Toyota Astra Motor, the distributor of Toyota vehicles in Indonesia has, overnight decided to slap the hallowed Gazoo Racing (GR) badge on its regular cars, a move that will make fans of pure-bred GR cars like the GR Yaris, GR Supra, GR86 go queasy.

At least when Malaysian distributor UMW Toyota Motor introduced the Vios GR-Sport (a legit brand sitting one spot below pure GR cars), it had an upgraded chassis with fine-tuning done by local racing ace from the Toyota Vios Challenge one-make race’s Tengku Djan, and a remapped transmission software for the CVT.

It’s not quite a race car for the street, but at least some work was done on it.

Indonesia’s move however, is simply a renaming exercise, with the previous TRD Sportivo variant’s badge swapped out for the GR Sport. For most of the models, there’s hardly any styling change too. In the case of the Yaris, only the rear spoiler and bumpers' lower lip.

The images below show difference (more like showing the lack of difference) between our local Yaris and Indonesia’s Yaris GR Sport.

If there’s one saving grace, it is that the Yaris GR Sport can also be had with a 5-speed manual transmission, apart from a CVT, and no it’s not a poverty specs car either, 7 airbags is included.

The 2NR-FE 1.5-litre Dual VVT-i engine remains unchanged, producing 107 PS / 140 Nm.

Prices for the Indonesian market Toyota Yaris GR Sport range from IDR 268,800,000 (about RM 78.9k) for the MT 3-airbag variant, to IDR 273,400,000 (about RM 80.3k) for the MT 7-airbag variant, to IDR 284,000,000 (about RM 83.4k) for the CVT 7-airbag variant.

For reference, the Toyota Yaris's price in Malaysia ranges from RM 70,940 to RM 84,808, prices valid until 31-December 2021.

To recap, Toyota’s Gazoo Racing hierarchy is split into two tiers. Sitting right at the top after pure GR cars like the GR Supra, GR Yaris, and GR86. Unlike their German equivalents, there are no regular, non-GR variants of these models.

Sitting one step below GR is GR Sport, analogous to Mercedes-Benz’s AMG Line or BMW M Performance – regular cars with upgraded chassis, featuring sports suspension and additional chassis bracing.

Also read: Review: 2020 Toyota Vios GR-Sport - The ride and handling champ in class

At least that was the original communication from Toyota Gazoo Racing. Clearly this is no longer the case.

Indonesia is not alone though, Thailand also sells a Toyota Corolla Altis GR Sport that features zero performance or chassis upgrades from the regular car. It’s just a styling package.

Then again, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have been doing the same thing for quite a while now and fans seem to be OK with it.