‘Toyota brings back affordable Starlet, including fast GR version’

Could today’s youth enjoy a full hot hatchback without racking up more debt? Maybe Toyota is developing something for this. The brand is Japanese Best Car working on something good: the return of the affordable Starlet. I’ve never heard of it? Then touch your father.

‘Why should I trust a random Japanese news site?’, we hear you think. well, Best Car he also predicted that GR Corolla and GR Yaris will come. Back to the car, because according to the Japanese medium, the plans are already well underway. Starlet is brand new, but it wasn’t Starlet at first.

The new Starlet should not have been called Starlet

The original plan was to release a new car this year. The car was supposed to be on the DNGA platform. The acronym stands for Daihatsu New Global Architecture. If you’ve been following the news at all, you know that Daihatsu had a big problem. Now offering a car and link to Daihatsu; Toyota doesn’t like that. A new model was already on the way, but it has now been completely redesigned and should not go on sale until 2026.

The Japanese website already has a lot of specific information about the car, such as its dimensions (length 3.68 meters, width 1.665 meters and height 1.525 meters) and weight (less than 1,000 kg). Under the hood will be a 1.0 liter combustion engine that will be assisted by an electric motor. The Japanese price for the entry-level model should be between 1.5 million and 1.8 million yen. This amount is between 8,900 euros and 10,700 euros.

Toyota Starlet GR also has GR Yaris engines

Best Car says the starlet’s return is not the biggest shock. In addition to the standard model, a sportier version will also be offered: the GR Starlet. The development of this has already started. The more powerful Starlet would be slightly larger than the regular version and would also have a different drivetrain.

We asked for GR Starlet, but this seems to be a public version | Image: © OpenAI/FROM–E

Toyota won’t want a hybrid powertrain for this, just a combustion engine. The brand would remove the engine from the GR Yaris and reduce the cylinder capacity from 1.6 liters to 1.3 liters. That should be enough for the three-cylinder to produce about 150 hp. More than enough for a cake weighing less than 1,000 kg, we think. The car should cost about 15,000 euros there, but feel free to triple that.

The new Toyota Starlet will be featured

Just like the Yaris, Toyota wants to use the new Starlet in rally driving. According to the source, the goal is to use a small rally car in the Rally 4 group. Soon rally teams will be able to purchase a special edition GR Starlet to use in rallies. In this category, Starlet can compete with public versions of Peugeot 208, Renault Clio and Kia Rio. Hopefully there will be confirmation from Toyota of all this good news soon.