Following its introduction in Thailand in January, the Toyota Corolla Altis GR Sport has now entered the Philippines. According to Autoindustriya, the new variant is priced at 1.302 Philippine pesos, making it PHP 87,000 more expensive than the 1.6 V CVT sold in the country – choosing the White Pearl finish is an additional PHP 15,000.
For the premium, the Corolla Altis GR
Sport comes with a new front bumper that features a wider lower grille, joined
by fake vertical corner air intakes and gloss black strips in the upper grille.
There are also side skirts and a rear bumper lip with diffuser-like fins, while
the 17-inch alloy wheels come in a special two-tone design. Moving inside, red
contrast stitching is applied on the leather seats, steering wheel and centre
armrest, while in other areas like the door handles, there are red accents as
well. To add to the sporty aesthetic, a GR engine start button, paddle shifters
and GR-branded floor mats are also included in the kit list. As the new variant
is based on an existing one, it gets the same features as the 1.6 V CVT,
including a powered driver’s seat, a seven-inch multi-info display, automatic
air-conditioning with rear vents, LED headlamps, rain-sensing wipers, keyless
entry, an eight-inch touchscreen head unit (with Android Auto and Apple
CarPlay) and a six-speaker sound system.
The powertrain is the same too, with a
1ZR-FE 1.6 litre naturally-aspirated four-cylinder Dual VVT-i engine pushing
out 121 PS at 6,000 rpm and 153 Nm of torque at 5,200 rpm. Drive goes to the
front wheels via a CVT with a manual mode. In Thailand, the Corolla Altis GR
Sport can be had with a 2ZR-FBE 1.8 litre NA engine or a 2ZR-FXE 1.8 litre
hybrid powerplant.
On the safety side of things, the Corolla
Altis GR Sport improves upon the 1.6 V CVT by being the first non-hybrid
variant to come with the Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) suite of systems. These
include Toyota’s Pre-Collision System, Automatic High Beam, Lane Tracing
Assist, Lane Departure Alert, Dynamic Radar Cruise Control and blind spot
monitoring. These join other standard items like seven airbags, ABS, VSC, hill
start assist and a reverse camera.
