Toyota Taiwan has introduced the new
range-topping Corolla Altis GR Sport, a name you’d be familiar with had you
seen our earlier coverage of Thailand’s own Corolla Altis GR Sport. They may
share the same name, but the two cars are not identical.
Visually, the Taiwanese model looks more
refined, or cleaner if you will. The front fascia features a massive lower
grille with rounded fog lamps at the bottom edges, “air inlets” on the sides,
and a slightly bolder grille with a thin chrome strip and thicker black
inserts.
Like the Thai Corolla Altis GR Sport, it
too sits on 17-inch dual-tone wheels, but gains a small wind deflector behind
each wheel. Other model-specific enhancements include dark tinted tail lights
and GR Sport badges. The GR Sport variant is available for the standard Corolla
and Corolla Hybrid, the latter featuring four exterior colours – Dazzling Red,
Ebony Black, Ferret White, and Aurora Silver.
For the cabin, there’s a new two-tone
red/black leather seat upholstery (the Thai model is full black), GR embossment
on the front headrests, red contrast stitching, and shift paddles for the
steering wheel.
Mechanically, the car gets a newly
developed GR Sport suspension with thicker front and rear anti-roll bars, which
the company says improve stability and reduces body roll. Otherwise, it runs on
the 2ZR-FE 1.8 litre engine producing 140 PS at 6,400 rpm and 172 Nm of torque
at 4,000 rpm, all of which is sent to the front wheels through a Super CVT-i
gearbox with seven virtual ratios.
The hybrid, on the other hand, is powered
by the 2ZR-FXE 1.8 litre Atkinson cycle engine that makes 98 PS and 142 Nm on
its own, but is assisted by an electric motor (72 PS and 122 Nm). The total
system output is 122 PS, and it gets an e-CVT with four drive modes – EV, Eco,
Normal and Sport.
Finally, for safety, there’s seven airbags
as standard, while more expensive variants get Toyota Safety Sense which
bundles features like pre-collision system, lane departure assist, and adaptive
cruise control. Prices for the Corolla Altis GR Sport in Taiwan starts from
TWD 828,000 (US$
