Toyota added a Soul Red Crystal color to the 2025 Toyota Corolla Cross compact crossover SUV. That, and other tweaks, keep the small crossover fresh.
The 2025 Toyota Corolla Cross gets a new paint color and a few other tweaks. This marks a set of incremental updates to the brand’s smallest SUV that launched in 2022. Toyota will paint the Corolla Cross in a color named Soul Red Crystal. Well not every Corolla Cross, you need to start with either the LE or XLE trims of gas-powered units, or SE and XSE hybrids. If you want to try two-tone, Toyota will pair this new red with a Jet-black roof on the SE, XSE, and Nightshade trims of the Hybrid Corolla Cross.
Additional color combinations come to the Nightshade trim, which adds a two-tone Wind Chill Pearl with Jet-black roof combination. Toyota also tinkered with the sideview mirror cover colors. L and S trims receive matte black covers. All other trims get gloss black covers instead, as well as the same treatment for the shark fin antenna. Finally, Toyota moved a couple of badges around a bit.
BASE POWERAIN
Otherwise, the Corolla Cross largely continues on as before. Toyota offers two powertrain options. That starts with a 2.0-liter, inline-four-cylinder engine that pumps out 169 horsepower and 150 lb.-ft of torque. It bolts up to a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and then channels that power on to either the front or all four wheels.
One neat trick, the CVT includes a physical first gear, making it more directly engaging from a standstill. Then the traditional CVT bit takes over. Interesting, but, as I said in my review (see below), I wish Toyota chose a shorter first gear for a bit more punch off-the-line.
Toyota probably aimed to maximize fuel economy with its choice of ratios. And, indeed, the Corolla Cross sips fuel slowly. With all-wheel-drive, the EPA bets you’ll manage 29 miles per gallon in the city, 32 on the highway, 30 combined. For the folks that go with front-wheel-drive, those numbers increase to 31/33/32 city/hwy/cmb.
GOING HYBRID
Of course, if fuel economy is your thing, Toyota sells a hybrid version of the Corolla Cross. It also happens to deliver a lot more power and standard all-wheel-drive. That powertrain also starts with a 2.0-liter inline-four-cylinder but adds three-electric motors to the mix. One of those motors hangs out on the rear axle to provide propulsion in back.
In total, you get 196 horsepower from the fifth-generation Toyota hybrid system, and an undisclosed amount of torque. The engine itself provides 139 lb.-ft, the electric motors likely offer more than that. But Toyota kept mum on the grand total.
This is exactly the same powertrain the Toyota offers in the latest Prius. I recently drove the front wheel drive version of that and quite liked it.
Toyota says with this powertrain mounted, you’ll hit 60 miles an hour from rest in eight seconds flat, not bad. And, if you keep a light right foot, expect to get 45 miles out of a gallon of gas in the city, 38 on the highway, 42 combined. Beneath the Prius, of course, but healthy numbers for its class.
USEFUL CROSSOVER
The base price for a 2025 Toyota Corolla Cross L is $25,385, which is competitive for the class. At little more than 175 inches long, the Corolla Cross is a nimble, space efficient, useful little crossover. You get 24 cubic feet of cargo space behind the second row and 62 cubic feet with it folded. In my review, I found it versatile, useful, and practical.
No, car enthusiasts will not enjoy using it to rip through their favorite back roads. There’s not much for the off-road curious either, this is about as far away from a 4Runner as you can get. But even they will appreciate just how useful it is for everyday life.
And now, it will do it all with a touch more flair.
