5 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE Buying My 2023 GR Corolla (30 Months Later)

🔥I've owned my 2023 Toyota GR Corolla for 30 months, and while I absolutely love this car, there are 5 CRITICAL things I wish someone had told me before I bought it. From early clutch failures to excessive road noise, impossible allocations, track overheating, and daily driver compromises - this is the brutally HONEST truth about GR Corolla ownership.In this video, I break down:✅ Why the clutch fails early and Toyota denies warranty claims✅ How loud this car REALLY is at highway speeds✅ The allocation nightmare and months-long wait to even find one✅ Why it overheats on track despite being marketed as track-ready✅ Daily livability issues nobody talks about (comfort, space, quality)If you're considering buying a GR Corolla, this video could save you from expensive repairs, warranty fights, and buyer's remorse. I'm sharing my unfiltered experience after 30 months and 19,000 miles of real-world ownership.🎥 Watch This Next: https://youtu.be/RgkLs-zGxM8GR Corolla as track car: https://youtu.be/eBb4FuoLjNkHeel & Toe Pedal Modification: https://youtu.be/OMeBxiSAgXILOVE THE GARY THE CAR NUT YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND WANT TO WATCH MORE FUN AND SOMETIMES EDUCATIONAL CONTENT ABOUT SPORTSCARS, HOT HATCHES AND SURVIVOR CARS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS!1) 💬LET’S CONNECT! facebook https://www.facebook.com/GaryTheCarNut/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@gary.the.car.nut Instagram https://www.instagram.com/garythecarnut/X (Twitter) https://twitter.com/garythecarnut/2) CONTACT - 📧 BUSINESS INQUIRIES!Gary@GaryTheCarNut.com3) 🔔Subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/@GaryTheCarNut?sub_confirmation=1

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I bought my 2023 Toyota GR Corolla Circuit Edition in September of 2023. It's been about 30 months now, and although I absolutely love this car, the mechanical concerns, the noise vibration, and harshness that you deal with on a daily basis, the allocation process that I went through, the unsuitability of this car for track use, and the amount of space that the car has are definitely five things that I wish I knew before I purchased the car. Now, some of these things might seem minor, but trust me, they add up. And if you're thinking about buying a GR Corolla for yourself, the information that I'm presented today in this video podcast is definitely for you. All right, so let's start with the big one, and that's the mechanical concerns, specifically the clutch. Now, this is definitely a big one. There's been a number of uh owners that have had uh concerns. They've had to have their clutch replaced at 5,000, 10,000, or even 15,000 miles. And this is a very expensive clutch to replace. It's about $6,500 to get the work done and the for the materials. Why is it so expensive? Well, it's a pretty unique clutch in that it adjusts itself for wear. So the good point, good side of that is it's like I say, it's self-adjusting for wear. That's great. The problem is, because it's always self-adjusting, that just before it goes, it goes. There's hardly any warning before it goes. The other concern is that when the clutch goes, also the flywheel goes, the throw out bearing, and a bunch of other miscellaneous parts. So because it's about 12 and a half or 13 hours of labor, and because of those parts are several thousand dollars by themselves, it adds up to over $6,000 to have the work done. Now, the common cause for these early failures is either track use or aggressive launching this car from a dead stop. The problem is because this car has so much grip from its all-wheel drive system, the clutch takes the toll. And uh it's sort of think of it uh like a fuse or a fusible link that to protect the drive line, that clutch, something has to give, right? And what ultimately ends up happening is it's the clutch. So why is there so much wear on the clutch? Well, because it's all of the it's all wheel drive, right? So because there's there's power constantly being fed to two wheels, to three wheels, sometimes to four wheels, or just to one wheel, uh, sometimes when you're cornering in that kind of thing, something has to give. And what gives first is the clutch. Now, the other mechanical concern you may have heard about is there's some stories online about some cars catching on fire or about the engines just plain blowing up. You need to remember this is a very small 1.6 liter engine producing a massive, for 1.6 liters, 300 horsepower. So if you beat on it or you modify it, yeah, it's gonna break. This engine is significantly more powerful than any other Corolla engine, but it's also significantly more fragile. According to NHTSI, Hyundai's Kias, Chev's Fords, BMWs, Jeeps, they're way more likely to burst into flames or catch fire than Toyota's. So, what have my experiences been? Well, I have smelled clutch in my car when maneuvering it through deep snow or heading up to an incline. Something I definitely don't relish. And believe me, I've been driving manual transmission cars for over 50 years. So I know how to baby a clutch. And I can assure you that clutch smell bothers me a whole lot. And here's the scary part. Although most of these vehicles are still under warranty, if Toyota feels that the car was abused or modified and that's what led to the mechanical failure, it won't be covered under that warranty. And let's face it, many of these cars are driven hard and put away wet, and that's definitely considered abuse. Be sure to keep all of your service records and drive conservatively, especially during the break-in period. And if you plan to track or autocross this car, I definitely suggest that you upgrade to an aftermarket clutch before you have a failure. So the key takeaway here is that OEM clutch is Toyota's Achilles heel. Before you go doing those burnouts to impress your friends or taking this car on track, keep that in mind. Number two is it's noisy and it's loud. Yeah, I mean you definitely expect a performance car to be loud, right? But this car is loud in a little different way. It's not loud like a Lamborghini or a five-liter Mustang, although it does make a very cool sound uh when you start it up. But it's loud and more like a vibration and a very different kind of loud. Personally, I like the sound that it makes when it starts up and when I'm driving around town. But not everybody does. And believe me, you do get some weird looks. Now, multiple owners who've come from SUVs or economies feel that this is the loudest car that they've ever owned. So some of the noise you'll hear is the wind noise. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but there is a fair amount of whistling and wind noise as you're driving along, probably because there isn't a lot of insulation in the car to deaden that noise. There's also tire noise. The Michelin uh uh pilot sport fours that come with the car are known to be noisy cars on the highway. So if you're over at 40 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour, or higher, you definitely will hear tire noise. And if you're cruising at 60 to 65 miles an hour or higher, I I find that the overall exhaust noise at this point actually has uh has dropped quite a bit. But because of all the noise added up together, if you're having a conversation in someone in the car, yeah, you're definitely gonna be talking louder than noise. And then if you get to rough pavement or concrete, yep, it's noisy. So in addition to the the the tire noise and the wind noise uh causing it, you have to realize that this car is a very stiff structure and doesn't have a whole lot of sound, uh uh sound deadening in it. So of course there's a lot of noise coming through the car, but also that stiff structure tends to give you a lot of vibration that tends to add to the the the noise. Yeah, sure, the transmission clatters a little bit at idle um when you're sitting in the car. But keep in mind that this is much closer to a stripped-out rally car than it is to a luxury car or even an economic. So if you come from an SUV or an economy car, the difference can be day and night. Also, the extra cost of the GR Corolla over a standard Corolla went into making this car a higher performance car, not making it more luxurious, not making it a quiet highway cruiser or a more comfortable commuter. I find that interstate uh road trips are actually just fine. But you know, spirited drives on two-lane roads, that noise, I just absolutely love it. And does that extra noise affect your ability to hear the sound system? Well, we'll talk about the sound system a little bit later. So, what are some owners doing to try to get the car a little bit quieter? Well, they're switching to tire to tires that are uh quieter. Now, they aren't going to be as high performance tires, so you're gonna be giving up some grip, but that's the trade-off. Some people are adding sound deadening to different parts of the cars. I hear the rear doors, other areas under the dash, and that uh sound deadening does help above the headliner, those kinds of things. I'm not doing that. It's not that important to me, but that's what some owners are doing. But you know what? Many owners are just like me. That is, they consider it part of the experience. So the key takeaway here is if quiet cruising or commuting is very important to you, you better check this out ahead of time because that extra noise might be a lot more tiring than you think. So the third thing is the allocation nightmare that I went through when I purchased this car in uh 2022. So 2022 came. I started reading about the GR Corolla, and I thought, I definitely want one. So I went into my local Toyota dealership, who, you know, usually gives me some pretty preferential treatment because I purchased probably, I don't know, four or five Toyotas over the last 10 years there, brand new. Um, and I spoke to them about it. They had no information. They kept saying, you'll find more information in the forums and online than we have. So after a period of time, I started bugging them and I told them I'd like to put down a deposit to make sure that when they get one, I get it first. And they said, Yeah, we can take the deposit, but we have no pricing information, we have no information about colors and that kind of thing. So anyway, they took the deposit, made sure that I would get uh one of, if not the first one that the dealership uh received. Now I'm not new to the allocation process. I had gone through several years of trying to get an allocation of a Porsche 718 Spider, which I eventually did get, but I figured this had to be much easier than trying to get a Porsche GT car, right? Well, yes and no. So Toyota seems to have a strange way of uh doing vehicles, and they don't really have this allocation process uh set up uh very well. So basically, what they do is uh for a special car like the GR Corolla, they'll decide how many vehicles each dealer is gonna get and then just allocate the cars. But they don't worry too much about what color they are and uh what uh trim level they are and things like that. So they just basically send them to the dealership. Now, in 2023, there was very few GR Corollas built, and we were just kind of coming out of COVID and you know there were problems with uh supply and demand at that point. But most larger dealers um got four cores and one circuit edition. My dealer is a very small dealer in a small town, so I was concerned uh what were they gonna get. Anyway, I paid my money. I guess it was uh June or July of 2022, and uh 14 months later, I got a phone call saying that, hey, your car's gonna be arriving in the next few weeks. Uh we need you to come in and finalize the paperwork. Well, anyway, I made an appointment, uh, stopped in the next day, and lo and behold, the car was already sitting there. So it had arrived that day. Um, so yeah, it was a lot of uh now. Did I get what I wanted? I got exactly what I wanted. I got a red uh circuit edition, uh, so I was uh very pleased about getting it. Now, because I had to wait for a year, I didn't know how long it was gonna take for me to get this car, right? So I actually went out and I leased uh a brand new Nissan um I uh it was a rogue because I wanted an SUV for work and that kind of thing. This uh my GR Corolla is actually my company car. And uh so um so I leased it, but I didn't know how long it was gonna be. So luckily, when um the GR Corolla came in, I made a deal or a deal with my uh Toyota dealer because they were actually looking for cars like uh 2023 Nissan Rogue, and uh they took over the or they bought the lease out, and there was absolutely no penalty for to me. So I was super, super happy about that. But you know, it's a very different experience when you're driving a car that you've never seen except at the car show and you've never sat in, you've never driven, you know, it's a it's a weird uh process. But to be honest, it was the same when I bought my uh Porsche GT car. Mind you, what about the competition at that time? Well, I did check uh uh as I was getting a little tired of waiting for my GR Corolla and absolutely no information about when it might arrive. I phoned uh the Volkswagen dealer to find out about getting uh a Golf R. Well, they had out they were even worse. They had no idea they wouldn't take a deposit. They said it might be years before you get one. Don't don't even bug us, you know, kind of thing. They just totally sloughed me off, which I thought was uh really, really strange. And Honda, yeah, that was kind of the same story. They didn't want to have anything to do with me. But you know, it was interesting um uh watching, reading in the forums and seeing people as cars arrive and things like that. And all of a sudden you started seeing a few of them popping up at uh at the Toyota dealers, Honda dealers, and Volkswagen dealers that were slightly used, that were being sold for way above uh MSRP. Now, I live in Canada, so in Canada, they can't sell new vehicles above MSRP. So in the US, lots of you guys were paying uh five or ten or sometimes even more uh thousand dollars um ADM um additional dealer markup um to get the cars. In Canada, like I say, we can't even pay extra to get the cars. We all we can do is wait and hope that we get the cars unless we're buying used. The used ones, of course, we're selling for way more than the new ones because you could buy them right now. Yeah, I mean, during that time frame, you could see circuit editions being uh listed for $60 or $70,000 uh on the used market. There was a Mariso out there for that was a hundred thousand dollars. So yeah, people were definitely taking advantage. So, how did I make sure I secured my GR Corolla? Well, like I say, I had a great uh relationship with my dealership, and uh, and it's the same with Porsche, by the way. If you buy a lot of Porsches, the chances of getting a Porsche GT car is really good, but you also have to have them serviced at the Porsche dealer. That's the big thing, uh, which of course is very expensive. I'm sure a lot of it was the same with the Toyota uh relationship that I had because I'd purchased so many Toyotas from them over the previous 10 years and I had them serviced at the local Toyota dealership. Um, I definitely think that helped. Plus, I had a really good uh relationship with my sales rep and the dealer principle. The allocation thing, I'm sure, isn't much of a concern anymore. In fact, I'm seeing that uh people are being able to buy these cars below MSRP. So that whole thing is uh it isn't a big uh concern, uh as big a concern now as it was then. But definitely shop around. Um, there definitely are deals to be had. And if you found this video podcast helpful, click that like button and subscribe. I'm documenting my whole GR Corolla ownership journey. So the fourth thing is the track day letdown. Now Toyota markets this car as born on the track, ready for the street. And even in uh in the US, I understand they give away a free track day for a high performance driver education track day. So naturally you think it's track ready right out of the box, right? Wrong. So what happens when you drive it aggressively on the street or on the track is the transfer case or the rear deferential, it's a little bit unclear which one, overheats and then the car goes into limp home mode, which means that it all wheel drive cancels and it goes to front wheel drive only. And that can happen right in the middle of a track session, it can happen right in the middle of a corner. You never know uh when it's gonna happen. Now I'm not talking this is on hundred degree days out in the desert. This can happen at you know 60, 70, 80 degree days on an ordinary track day that you go out there for 20 minute session and you only make it through 10 or 15 minutes because of this phenomenon. So why is this happening? Well, it's because the transfer case and the drive system is manipulating that all-wheel drive. So what's happening is sometimes the power is going to two wheels, sometimes it's going to three wheels, sometimes it's going to one wheel or to four wheels. And because all that is uh going on, there's magnetic clutches that are uh releasing and um and and becoming secure, um, controlling all of that. And because of that uh that that uh use or some people might call it abuse on the track, um, it's just beyond what the the drive line system in this car is capable of handling. It overheats and then protect itself, it goes into limp home mode. Basically, the cooling for the drive system just isn't adequate for track use. So, what about the competition? Do they have the same problem? No, they don't. So the Honda Type R, it doesn't. The Golf R, nope. The Elanter N, nope, not a problem there. WRX, nope, this doesn't happen with that car either. It seems these cars were designed with enough track cooling in mind for the drive line. Where it seems the GR Corolla definitely wasn't. Me personally, I've never tracked this car, but I am a Porsche track day instructor. And one of my fellow instructors had a GR Corolla out on track, actually, a car very similar to mine, and uh there's no way they could make it through to a 20-minute session. There was no way. They went out for 10 minutes, 12 minutes, and went into limp home mode, they came back in. They tried that for one day, four sessions, and it was just a joke. They were so fed up they said they'd never bring that car uh to the track. Um, they also own a GT4, which is a much better track car. Now, luckily, I've never had any plans to track my uh GR Corolla, but a lot of other owners have been very disappointed. So, what can you do about this? Well, there are there are aftermarket solutions, or aftermarket uh coolers for the rear differential, and there's some work that can be done around the transfer case and uh and those kinds of things. Yeah, that can all be done. I mean, you're talking five or six uh thousand dollars or maybe even more. There's also seems to be a big question mark as to what exactly is the problem. Is it the transfer case or is it the rear differential? And those aftermarket solutions, how long are they gonna last? Who knows? Now, if you are planning on autocrossing or tracking the car, I definitely would suggest that you go with these uh aftermarket upgrades to the drive system to get a handle on the cooling of the drive system and to upgrade that clutch. Now, having said all that, if you are planning to track or autocross a car, I definitely think there's better solutions out there. And I do have a YouTube video that goes into that specifically, and I'll put a link to in the show notes down below. So, what can you do with the car? Well, spirited driving on the roads doesn't seem to be a concern what so whatsoever. Canyon roads, twisty roads, that kind of thing doesn't seem to be a concern for the drive line or for the clutch. If you do the occasional autocross, you might be okay. If you go to your first track day, you might be okay using the car for that. But as you get better, as you get faster, as you get more aggressive, you will have problems. So the key takeaway here is the stock GR Corolla definitely isn't track ready right out of the box. So number five is daily livability compromises. So this is a GR Corolla. So a lot of folks think of a Corolla as it's very livable, it's very easy to get along with, it's practical, and that kind of thing. But once you add GR to the whole equation, it gives up a lot of that. So what it really is is a hot rotted Corolla, and there's definitely some trade-offs. So let's start with the interior. So a $36,000 um GR Corolla Core Edition is very plain inside. A lot of hard plastic surfaces, a lot of plastic, a lot of, you know, fairly inexpensive cloth seats and that kind of thing. It's a pretty Spartan place in which to live. Now, if you step up to uh um some of the higher trim levels, like my circuit edition, it's a whole lot uh different story, um, but mostly through the touch points. Um, the steering wheel is nice in its pad, and it's also heated, which is cool. Cool, which is neat to have in a car that uh you drive in the wintertime. And this car loves drive being driven in the wintertime. But the seats have Al Cantera on them and they're trimmed with leather. So that definitely adds a lot to it. The gear shift is uh nice, the boot is uh nice leather. So, you know, like I say, the touch points are there, but don't look too closely at that dash or onto those door cards. Yeah, they definitely look cheap. And again, if we compare that to the competition, Civic Type R or the Golf R, yeah, those interiors are much nicer than in my GR Corolla Circuit Edition. Moving on to that JBL sound system. I mean, when you hear JBL, you think, oh, this is going to be a pretty decent sound system, right? Well, no, it's not. Even in the upgraded or slightly upgraded one that's in the uh circuit edition, the sound is is okay. But I mean, keep in mind the interior isn't all that quiet. So when you're cruising on the highway at uh 65, 70 miles an hour or whatever you're cruising at, um, it's noisy in the car. So if the sound isn't that great, eh, you can hear your music, you know what it is, but uh no, it's not the greatest, that's for sure. The other thing is the center armrest. When you first get into the car, not having a center armrest is definitely weird. I have to admit, it uh really threw me off uh the first few times I got into it. But I got used to it. And you know, I know you can get aftermarket ones and that kind of thing, but to be honest, I just see it as part of its character. And that puny little eight-inch uh infotainment screen when so many other cars these days have 10 or 12 inch uh systems, uh yeah, that uh that looks so much better. But again, the extra money you're paying to go from a Corolla to a GR Corolla, that money isn't going into luxury items. That money is going into performance. Yeah, and that user interface of that touch screen, yeah, it feels a little more like this is a 2018 than a 2023, that's for sure. Now it does have a wireless charging uh for your cell phone, but you have to position it exactly the right spot for that uh um uh wireless charging to work. And when you start driving a little bit spirited, there's no way that cell phone's gonna stay in that slot. No way. Yeah, wireless car play, I'd say that definitely works 95% of the time. All right, let's talk about the suspension. It's stiff. Yep, it's definitely stiff. I mean, when you see a speed bump, you're slowing way down. When it comes to potholes, yep, your passenger will definitely give you the death stare. You're definitely watching out for those potholes. They hurt. Those expansion joints on the highway, yeah, it's like riding a paint shaker. And coming up onto those railroad crossings, slow way down, because otherwise you're gonna be airborne. And you know, on the highway at around 75 miles per hour, there's a resonance or vibration that comes through the car that you can feel, but you can also hear. And as I already mentioned, those Michelin pilot uh PS4s are fantastic tires for grip. But for noise, yeah, they're noisy. Now keep in mind, but in actual use, the stiff suspension is amazing. The car stays flat, it corners extremely well, and uh and it's a lot of fun uh blasting through those twisties or through those canyon roads. But if 90% of your driving is commuting and driving on the highway, it gets old fast. So let's talk about the back seat or as I like to call it the dungeon. I mean, it's really, really small. I mean, I think there's something like 29 inches of leg room back there compared to a Corolla sedan is uh something like 35 inches. And believe me, those cars aren't uh spacious, that's for sure. So I'm six foot one. If you need to sit behind me in the GR Corolla, well, you're just not gonna do it because there is so little room, it's uh ridiculous. Yeah, I mean you can put kids back there, and because it is a four door, you do have access to the back seat. So for little kids getting them in and out of the car seats, yeah, that works. And those seat bottoms, they're firm, yeah, and they're unsupportive, but they're definitely not built for comfort. Now the cargo capacity. At 17.8 cubic feet doesn't sound that bad, right? Yeah, it doesn't sound that bad. But the problem is it isn't very tall, so it's difficult to get uh get things in there. And uh if you want to carry uh an extra set of wheels to the track or something like that, yeah, you're definitely gonna have to drop that back seat and uh space that out. And if we compare that space to the Golf R with 23 cubic feet or the Civic type R with 24 cubic feet, yeah, they have more space. Yeah, I take mine on Costco runs, but if I was going somewhere like to IKEA or something like that, I'd probably end up taking my wife's uh SUV. And speaking about a few other gripes, yeah, the transmission can grind a bit if you're shifting uh aggressively at fairly high RPM. That rev matching system does work fairly well. But if you're planning on heel and towing the car like I was, uh you definitely need to modify the pedals. And by the way, I do have a video that shows the process and how I did it. And again, I'll put a link in the show notes. And the shifter, yeah, the throw is long. It's definitely not like a civic type R, that's for sure. Those cup holders, yeah, they're shallow, and tall drinks, yep. You better grab them if you're on twist your roads because they're definitely gonna topple over. And you know, there's no actual dead pedal. So your left foot is either sitting on the floor mats or on the carpet. And those door pockets, yeah, they're fairly roomy, but they don't actually flip open. So it's tough to get stuff into and out of them. The rear window is small and the visibility is well, mediocre. Uh luckily my car has uh blind spot detection in it because it's a circuit addition, but I believe the 2023 cores didn't have blind spot detection. So you definitely have to be more aware when you're doing those lane changes. And another weird phenomenon I've noticed with this car after 30 months of uh living with it is how dirty the back window gets. And I don't mean like on really gravelly roads or super dusty roads, I mean just on any roads. I find that even when I wash the car, if I just drive it uh for five minutes on totally dry roads, when I stop the car, I look the back is all covered with uh with dust and dirt. Uh it's really weird. And it so it covers the back window, obviously, the whole back of the car, including that backup camera. So it's fine that I'm often cleaning the back window and the backup camera, even when the rest of the car is pretty much perfectly clean. So there you have it. Five things I wish I knew before buying my GR Corolla. If you beat on it, it's definitely gonna hurt your wallet. It's loud and rough, not quite unluxurious. Getting an allocation was a multi-month nightmare for me, but probably not a concern anymore. It's not truly track ready from stock. You'll need modifications. And it's a compromised daily driver. It's stiff, it's loud, tight on space, and rough on quality. But if you can live with that, it's one of the most engaging, fun cars you can buy today. If this video helped you, smash that like button and subscribe for more real world GR Corolla content. Click here for my two year review of my GR Corolla Circuit Edition, and I'll see you there. By the way, are you considering purchasing a GR Corolla? What are your biggest concerns? Drop it in the comments.