If you're like us, you're probably a big fan of the European-market Toyota GR Yaris (short for Gazoo Racing). The pint-sized hatchback packs a turbocharged 1.6-liter engine good for 257 horsepower (192 kilowatts) and 266 pound-feet (361 newton-meters) of torque, a six-speed manual, and all-wheel drive. Given that we don't get the same Yaris as Europe, though (ours is Mazda2-based), there's no chance that the feisty five-door makes its way Stateside. But we will get... something, Toyota suggests.
A vague tweet from the Toyota USA Twitter account notes that, "while the GR Yaris isn't hitting the States... perhaps it's time the U.S. got a hot hatch to call its own." The company then encourages fans to sign up for updates on upcoming Gazoo Racing products at this link, which shows the not-for-us Yaris GR at the top of the page, ironically.
By all accounts, this is the first time that Toyota has confirmed (or nearly confirmed) a GR product for the U.S., though we've suspected as much given the company's recent trademark filings. Back in early April, Toyota filed for "GR Corolla" and "C-HR GR-Sport" trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Both of those filings imply that sporty variants of the Corolla and C-HR subcompact crossover might be on the way. And the former could be the car Toyota is hinting at in this tweet.
But we won't know anything until Toyota officially pulls the cover off of the proposed "hot hatch," which hopefully happens sooner than later. What we do know is that the company has previously confirmed a performance variant of pretty much everything it sells – again, via Twitter. We've already seen what performance versions of the Avalon, Camry, and RAV4 are like, but who knows, maybe that commitment even carries over to cars like the Prius and Sienna, too.
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