- Toyota will keep the GR Corolla’s Circuit Edition trim around for another model year.
- Originally, the 2024 lineup was limited to just the base Core and the hopped-up Morizo editions.
- It’s unclear if the Circuit will continue into 2025.
Originally, the Toyota GR Corolla‘s mid-tier Circuit Edition was supposed to exist for the hatchback’s inaugural model year alone. But now, buyers will continue to choose between three possible trims for at least one more trip around the sun.
Toyota has announced that it will bring the GR Corolla Circuit Edition back for the 2024 model year. Only 1500 examples of this trim were made available in 2023, and according to a brief press release, Toyota says customer demand shifted the company’s strategy. “When Toyota GR fans speak, we listen, and our plans are to increase GR Corolla volume and continue offering the Circuit Edition as part of the GR Corolla lineup in 2024,” a Toyota spokesperson said in a release.
Every corner of the GR Corolla lineup is an absolute hoot, but the Circuit Edition really hit the sweet spot for us. It rings in some $7000 above the base model, but it’s also $7000 cheaper than the hardcore Morizo edition. The Circuit variant lacks the tighter gearing and additional torque of the Morizo, but it still carries plenty of driver-focused goodies, like a pair of Torsen limited-slip differentials, a carbon-fiber roof, and heated sport seats wrapped in suede and leather. No matter the trim, the GR Corolla’s 1.3-liter inline-three makes a stout 300 horsepower.
Thanks to a raft of changes under the skin, the GR Corolla feels better than a simple sum of parts. During our testing, we gushed over its chassis balance, which reminded us of ’90s BMWs. Whether slow or fast, there’s always plenty of fun to be had in this hot hatch.
However, it’s unclear what changes Toyota has planned for 2024. In the release, it mentions that the 2024 Circuit Edition “will carry over some of the standard features of the 2023 model,” but it declined to get specific at this time, saying only that we’ll get more information later this year. Don’t take the Circuit Edition’s existence as a permanent guarantee, either; Toyota said 2025 model-year production is “still under consideration.”
Senior Editor
Cars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree.
