Toyota GR Corolla vs Mercedes-Benz AMG GT

What's the difference?

There’s something immensely appealing about a car that can play two roles. 

An off-roader for the weekend and a school pick-up chariot Monday to Friday? How about a race car/grocery-getter combo?

The latter is what the Toyota GR Corolla wants to be, a slightly bigger and more day-to-day alternative to the first GR hot hatch, the Yaris.

Both of these cars have now been updated and are arriving in Australia now, and Toyota hopes the Corolla becomes an even better car to rival the likes of the Volkswagen Golf R. 

But can it do it?

We tested Toyota’s hotted-up Corolla on road and track to see if it’s up to the task.

Once upon a time, people would dream about owning a Mercedes-Benz 450SLC – the C107 sports/luxury coupe flagship of the 1970s.

Sexy, stylish, secure and incredibly solid, it embodied the brand’s ‘Engineered Like No Other Car' mantra of the era.

Today’s all-new, second-generation, C192 AMG GT Coupe is something of an indirect descendant of this sort of thinking, changing tack from its supercar-esque 2014 C190 predecessor, with more space, more seats, more sensibility and, conversely, even more steak and sizzle from its glorious V8.

A modern-day SLC? The Porsche 911, Aston Martin DB12, Maserati GranTurismo and Bentley Continental GT’s worst nightmare? Or something else entirely?

These questions and more are answered below.