While Europe is busy playing with the new 268-horsepower 2020 Toyota GR Yaris rally special, us Americans are just going to have to wait for whatever possible hot hatchback the automaker keeps teasing us with.
While a hot version of the U.S.-market Toyota Corolla hatchback has been teased going back a couple of years now, Toyota still isn’t making any promises about its future performance lineup. But it’s still dropping hints, and the latest comes on a company webpage for the new Yaris GR for all those Americans sad they can’t get it.
From Toyota’s website, emphasis mine:
GR Yaris dominated the 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon, stirring up an outcry in North America over its absence.
And it’s easy to see why. A radical hot hatch, GR Yaris is equipped with an all-new 268-horsepower, turbocharged 3-cylinder engine; a rally-derived GR-FOUR All-Wheel Drive system; and a track-proven suspension. It’s the same engineering that helped to make TOYOTA GAZOO Racing a dominant force in the World Rally Championship.
While GR Yaris isn’t coming to the U.S., perhaps it’s time the U.S. got a Toyota hot hatch to call its own. One that continues to push the boundaries of performance. And one that can only come from TOYOTA GAZOO Racing. Are you with us?
Well, Toyota, for starters I’d like to call the GR Yaris my “own,” but it seems you’re not going to let that happen. So I will take what I can get, as usual.
A Toyota designer all but confirmed that a GRMN performance package and GRMN performance model are coming to the Corolla a year ago, and Toyota has been busy locking down performance trademarks in the U.S. lately. Another leak showed six new or refreshed models coming from Toyota through 2022, but a new hot hatch isn’t on that list. Perhaps it’ll be 2023, then.
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