Just like the rest of the world, the Philippines has become an SUV/crossover country. Despite that market trend, there’s one nameplate that has consistently topped the charts year after year, and it isn’t a high-riding car: the Toyota Vios.
In fact, the Toyota subcompact sedan was the best-selling vehicle in the country in 2020, outselling the Hilux by a sizable margin.
That said, it comes with no surprise that Toyota Motor Philippines is banking on its cash cow by giving it a new top-spec variant, the Vios GR-S. Initially launched in Malaysia, the sporty sedan aims to cater to young enthusiasts who want a sporty sedan without breaking the bank.
Simply put, it’s a sporty sedan for the masses, and we’ve driven one—albeit briefly—to check what gives.
Gazoo Racing (GR) kits as standard
We all know Filipinos like dressing up their cars; that’s just embedded within our car culture. For that, the Vios GR-S already comes standard with a body kit right off the showroom. The kit includes a chiseled bumper with integrated lip and side skirts, plus a diffuser, a small spoiler, and a restyled bumper at the rear. They all complement the blacked-out door handles, 16-inch alloys, and revamped grille, giving the mundane sedan an aggressive, sporty makeover.
The best part is: Toyota Motor Philippines said these body kits can fit onto stock Vios units—just in case current Vios owners want to dress up their cars. Overall, we can say that the aesthetic additions to the Vios GR-S aren’t for those who don’t want attention.
Elevated interior
While the exterior design updates are plenty enough, the cabin, despite the same layout as the regular Vios G, gets updated as well with scattered red accents to make it look sporty. My favorites are the stitched gear lever shifter and the front semi-bucket seats upholstered with faux-leather and suede. They look great and relatively comfortable, too, plus the embroidered GR emblems on the headrests add an elevated appeal to the whole cabin.
Also new for the Vios GR-S (and for the rest of the Vios range from XE and up) is the addition of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to the infotainment system. That’s a big deal these days, considering the need for connectivity among the younger set of car buyers.
Toyota could have gone all out with the upgrades, though, but they restrained and didn’t put telescopic adjustment to the steering wheel. The suede inserts are limited to the front seats as well.
Performance upgrades (sort of)
GR-S stands for Gazoo Racing Sport, and TMP said that the arrival of the Vios GR-S means more sporty and performance models arriving from hereon.
With that said, the Vios GR-S does come with one performance upgrade to deserve its badge—a new CVT with 10 programmed ratios.
Now, don’t expect sports car-like performance from the Vios GR-S just because of the simulated gear ratios. It does, after all, come with the same 1.5-liter 2NR-FE gasoline engine found in the G variant. It only adds flexibility when you want to manually toggle gears via the paddle shifters, while also keeping the drive convenient for daily drives.
During the short drive, I tested how the new gearing behaved and the paddle was responsive to inputs. You just need to get used to the fact that the higher number of gears means shorter ratios, ergo, downshifting while headed toward a corner would mean multiple pulls on the left paddle for more effective engine braking.
There’s just one elephant in the room that needs to be discussed. The Vios GR-S that was launched in Malaysia last year does come with sporty suspension tuning. Unfortunately, the Philippine-spec version does away with that upgrade; but it wasn’t a surprise considering that the new Vios variant is still made in the Philippines, as with the rest of the range.
Initial overall impressions
The new Toyota Vios GR-S may not be the sporty sedan that you’re expecting given the GR creds that you’ve read about before (hello, GR Yaris). But it is a great introduction to the new GR brand—an affordable one at that.
The Vios GR-S only sells for P1,020,000 for the non-White Pearl variant, which isn’t bad at all considering that the old Vios G Prime almost reached the P1.1-million mark—and that didn’t even come with nice semi-bucket seats and CVT with 10 “gears.”