2026 Toyota Corolla Cross Is Still Affordable And Efficient, But It Still Fades Into The Background

The Toyota Corolla model line doesn’t raise a car enthusiast’s pulse until you add the letters GR in front of it. The standard Corolla sedan and hatchback are perfectly adequate cars that offer thousands of buyers reliable and efficient daily transportation, but little excitement. The Corolla Cross came along in 2021, combining the Corolla’s dull-but-dependable demeanor with a taller crossover body and the all-important elevated seating position that modern buyers demand. Again, it didn’t raise a single pulse, but it has served nearly 300,000 uninspired drivers very well.

Toyota gave the utilitarian gas-only Corolla Cross a subtle refresh for 2026, with a revised front grille that Toyota insists is more rugged while the hybrid gets a weird body colored grille, and both get a larger optional infotainment screen, new wheel options, and a new paint color. It ain’t fancy or particularly impressive, but these updates should help the Corolla Cross better face its stiff competition like my favorite, the Subaru Crosstrek, or the Hyundai Kona, Chevrolet Trax, and Honda HR-V.

Full disclosure: Toyota flew me up to Sonoma to sample its exciting GR model lineup, as well as the gently refreshed 2026 Corolla Cross. Toyota put me up in a lovely hotel and fed me lots of delicious food and drinks for a few days, but none of these niceties influenced my reviews. I only had a very brief amount of time behind the wheel of the new Corolla Cross, but here’s what I learned in that short time.

The updated Corolla Cross offers no surprises, aside from its impressively low price, which I think is its biggest asset. The front-wheel-drive gas-only Corolla Cross starts at just $26,130 (including $1,495 destination), while the Corolla Cross Hybrid starts at $30,490 with standard all-wheel drive. Combined with its exceptional predicted reliability and resale values, the Corolla Cross represents a good value, and both powertrain options are only $600 more expensive than last year.

All 2026 Corolla Crosses come standard with a 7-inch digital gauge cluster and an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, rear climate vents, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, LED headlights and taillights, and Toyota’s Safety Sense 3.0 system, which includes full-speed adaptive cruise control and lane departure alert with steering assist as well as automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection. Shoppers can upgrade to a new 10.5-inch infotainment screen and a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, as well as add blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert.

It’s not an exciting or exhilarating vehicle to drive, but the Corolla Cross is totally benign and easy to get along with at low speeds. The CVT is smooth, there’s a good view of the road ahead (and good visibility all around), and most of the controls are easy to acquaint yourself with. But as speeds increase, there’s a lot of engine noise that permeates the interior, and even more tire noise. Luckily my top trim Corolla Cross XLE AWD was equipped with the optional JBL Premium Audio system, which actually has good sound quality and plenty of power to drown out all of the car’s less desirable noises.

There’s no additional power for either powertrain for 2026, sadly, so the gas Corolla Cross makes do with 169 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque while the hybrid is more spritely with 196 combined electric and gas horsepower. The gas Corolla Cross is still slow, but not markedly slower than its competition from Subaru, Hyundai, or Honda. It offers sufficient shove for most driving conditions, just be sure to allow yourself plenty of time to gather momentum if you’re passing a semi on a two-lane road or merging into rushing traffic. The hybrid feels much more responsive thanks to the immediate power delivery from its rear-mounted electric motor.

The Corolla Cross handles. That’s the best way to describe it. The crossover isn’t exciting, fun, or playful, but at the same time it doesn’t feel like it’ll understeer off the road or roll over in high winds. Its driving dynamics are totally sufficient, especially for the “I just want a car with Apple CarPlay that gets me from point A to point B” crowd that’s likely to purchase the vast majority of Corolla Crosses.

It makes up for that by returning good gas mileage. Toyota estimates gas-powered FWD Corolla Crosses return 31 mpg city, 33 mpg highway, and 32 mpg combined. Adding AWD to the nonhybrid Cross drops those numbers by two mpg each on most trims. Opting for the AWD hybrid powertrain brings a significant improvement in fuel efficiency — it should return 46 mpg in the city, 39 mpg on the highway, and 42 mpg combined.

I found the 10-way power adjustable front seats on my XLE-grade test car to be spacious and comfortable, but I can’t speak to the comfort of the standard 6-way manually adjustable driver’s seat in lower trims. All of the front-seat arm rests in the Corolla Cross are poorly padded and made my bony elbows ache almost immediately, though. Thanks to the Corolla Cross’ upright shape, the rear seat offers reasonable legroom if front seat occupants are willing to scoot forward a bit, and a good amount of headroom.

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Rear cargo capacity is about 17 cubic feet behind the second row of seats in the hybrid and AWD gas models, which expands to 44 cubic feet with the rear seats folded. Foregoing AWD on the gas-only Corolla Cross bumps that space up by two cubic feet in each metric. The cargo area is wide and square, which helps make it easily usable, but its dimensions are two cubic feet smaller than the Subaru Crosstrek’s with the rear seats up, and 10 cubic feet smaller when the back seats are folded down.

From my brief time in the refreshed 2026 Corolla Cross, I found no major qualms with the car, but on the other hand, there was nothing that excited me or made me feel drawn to it, either. It’s a very logical choice thanks to its low price, fuel economy, functionality, and exceptional reliability and resale values, but man is it dull. The hybrid powertrain livens things up a bit and returns exceptional fuel economy, so if you must have a Corolla Cross I’d recommend forking over the extra dough for the electrified powertrain.

In a crowded and competitive segment of subcompact crossovers that includes the similarly dull-but-functional Honda HR-V, the flashy Hyundai Kona, the sleek Mazda CX-30, the cheap Chevrolet Trax, and the likeable Subaru Crosstrek, the Corolla Cross fades into the background. But for those buyers who don’t care about personality and champion simplicity, usability, reliability, and efficiency above all, the 2026 Toyota Corolla Cross is a perfectly reasonable choice.

Logan K. Carter/ Jalopnik