Payne: Corolla FX Hatch brings affordable Toyota X-citement
Posted by Talbot Payne on April 9, 2026

Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Oakland County — After a couple of somnolent performance decades while it nerded out on hybrid hegemony, Toyota has awakened from its slumber. Formula One partnership with Haas, GR86 sportscar, GR Corolla hot hatch. Huzzah.
The latest espresso shot is the 2026 Corolla Hatchback FX Editon burning a hole in my driveway.
You can see it from space. Orange paint, white wheels, giant aerofoil hanging off the rear hatchback. The FX Edition hatch follows on the limited-edition FX sedan introduced last year and is a more direct homage to the 1986-88 Corolla FX16 hot hatch from a hot decade of ‘80s culture: Top Gun, DeLorean DMC-12, ZZ Top, Audi Quattro, Pac-Man, Ferrari F40. But whereas FX16 was a sleeper hellion to take on the Volkswagen Golf GTI, FX Edition flips the script with its gym bod, and … standard 169-horse Corolla 2-liter under the muscle shirt.


