Corolla Gxi (ae102) - What Are They About?

March 7, 2005

Hello all - I'm new on here today and my first message/essay is a bit about the Corolla GXi – seems to be a lot of mystery and confusion around these (kind of) rare cars, which will hopefully dispell below. Apologies if a lot of the stuff is obvious/common knowledge! If there are any fellow GXI owners out there (there must surely be some) then drop me a message/e-mail. Anyway, first, a brief history of sporty Corolla's...

AE82 = Corolla GT – Ah, the old triangle Corolla. A smart person at Toyota came up with the idea of stuffing the 4AGE power unit from the Mk1 MR2 into the Corolla hatchback to tie in with the then current trend for hot hatches. The result? A cheeky little beast that got you to 60 in about 8 seconds! No official UK Corolla has since matched the acceleration speed of this original demon (at least, not the quoted figures)!

AE92 = Corolla GTi-16 – Performance Corolla’s don’t come much better than this. Built between 1987 and 1992, the Corolla GTi WAS the Civic Type R of the day. Not only quick, but well appointed, this really was a hot hatch with class. Using between ‘87 and ‘89 a modified version of the original 4AGE used in the MR2, a cool 122bhp was available. 1990 cars onward used a further modified 4AGE lump (less TVIS, etc), chucking out 129bhp and getting you to 60 in 8.3 seconds. Revvey, fun to drive and comfortable, with a great interior for the day (the 6 gauge instrument cluster looked wicked!), but unfortunately not exactly built to last. These things rusted and bad – tailgates, sunroofs and of course, the wheel arches! Oh, forgot to mention the gearboxes that keep losing 3rd & 5th!

AE102 = Corolla GXI – I'll deal with the most common question straight away - no it is not as quick as the GTi it replaced. Using the 1.8 7AFE block (also used in the Celica ST), power had dropped from 129 to 118bhp. With the increased weight, this meant 0-60 was now 9.5 secs. If only it came with the Jap spec AE101 which had the 20V 4AGE under it’s hood (with 157 odd bhp)! This meant it didn't have the outright acceleration of the car it replaced, but it was still fairly punchy (especially considering that GTi’s were a dying breed by the time it came out – even the Golf GTi of same period was a little lethargic!) However, the bigger displacement meant that power was more useable than before, with torque coming in lower down the rev band, it was a better daily drive. Apart from these power gripes though, the rest of the car was better:

1) The GXi was far better built than the previous Corolla – finally, properly treated bodies meant no rust & everything felt thicker and better built.

2) Spec was up – ABS was standard, dash illumination was better (green ish gauges with orange needles), an arm rest, more and better storage space, more space overall (as it’s a bit bigger) standard alarm/remote locking, better trim (dash vinyl and seat colouring both improved) and nice little fog lamps in the front bumper. The standard alloys are of a nice design, but still remained at 14”. The stereo was improved and now had four Speakers (which were better positioned too!). In terms of safety, you now got side impact protection and an airbag in latter models (but these lost the leather wheel trim).

3) As well as these improved bits, you still got the following: side skirts, front spoiler, back deck spoiler, sports style seats and trim, leather steering wheel (tilt adjustable) & leather gear knob, sports instrumentation (although in reality, this was the addition of a voltmeter (pretty useless) but some nice grey-faced dials and a centrally mounted speedo. Everything was colour coded (mirrors, door handles, etc) and of course electric windows, mirrors and sunroof.

How does it drive? Well, as mentioned previously, it doesn't feel as revvy as the GTi (which I have owned two of, by the way!), but it can certainly shift when required. Ride is on the hard side, but the thing sticks to the road like glue - when my mate followed me off the motorway slip road and on to the roundabout at the top (still doing 70 odd, on a green light obviously), his Mk4 Golf GTi practically went up on two wheels! Mind you, the cost of this is that it crashes over London’s ridiculous potholes and speed bumps rather cumbersomely.

The car was discontinued in 1995, presumably due to poor sales. It’s a lovely car – and supremely reliable, but I guess had lost the sporting edge that the previous GT’s had. If only we’d got exactly the same car but with the 4AGE 20V, I believe the sales success of this car will have been a very different story.

March 7, 2005

Hi there,

A very nice rundown on the front wheel drive hot hatchs from Toyota.

To be really 'cool' could you do a run down on all the sporty Toyota corollas?

1967 KE10, 1970 KE23 SL Coupe, others would include the '74 SR, KE and TE70 GT and SR'S and of course the AE86 (And those i've just listed are only 'scratching the surface' :lol: ).