Japanese fans are interested in the rally Toyota GR Corolla need to enter purchase lottery before delivery in early 2023.
The company had planned to sell its latest hot hatch through traditional dealerships but the “ongoing COVID-19 infection and semiconductor shortages” affecting its supply chain prompted a shift to an online purchasing lottery.
The first batch will consist of 500 units of the Corolla GR in JDM ‘RZ’ specification, and a further 70 units of the wild two-seater Morizo Edition. TMC added “additional sales [will] considered when monitoring production conditions”.
The GR Corolla entry will cost 5,250,000 yen ($57,000 AUD) and the Morizo will cost 7,150,000 yen ($78,000 AUD). To give this price point a little more context, the Japanese price of a Yaris GR is 3,960,000 yen ($43,000 AUD), making it about $14,000 cheaper than its big brother in Japan.
The GR Yaris has an RRP in Australia of $49,500 before on-road costs, so if this gap is mirrored locally, then the GR Corolla could start under $65,000 – less than the Honda Civic Type R.
Don’t expect Toyota’s local division to pull the same stunt as it did with the first 1000 units of the GR Yaris, which was sold at a huge discount ($39,500) to drive fans into a frenzy and turn them into GR ambassadors.
Set to launch in the first quarter of 2023 – at this stage at least – Toyota Australia will receive just 500 units of its first year’s supply of its 220kW, manual-only, all-wheel drive Corolla, to split between its dealers.
Like Japan, GR Corolla supply for Australia is very limited. There has been no local announcement of the lottery, although Toyota’s local arm is well aware of the difficulties it will face in allocating stock through traditional channels.
“Competition for cars in the Toyota world is very keen,” said Toyota Australia’s vice-president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley, when we spoke to him in September.
“This is not a limited edition car, it’s just what we can get in the first year… Now what we have to do is manage the 500 very carefully.”
Asked if he was worried such limited supply would just rub fans the wrong way by leaving too many without cars from the first group, Mr Hanley said: “we’re just going to let people down if we don’t tell them exactly what’s going on out of the order.” .
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“The dealership knows now that they’re going to get a finite number,” he said, suggesting Toyota wants to work with its franchisees to ensure true blue fans get priority.
“… We want to make sure that this car is in the hands of true enthusiasts, people who want to keep this car, who want to drive this car.
“So we’re looking at different ways in the validity of Australian Consumer and Competition law that might allow us to make sure that this is in the right hands,” he said.
When asked whether Toyota could instruct staff at its franchised dealerships not to buy a Corolla GR for themselves, Mr Hanley paused. Furthermore, there won’t be any Toyota HQ employees interrupting each customer, or checking their intentions, he added.
“In terms of our dealer network, we certainly have a very keen dealer staff, and we certainly don’t want to turn those opportunities down,” Mr Hanley said.
“But we’re going to qualify everyone to be a fan… and we want to discourage any kind of reselling [or] short cycling… We will certainly ask our dealers to qualify every customer as someone who wants this car for the right reasons,” he added.
“Now we have to look at that process within the validity of Australian consumer law and competition law, but we really want this car to get to the right people.”
None of these responses really explain what Toyota Australia is providing, other than an aversion to opportunistic resellers.
Speculators (a sort of automotive scalper) have thrived in a car market where scarcity and all-time high demand have conspired to drive wait times to years – allowing them to prey on people for miles in line.
As detailed recently, Toyota Australia has become frustrated with buyers using shortages to cash in at the expense of genuine buyers, but it’s still looking for levers it can pull.
“We think it is very important for us to take a leadership position in this regard especially now. We’ve spent decades building trust around our brand, and it’s quite disturbing to think that we have some people short-cycling our cars to make money,” Mr Hanley opined.
“I think we need to protect, as best we can, our customers from that type of behavior… I want it to change. I want this situation to change where customers pay a fair and reasonable price based on the producer’s retail price position.”
Toyota GR Corolla technology specifications:
- Engine: 1.6 liter turbocharged 3-cylinder
- Power: 220kW at 6500rpm
- Torque: 370Nm at 3000-5550rpm (400Nm at 3250-4600rpm for Morizo)
- Gear box: Six-speed manual with rev-match function
- Drive line: Variable AWD with three torque split settings
- Claimed 0-96km/h: 4.99s
- Fuel tank: 50L
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