Photo: Toyota Motor Corporation
In America, Toyota has just reported its March and its overall first-quarter sales for 2024. TMNA announced deliveries of 565,098 vehicles, which is up 20.3 percent compared to Q1 of 2023. That's almost as much as GM, which announced a drop of 1.5% year-over-year to 594,233 vehicles – it just needs a gentle nudge to surpass it as America's largest carmaker.
So, perhaps, it might want to start thinking about making some forbidden fruits a part of the American lineup to gain an edge over its rivals. Looking at Toyota's home market, Japan has received new Aqua and Corolla models with partial improvements during the first days of April. Of course, the subcompact hatchback is of little to no interest in the United States, even though it too gained an interesting special edition called carZ "Raffine" along with other goodies.
Instead, let's talk about the Corolla series, which is available in three body styles – Corolla Sport (hatchback), Corolla (sedan), and Corolla Touring (station wagon). Two of them – the four-door Corolla and the practical Corolla Touring- are now available in Japan, and there is a new Active Sport special edition. The changes include a tweaked bumper, fresh 17-inch black alloy wheels, piano black accents outside, and a special color dubbed Cement Gray Metallic.
Attitude Black Mica is also used on the exterior mirror caps, and the 2WD model also gets an exclusive suspension tune. In contrast, the side steps get an 'Active Sport' script and the same distinctive Attitude Black Mica paintjob as the mirror caps. From the outside, it's going to be easy to recognize it thanks to the exclusive front bumper design, and all the changes – inside and out – seem to apply to both the sedan and Corolla Touring Active Sport estate variant.
Speaking of the interior, both variants get aluminum pedals, a synthetic leather-wrapped instrument panel, Blancnove x synthetic leather front sport seats with gray stitching, and also new features like Nanoe X air conditioning plus heated steering wheel and front driver/passenger seats. Basically, the new Active Sport edition is very close to what Corolla GR Sport models have to offer in other markets. Unfortunately, neither of them is available in the United States, which is a bit sad, frankly.
Pricing starts from 3,140,300 yen (around $20,700 at the current exchange rate) for the Corolla sedan with front-wheel drive, and MSRPs kick off at 3,388,300 yen ($22,343) for the Corolla E-Four Touring. Both variants are already up for ordering at home in Japan. Meanwhile, it's important to note that Toyota continues to fare a lot better than other carmakers in the hybrid segment in America – sales of the all-electric bZ4X were up just 11.7% throughout the first quarter, while most hybrids (Corolla HEV, Crown, RAV4 HEV, RAV4 PRIME, Sequoia, and Tundra HEV) registered their best-ever Q1 performance.
Instead, let's talk about the Corolla series, which is available in three body styles – Corolla Sport (hatchback), Corolla (sedan), and Corolla Touring (station wagon). Two of them – the four-door Corolla and the practical Corolla Touring- are now available in Japan, and there is a new Active Sport special edition. The changes include a tweaked bumper, fresh 17-inch black alloy wheels, piano black accents outside, and a special color dubbed Cement Gray Metallic.
Attitude Black Mica is also used on the exterior mirror caps, and the 2WD model also gets an exclusive suspension tune. In contrast, the side steps get an 'Active Sport' script and the same distinctive Attitude Black Mica paintjob as the mirror caps. From the outside, it's going to be easy to recognize it thanks to the exclusive front bumper design, and all the changes – inside and out – seem to apply to both the sedan and Corolla Touring Active Sport estate variant.
Speaking of the interior, both variants get aluminum pedals, a synthetic leather-wrapped instrument panel, Blancnove x synthetic leather front sport seats with gray stitching, and also new features like Nanoe X air conditioning plus heated steering wheel and front driver/passenger seats. Basically, the new Active Sport edition is very close to what Corolla GR Sport models have to offer in other markets. Unfortunately, neither of them is available in the United States, which is a bit sad, frankly.
Pricing starts from 3,140,300 yen (around $20,700 at the current exchange rate) for the Corolla sedan with front-wheel drive, and MSRPs kick off at 3,388,300 yen ($22,343) for the Corolla E-Four Touring. Both variants are already up for ordering at home in Japan. Meanwhile, it's important to note that Toyota continues to fare a lot better than other carmakers in the hybrid segment in America – sales of the all-electric bZ4X were up just 11.7% throughout the first quarter, while most hybrids (Corolla HEV, Crown, RAV4 HEV, RAV4 PRIME, Sequoia, and Tundra HEV) registered their best-ever Q1 performance.
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