Corolla Sedan

Make
Toyota
Segment
Sedan

The humble Toyota Corolla has never enjoyed massive popularity amongst the aftermarket tuning crowd. But the Japanese carmaker, famous for producing sports car legends such as the 86 and Supra, is making headwind in this segment by offering more driver-focused cars and making their humble people carriers look more sporty.

Toyota's first step in making the Corolla range more appealing to the aftermarket crowd will be to offer the 2021 Corolla with a new Special Edition package, while the newly announced APEX sport package is planned to play a supporting role in the brand's upcoming Corolla hot-hatch model which is set to join the battle against the likes of the Honda Civic Type R.

According to Car and Driver, the upcoming APEX package will be available on SE and XSE trim levels and will be mostly appearance-based to give the Corolla some much-needed appeal in the looks department. The APEX package will endow the Corolla with three color combinations, namely all black, white with a contrasting black roof, or Cement Grey with a contrasting black roof.

These appearance changes will give the Corolla SE and XSE a more aggressive look when compared to the visually different L, LE, and XLE trims which look more pedestrian than race-ready.

Unfortunately, the appearance package is exactly that: its only skin deep. The Corolla won't see any changes made to its chassis or engine. What you get is the standard 2.0-liter naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engine producing 169 horsepower. The APEX package will retain the SE model's six-speed manual, while both the SE and XSE will be available with a CVT transmission; the opposite of fun.

From what we can tell, the only performance benefits offered by the APEX package will be a set of summer performance tires. Toyota is set to announce more details regarding this package in the upcoming months, which will hopefully come with more announcements regarding the GR Corolla hatchback.