The Toyota GR Corolla is a once-in-a-generation car that shouldn’t be thrashed on by anyone but its owner. Perhaps doubly so, given how Toyota has been handling its engine problems under warranty. About the worst thing any GR Corolla owner could imagine, then, is a dealer technician revving the bejeezus out of it on a cold start. Unfortunately, that seems to have just gone down at a Toyota dealer in Boston.
The incident was captured on video by LouisL44, who uploaded the footage to their YouTube channel, and arrives to us by way of Motor1. In the video’s description, the owner says they took their newly purchased car to the dealer for its first service, where their dashcam caught a technician who couldn’t operate a manual transmission mistreating their car. The technician can be seen repeatedly, violently stalling the car, and allegedly revved its engine while cold. All the while, a notification on the instrument panel warns against heavy acceleration—and by extension, any extreme treatment of the engine.
On a subsequent startup by another tech, they accelerated hard in first gear, reaching more than 5,000 rpm on a cold start. They then revved it before rapidly killing the ignition, which at least on some older cars was very bad for the turbo.
The video, which was uploaded just two days ago, does not indicate whether the GR Corolla’s owner has sought recourse from the Toyota dealer for the treatment of their vehicle. The Drive reached out to the dealer but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
In the grand scale of things, it seems unlikely these technicians will lose their job for these antics. Had they gone out and cracked 100 mph (more like 85 in the GRolla’s case), it might be another story. But good mechanics are hard to replace, so a slap on the wrist and a warranty extension might be all that happens here. If any discipline is handed down at all, that is.
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