Toyota Australia is taking a page out of Ferrari’s playbook for its limited-run GR Corolla Morizo Edition to ensure its flagship hot hatch will end up in the hands of enthusiasts, rather than collectors, speculators and scalpers.
Only 25 Morizo Editions have been locked in for Australia, each with a $77,500 pricetag before on-road costs, but you might still be able to get one as Toyota has only begun the customer allocation process.
The process, as Toyota Australia Senior Product Public Relations Specialist Sam Dabestani explains it, involves a vetting process to ensure a higher likelihood the Morizo Edition will be used at local track days.
“We’re very strongly encouraging our dealers to look at the expressions of interest, look at the purchase history of customers, how they intend to use the car, whether they’re members of racing clubs – if it’s Toyota products that they’ve owned, whether they’re members of the Gazoo Racing Club – and essentially, work hard to ensure that the cars are ending up in the hands of enthusiasts,” he told CarsGuide.
When asked if this process was designed to eliminate the scalpers or speculators looking to flip the limited-run Morizo Edition for profit, Dabestani said “absolutely”.
“It’s our strong desire that the Morizo Edition, as with the [GR Corolla] GTS, ends up in the hands of enthusiast buyers,” he said.
“To your point, 25 units is an extremely limited amount of vehicles, so we really do want to ensure that the process for allocation of those vehicles is as rigorous as it can possibly be.”
Only 200 units of the Morizo Edition will be made worldwide in 2023, and Dabestani would not be drawn on whether more could make it Down Under in the future.
“At the moment, we’re committing to 25 units for Australia, that’s not to say that there won’t be further units in the future,” he said.
“But at the moment, we can commit to 25 units.”
The allocation process is already underway, according to Dabestani, with hopeful Morizo Edition customers expected to be contacted to make a purchase soon.
“Wholesale of the car is beginning from today,” he said.
“So, customers, those who have been allocated a vehicle through that vetting process, they will be contacted by dealers starting from now, and so deliveries will begin essentially from now.”
However, Toyota has had over 5600 expressions of interest for the GR Corolla, including the Morizo Edition, meaning demand is far outstripping supply.
As a reminder, the Morizo Edition is a more hardcore, track-focused variant of the spicy GR Corolla hot hatch.
Changes to the Morizo Edition include the removal of the rear seats, a carbon-fibre reinforced plastic roof, lightweight wheels, stickier tyres and a 30Nm boost to its 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine – now 220kW and 400Nm.
Keyword: Enthusiasts only: Toyota Australia wants you to take its limited 2023 GR Corolla Morizo Edition to the racetrack, prioritising allocation to drivers, not investors