sophisticated performance car around. There are cars that feel more precise and more polished in the way they move down a road.

The GR Corolla is more physical.

You turn in and feel the tyres working. The body feels rigid, the GR-Four all-wheel-drive system starts moving power around, and the front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials help the car dig itself out of corners.

Get onto the throttle on the way out and there is a very clear sense of the tyres hooking into the road and the drivetrain pulling the whole car forward.

That sensation is completely different from the noises. The sound makes you smile; the handling makes you focus.

There is an old-school quality to the way the GR Corolla attacks a road. It is not particularly graceful about it, but it feels effective, confident and entertaining. You are always aware that there is serious hardware working underneath you.

It is stiff, but you can live with it

There is a price for all that rigidity and control. The GR Corolla is stiff.

Bad roads come through. Expansion joints come through. Rough patches and badly repaired sections of tarmac are always present in the background.

It is not brutally uncomfortable, but you will never forget that you bought a performance hatchback.

Still, I would absolutely call it usable as a daily. The automatic makes traffic easy, visibility is decent, the seats are supportive and there is still a proper hatchback body behind you. You can commute in it, carry your things and do ordinary errands without turning every journey into a chore.

Then the road clears, you use more throttle and the whole personality changes.

That is what reminds me of old-school hot hatches.

Old-school hot hatch spirit

Older hot hatches were not necessarily refined. Their interiors were usually based on ordinary economy cars, the ride could be firm and the engines could feel a little rough around the edges. But that was part of the appeal.

They were practical enough to drive every day, but entertaining enough that you would take the longer route home for no good reason.

The GR Corolla AT captures some of that spirit. The technology underneath is much more advanced, of course, with sophisticated all-wheel drive, Torsen differentials and an automatic gearbox clever enough to anticipate what gear you need. But the emotional experience feels refreshingly old-fashioned.

It is a practical car that feels slightly naughty.

You occasionally lower the window just to hear it better. You find yourself giving it a little more throttle just to hear the turbo again. And because the automatic makes everything so easy to access, you end up experiencing that character more often.

Strangely, the automatic does not make the GR Corolla feel more grown-up. It actually makes it easier to behave like a hooligan.

Expensive, but you can see where the money went

At RM378,950 officially from Toyota Malaysia, the GR Corolla 8AT is not cheap, while the six-speed manual sits at RM368,950.

Spend time inside and you will still find plenty of normal Corolla DNA. There are materials and switchgear that do not immediately feel like they belong in a car approaching RM380,000.

But most of your money has gone underneath.

The engine, the drivetrain, the front and rear differentials, the reinforced structure, the GR-Four system, the transmission and all the engineering that went into making them work together.

It is also built at Toyota’s GR Factory in Motomachi, with extra structural reinforcement, welds and adhesive rather than simply rolling down a normal Corolla production line.

Whether all of that makes the price reasonable depends entirely on what you value.

This is ultimately what I keep coming back to with the GR Corolla.

A great hot hatch has to do more than produce numbers. It needs to make you feel something.

The GR Corolla does that through lots of small sensations: the turbo whistle, the engine coming onto boost, the flutter when you lift, the exhaust changing tone, the sudden rise in revs during a downshift, and then the completely different sensation of the drivetrain digging into the road as you accelerate out of a corner.

Every one of those moments adds another layer.

Is it the most refined performance car? No. Is it the best-handling car for the money? Arguable. Is the ride stiff? Definitely.

But for me  it is incredibly easy to drive, practical enough to use every day, full of serious engineering and genuinely entertaining without requiring heroic levels of commitment.

More importantly, the automatic gearbox is not something you have to excuse. It gives this version its own personality. It makes the car easier to access, keeps the engine involved and lets you concentrate on everything else the GR Corolla is doing around you.

It feels like a modern interpretation of an old-school hot hatch: a little rough around the edges, slightly immature, very usable and always ready to have some fun.

And every once in a while, when the gearbox drops a gear, the turbo starts singing and the road opens up in front of you, the GR Corolla reminds you exactly what a legendary hot hatch is supposed to do.

And that thing is, to make you feel alive.

Toyota GR Corolla 8AT specifications

Drivetrain: 1.6-litre G16E-GTS turbocharged three-cylinder petrol, GR-Four all-wheel drive with front and rear Torsen limited-slip differentials

Engine output: 296 hp

Torque: 400 Nm

Transmission: 8-speed GAZOO Racing Direct Automatic Transmission (GR-DAT), torque-converter automatic

0-100 km/h: 5.3 seconds

Top speed: 230 km/h

Fuel consumption: 10.8 km/litre claimed

Suspension: MacPherson strut front, double-wishbone rear

Boot space: 213 litres

Safety: Toyota Safety Sense with Pre-Collision System, Lane Departure Alert, Lane Tracing Assist, Dynamic Radar Cruise Control and Automatic High Beam; seven airbags including driver’s knee airbag

Price: RM378,950 on-the-road without insurance, including a five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty