She has left the House and My Review take on why GR Corolla

[Dpro]

Ya o I went through a lot of back and forth and mixed emotions. In the end a couple of things pushed the decision. The first and large motivator was the fact that my new GRC was actually $400 a year less for Insurance than the FIST and that it was not an out of the norm . I discovered all FiST owners are getting raped by Insurance I actually reposted a former industry insiders post from the Corolla forum here.

Next was discovering that in 30/70 the Corolla indeed felt and drove a lot like the FiST with no real TQ steer. Then it was getting in the FiST after not driving it for a week and a half and realizing that until around 3-4k It felt and was slow in comparison to the GRC which has absolutely amazing bottom end grunt and. pulls all the way to redline stock the G16E is an amazing engine compared to the FiST engine.

Plus for a daily the Corolla is so much nicer ride wise and comfort wise. About the only thing the FiST wins on for interior is maybe a little more room in the back and the Recaros hold you in . Yet they feel like rocks compared to the GRC seats .😂So ya there is a lot to like about the GRC.

On the FiST it was like given all this and the fact that for all intents and purposes I would be paying 2k a year for 6 year old salvage title vehicle . It will become salvage the second the next owner pink slips it . Which I am not hiding , really made me scratch my head. While I can afford it the amount I am tossing out each year for all 3 cars was going to be steep. If I lived in a different area with lower rates it might be different. My buddy Patrick owns a condo in San Pedro and only pays $600 a year. Ya Insurance rating is wack.

I was actually surprised that the minute I listed there was someone with major interest. I guess that speaks to my build and documentation.
That makes selling it a bit easier because it brings the total of collected cash from the car up about $28k ( Yes it getting T boned and rebuilding it actually was a blessing in disguise 🤣 That pretty much translates to 3k for 6 years of driving and owning a brand new car with 10k of mods. .🤪🤣 that kind of does ease the transition away.Though ya the GRC is pretty dope .

My buddy Danny also bought one and has come to the conclusion it replaces his FiST and he was another owner who swore he was not going to buy another car and that his FiST was ultimate. After seeing mine and test driving one he bought . Then he ran the cars back to back on the Crest and came to the conclusion that The GRC could go faster on the crest than the the FiST. In 30/70 with all nannie’s off it drove completely like his FiST, but at much higher levels. He also noticed the lack of bottom end power( in the FiST) and came to the conclusion his FiST was not going to see as much use.

Am I a bit sad sure but at the same time it does not make economic sense to keep the FiST they are plummeting in value while being more expensive to own , shades of European cars trajectory.I also am quite happy to be back in a JDM car It feels like coming home.🤣

I can say the GRC is quite the chameleon car more so than a FiST. FiST is like the crazy puppy always wants to play. GRC flexes it can be that crazy puppy but then it can drive and ride like a much more expensive car, solid , quiet compared to a FiST very comfortable as well. No regrets buying one it’s a bad ass machine and the next logical step from the FiST in the hot hatch world.

So ya she just rolled away on a trailer off tto AZ with her new owner who is going to be a good owner, another forum member here. I can only hope he loves her as much as I did. I will stick around the forum . It’s been a fun place I have made new friends here. The local meets and drives were great.

So ya it made sense to let her go.

 

[gtx3076]

Cars come and go. I'm looking forward to passing mine on and getting into something more capable off road since I'm moving to the PNW. I'm also getting to a point in my life that I'm probably going to limit how much I modify my cars to consumables like tires and brakes. It's just not where I want to focus my time and money.

 

[dhminer]

Let us know if you ever need a good fisting. I’m sure the locals would oblige. Enjoy the GRC!

 

[Dpro]

Let us know if you ever need a good fisting. I’m sure the locals would oblige. Enjoy the GRC!

😂

 

[TDavis]

I'm sure a big factor in the GRC feeling more grunty down low is probably the AWD lol

 

[Dpro]

I'm sure a big factor in the GRC feeling more grunty down low is probably the AWD lol

Oh there is no doubt the AWD helps it hook up more but like the Zupra Toyota sandbagged on the numbers limit1 boosted performance , stratified plus a few other shops including Nemtec have all dropped the stock cars on the rollers and seen numbers in the 265-270HP at the wheels and a lot of these were on Mustang dynos that are known to rate low. With the AWD drivetrain there is no way you would only lose 35hp in parasitic loss it would be more like at least 70hp that pushes the car over 300hp stock that Toyota advertises. It’s not surprising though as the the same thing happened with the Zupra . So ya having lots of experience driving my S280 powered FiST I can tell you the GRC blows it off off the line. Oh and ya again I am not the only one noticing this . Danny noticed it as well.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Just imagine what the forbidden over here, ~450 lbs. lighter(?) Yaris GR feels like off the line.

 

[Dpro]

Just imagine what the forbidden over here, ~450 lbs. lighter(?) Yaris GR feels like off the line.

it’s almost 400 not 450 but ya until this year it had less power . This years has the same amount and that’s most likely nuts . Yaris 2870 My car is 3250. GR Yaris would have never sold over here anyways it’s absolutely tiny seen them in person. It was also not as much forbidden as demes completely unsellable and impractical. They sold regular Yaris’s here till 2020 . They could have done it but. it would have been completely cost impractical and Toyota would have lost a shit ton of money on it in our market. had absolutely. nothing to do with being forbidden🤣
I often wonder if they are making much on the GRC and it’s a hit selling more than any other manual vehicle Toyota sells.

 

[M-Sport fan]

By 'forbidden' I was implying that we are not allowed to have it by Toy, despite so many enthusiasts swearing that they would rob banks, or sell body organs in order to obtain one.

Either way, the GRs are effectively total 'showroom traffic generating loss leaders' given how few they will produce anyway, regardless of how much they make or lose on each one sold (when they are used to selling millions of lower Corollas).

So the minuscule size of the Yaris would not have mattered much, given it's greater performance (at least now on equal power).

True, they are selling every GRC they offer as I see at least 3-4 of them around here to every (which is NONE!) FiST I see in this area. LOL

That shocking blue/'Nitrous Blue' one (I don't know what Toy calls that color ) I had seen last week parked outside a shopping center was pretty hot, but it definitely would be attracting much unwanted attention, and that color also makes the sore point aesthetic problems of the car (to me the front clip/fascia/lights) stand out even more than on the more sedate/stealth gun metal/grey/like our Magnetic color versions.

 

[Dpro]

By 'forbidden' I was implying that we are not allowed to have it by Toy, despite so many enthusiasts swearing that they would rob banks, or sell body organs in order to obtain one.

Either way, the GRs are effectively total 'showroom traffic generating loss leaders' given how few they will produce anyway, regardless of how much they make or lose on each one sold (when they are used to selling millions of lower Corollas).

So the minuscule size of the Yaris would not have mattered much, given it's greater performance (at least now on equal power).

True, they are selling every GRC they offer as I see at least 3-4 of them around here to every (which is NONE!) FiST I see in this area. LOL

That shocking blue/'Nitrous Blue' one (I don't know what Toy calls that color ) I had seen last week parked outside a shopping center was pretty hot, but it definitely would be attracting much unwanted attention, and that color also makes the sore point aesthetic problems of the car (to me the front clip/fascia/lights) stand out even more than on the more sedate/stealth gun metal/grey/like our Magnetic color versions.

Ya they are an exercise in Toyota showing everyone what they can do if they want too. Except your opinion of the minuscule size of the Yaris not mattering is I think it would Every enthusiast came out of the wood work saying they would buy the FRS\BRZ when Toyota and Suburu unveiled them. I was at the Toyota press event in Hollywood . The first year sales were so bad though Suburu thought about pulling it after the second or third year.

On top of that numbers were so bad it killed the Nissan IDX which was a cross between a modern day Datsun 510 and 240sx coupe that was dope. Nissan saw those poor sales numbers and said no a car in that segment won’t fly. It would have been the same with the GR Yaris it would have been close to if not the same price as the GR Corolla and people would have been whining about the price as some people who don’t know any better already whine about the GR Corolla price . Plus despite you and I Toyota might be losing money on the car it’s a runaway hit for them and they are selling every single last one they make. The only reason some where sitting on lots is because of greedy dealers pushing hard ADM’s thats starting to subside though.


I do feel the Blue Flame is a little over the top and do not consider it a Hot color and Blue is my favorite color😂. Ya my Heavy Metal to me is the best color of all the colors they have for the cars. It’s literally Silver in bright sunlight and more grey at night .

Oh and ya weren’t you always anti Japanese cars at least you posted like that in the past.