Think the Toyota GR Corolla is too similar to an Impreza WRX? It's because President Toyoda has a Subaru

Imagine a Japanese five-door hatchback with flared wheel arches, makes 300 plus PS and drives all four wheels via a permanent four-wheel drive 6-speed manual transmission. Ten years ago there’s only one model that comes to mind, the Subaru WRX STI hatchback.

Well Subaru no longer makes a WRX STI hatchback. Not only that, the company has confirmed that the latest generation 2022 Subaru WRX - now only available as a sedan, with the Impreza name already dropped since 2014 – will not be available in the highest STI specifications.

Instead, the current generation WRX will be the last as we know it, as producing a hotter STI version has become too expensive in today’s carbon neutral-direction heading world. Subaru has also said that a hybrid STI is being explored.

Also, USA's and Europe’s fleet-wide average CO2 emission metric also means that the emission of every one STI needs to be offset by many more units of low / zero emission hybrids or battery electric vehicles, which Subaru don’t sell a lot.

Not for hybrid king Toyota though. Enter the Toyota GR Corolla.

It is not a coincidence that the Toyota GR Corolla is modelled after the Subaru WRX STI hatchback.

But don’t for one moment jump to the conclusion that just because Toyota owns 20 percent of Subaru, that Toyota has coerced / forced Subaru to stop making the WRX STI to make way for the GR Corolla.

No. The reality is that Subaru simply cannot afford to build a new WRX STI even if it wants to.

To offset the STI’s higher emissions, Subaru would need to buy carbon credits or sell more hybrids / EVs, neither of which a viable option for the cash-strapped Subaru Corporation (SBC), formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries.

Meanwhile, Toyota’s hybrids dominate taxi fleets in major cities around the world, not just New York and Singapore but also places like Phnom Penh, despite the latter being never part of the plan.

Toyota's boss Akio Toyoda is a car nut who also holds an FIA Class C international competition license. He races under the alias Morizo.

Yes, the boss of a company that makes ‘uncle’s cars’ is also the world's only CEO of a car company who is skilled and confident enough to race the cars he sells on international level motorsports, not just on track, but also on off-road rally course.

Between Toyota’s GR, BMW’s M, Mercedes-Benz’s AMG, or Audi’s RS, or even Volkswagen’s Golf R – you should know by now who is the fake poser and who is the genuine top dog who drives like he talks.

To improve his driving skills, President Toyoda needs a car to practice in. He is already a familiar figure in Japanese rally events, participating in a rally specs Toyota 86 but to race in higher category classes, Akio Toyoda needs a 4WD rally car to practice in, which at that time, Toyota didn’t make.

With no 4WD rally car from Toyota, in comes a white Subaru Impreza WRX STI hatchback.

Akio Toyoda has mentioned many times that he is a big fan of Subaru and prior to launching the GR Yaris, has candidly said that he practices rallying with a Subaru.

The Toyota President’s Subaru has already made several cameo appearances in Toyota’s marketing materials in Japan but since they’re all in Japanese language, it’s lost on fans living outside of Japan.

Whether the white WRX STI is Akio Toyoda’s personal car or is just one of the many competitor benchmarking cars owned by Toyota’s R&D outfit is still unclear.

Unlike other car company bosses, President Toyoda does not agree that it’s a bad thing to drive cars made by competitor companies. In fact, Toyota’s public relations team in Japan confirms that President Toyoda drives different cars made by various companies on a daily basis.

They explained that President Toyoda is always training to improve his senses on cars, and driving a wide variety of cars made by Toyota’s competitors is an important part of that process.

In one video commercial published in Japan, Akio Toyoda met up with Japanese actor Takeru Satoh, to talk about Gazoo Racing. In that video, Akio appeared in a white Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

"This is a Subaru, but I'm the president of Toyota," he told Sato, who then replied, "I never thought that the president of Toyota would make such a violent drift."

Toyota’s public relations team also explained that when the video was shot, the schedule overlapped with the President’s testing of the Subaru, so Akio Toyoda decided that he will simply appear in the video with the Subaru - who is already building the GR86 for Toyota and co-developed the electric Toyota bZ4X anyway – as it fits into the overall objective of promoting the love for cars and motorsports.

Akio believes that communicating that driving competitor vehicles is part of Toyota’s efforts in making “Ever-better cars” is good for the company, and that was it.

Earlier this year, Akio broke protocol when he visited Nissan's booth at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon, sitting inside a Nissan Z and even went on a test drive with Nissan Chief Engineer Hiroshi Tamura. He also thanked Nissan CEO Makoto Yuchida for keeping the spirit of sports cars alive.

Also read: What did Toyota’s President; Akio Toyoda, say after sitting in the Nissan Z?

Last week, he also sent a congratulatory video message to Honda for the 60th anniversary of the Honda-owned Suzuka circuit.

In 2020, Akio Toyoda visited Subaru's President Tomomi Nakamura in his office, and also took the opportunity to answer questions from Subaru staff regarding the future of Toyota and Subaru's partnership.

There, President Toyoda also mentioned his love for the Impreza WRX STI.

Akio even gave President Nakamura a 'taxi ride' in his Impreza and for a brief moment, we got to see what a serious competition car Akio's Impreza is.

President Nakamura even remarked that Akio's Subaru is pretty beat up and looks every bit like a genuine rally driver's car. "Perhaps there are some aspects the he loves Subaru more than we do," said President Nakamura.

Even though both Toyota and Subaru are partners in developing the all-electric Subaru Soltera / Toyota bZ4X, Akio Toyoda told Subaru staff that he is committted to protecting Subaru's identity. "I am sure AWD and Boxer engines that Subaru is known for will continue to survive," he said.

Speaking of rally, in 2018 Akio Toyoda participated in the shakedown test of the company’s Dakar Rally Toyota Land Cruiser in the Sahara desert.

Why the focus on rallying? It’s because Akio Toyoda believes that rally stages are very similar to roads that customers regularly drive on.

Toyota’s philosophy of building ever-better cars is less about putting more and more power, but to understand the situations customers in different parts of the world have to drive on, and how can Toyota make ever-better cars – from a humble Toyota Corolla Altis to a fire breathing GR Corolla to a cargo hauling Toyota Hilux.

Why ‘ever-better’? Why not ‘best’? Because ‘best’ implies an end goal, a fixed target, while ‘ever-better’ is an endless process, a continuous, lifelong journey of learning that never ends.

That deep understanding on road conditions is also why a single Toyota Hilux once trolled five Mercedes-Benz G-Class(es) on one of the world's most punishing trail. So much for the Mercedes being a military vehicle, when the Hilux used was a showroom unit.

Also read: 10 years ago, Mercedes took the G-Class to Australia’s toughest route, only to be trolled by a Toyota Hilux

Prices of the Toyota GR Corolla will only be announced later this year. The Volkswagen Golf R- and Honda Civic Type R-rivalling mega hatch makes 304 PS and 370 Nm from a 1.6-litre turbocharged 3-cylinder G16E-GTS shared with the GR Yaris.

It will be sold exclusively with a 6-speed manual transmission.

Meanwhile, we can confirm that UMW Toyota Motor will be launching the Toyota GR Corolla in Malaysia next year, together with the Subaru-built 2023 Toyota GR86 (but not necessarily simultaneously).

However unlike the 25,000 units-only, World Rally Championship homologation Toyota GR Yaris, the Toyota GR Corolla is not a limited production car.

It’s also based on a regular Corolla hatchback, so prices should in theory, be lower or similar to the GR Yaris. The keyword here is ‘in theory,’ as prices have yet to be announced.