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Finally, Toyota reopens order books for 2023 GR Yaris, but how long will they last?

Toyota has already found buyers for more than 2200 units of the GR Yaris since its local launch.

Toyota Australia has managed to secure another allocation of its GR Yaris hot hatch to fill additional orders, with pricing remaining unchanged.

For at least the next 12 months, there will be only another 160 units of the Toyota GR Yaris available for order, following the long pause in orders that begun in July 2021 due to excessive demand.

A statement from Toyota notes that the previous orders have all been fulfilled, and it’s prepared to take orders for the next batch of 160 cars from October 10.

It expects the cars to be snapped up quickly, even stressing that not every Toyota dealership will have a GR Yaris to sell. With more than 300 dealers and only 160 cars, this shouldn’t be a surprise.

Pricing for the Toyota GR Yaris remains the same as the most recent of the previous 2200 cars sold in Australia. For the standard GR Yaris, this means $49,500 before on-road costs, while the more focused GR Yaris Rallye will set buyers back $54,500.

Toyota hasn’t specified how many of the allocation will be Rallyes, though it will no longer include a numbered plaque as it previously did.

Rallyes will also now be able to be had in Glacier White, Tarmac Black, and Feverish Red as opposed to just Frosted White pearlescent as before.

Mechanically, the GR Yaris keeps the same 200kW/370Nm outputs from its turbocharged 1.6-litre three-cylinder petrol engine, sending drive to all four wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox.

Toyota Australia vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley said the extra allocation of cars was locked in after a year of discussion with Toyota HQ in Japan.

"When we first launched the GR Yaris, we believed it would generate plenty of interest but even we were surprised at the phenomenal level of customer demand," he said.

"So we have worked hard with our parent company in Japan over the past 12 months to secure these additional 160 vehicles.”

Since the GR Yaris was introduced in November 2020, Toyota Australia has sold a little more than 7100 units of Toyota Yaris overall, meaning the 2200 GR Yaris sales make up approximately 30 per cent of total Yaris sales.

It’s an indication of sales success for Toyota’s growing range of GR sports cars, coupled with the almost 150 Supras and more than 200 Toyota 86s sold in the last two years, during which neither was new to the market. 

On top of that, 92 new GR86s were sold in September 2022 alone, essentially kicking off sales again for the 86 in Australia.

Also inbound to bolster Toyota’s sales for its sports car sub-brand is the GR Corolla, with the first of its initial 500-unit allocation expected to lob here in the first quarter of 2023 with a more powerful 220kW/370Nm version of the 1.6-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder found in the GR Yaris.

Chris Thompson
Journalist
Racing video games, car-spotting on road trips, and helping wash the family VL Calais Turbo as a kid were all early indicators that an interest in cars would stay present in Chris’ life, but loading up his 1990 VW Golf GTI Mk2 and moving from hometown Brisbane to work in automotive publishing in Melbourne ensured cars would be a constant. With a few years as MOTOR Magazine’s first digital journalist under his belt, followed by a stint as a staff journalist for Wheels Magazine, Chris’ career already speaks to a passion for anything with four wheels, especially the 1989 Mazda MX-5 he currently owns. From spending entire weeks dissecting the dynamic abilities of sports cars to weighing up the practical options for car buyers from all walks of life, Chris’ love for writing and talking about cars means if you’ve got a motoring question, he can give you an answer.
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