Toyota Corolla refreshed for 2023

TOYOTA has introduced its refreshed MY23 Corolla hatch and sedan range to Australia with a new starting price of $28,130 plus on-road costs and a “raft of upgrades” including Toyota Connected Services functionality, a new multimedia system and its latest fifth-generation petrol-electric powertrain.

Quiet deletion of the manual gearbox option, as well as price rises of between $2425 and $3785 depending on variant, mean it is now $4235 more expensive to get behind the wheel of a new Corolla Ascent Sport, all Corolla variants now arriving with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) as standard.

With the introduction of a new hybrid driveline – which teams a 1.8-litre petrol engine with a high-output motor/generator and lighter lithium-ion battery pack – in electrified guise the Corolla now benefits from a 13kW increase in peak power to offer a maximum combined output of 103kW 

The 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine remains unchanged with 126kW/202Nm for the hatch and 126kW/203Nm for the sedan.

Additionally, and as premiered in the new Corolla Cross recently, the Corolla hatch and sedan are now offered with Toyota Connected Services technology that enables owners remote functionality to check information including fuel level or driving range, whether the doors are locked or unlocked, and whether the windows are up or down.

Owners may also remotely perform functions such as locking the car, starting the engine and activating the horn or hazard lights. The system can even locate the car if the driver has forgotten where they parked it.

Importantly, Toyota Connected Services can also provide assistance in the event of an emergency where the airbags are deployed or if a collision is detected, by automatically notifying an emergency call centre and allowing the driver to communicate with the operator.

The system may also be activated via a roof-mounted SOS button and can even assist authorities in tracking a stolen vehicle.

On the safety front, Toyota has endowed the Corolla range with an expanded Toyota Safety Sense active safety suite, which now includes motorcycle detection, intersection collision avoidance support for crossing vehicles at left or right turns, emergency steering assist, and acceleration suppression at low speeds, while improving a range of existing features.

The system features newly improved cameras and radar sensors that Toyota says offers a “wider range for detection of obstacles or vehicles”.

Further, all hatch variants now include a blind spot monitor as standard, while lane trace assist has been expanded to include the emergency driving stop system feature that has been designed to bring the vehicle to a gradual stop if it detects the driver is no longer making vehicle inputs.

The active cruise control system has also been enhanced and now offers four distance settings, the ability to detect other vehicles earlier, and the addition of deceleration assist when changing lanes.

From a connectivity and infotainment standpoint, the Corolla range now adopts Toyota’s latest generation multimedia system featuring an 8.0-inch touchscreen display on all variants. The system includes new shortcut buttons, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, DAB+ digital radio reception and a USB-C port as standard.

The Ascent Sport hatch gains a 7.0-inch multi-information display (MID) in the instrument cluster and rear seat reminder function, while ZR variants gain a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel.

For the Ascent Sport sedan, native satellite navigation is standard on the hybrid, along with front sun visors that include illuminated vanity mirrors.

Exterior changes include new 16-inch wheels for Ascent Sport and SX grades, and a new-look grille.

Both hatch and sedan Ascent Sport variants are now available with an optional Convenience Park ($1000) that adds rear cross-traffic alert and front/rear parking sensors for the hatch, or rear cross traffic alert and blind spot monitoring for sedan.

Stepping up to the SX gets rain-sensing wipers and an electrochromatic rear-view mirror for both body styles, while the hatch further adds remote climate control pre-conditioning, as well as parking sensors front and rear.

Finally, as part of the MY23 upgrade, Toyota has also revised the colour palette, with Sunstone Orange and Lunar Blue replacing the existing Peacock Black and Eclectic Blue, and joining Glacier White, Frosted White, Silver Pearl, Graphite, Eclipse Black and Jasper Red on hatch variants.

If customers opt for the flagship ZR Hatch, Frosted White, Graphite, Jasper Red, Silver Pearl and Lunar Blue can also be optioned with a two-tone black roof.

For Corolla sedan variants, Dark Grey and Eclipse Black replace Ink and Lunar Blue, bringing the total number of options to eight along with Glacier White, Frosted White, Silver Pearl, Celestite Grey, Atomic Rush and Saturn Blue.

“With greater safety and convenience features and improved performance for hybrid models, the new Corolla range will give our customers greater peace of mind,” said Toyota Australia vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley.

“Corolla has long been one of Australia’s most popular passenger cars and these upgrades are set to make it even more appealing.”

2023 Toyota Corolla Hatch pricing*:

2023 Toyota Corolla Sedan pricing*:

*Pricing excludes on-road costs.