I have driven the Corolla hatch.. the 2.0L with a launch gear for sure seems quicker at start when you compare with launch of Civic hatch or sedan with conventional CVT and turbo. The CVT with regular first gear setup is only for 2.0L engines , which I thing we will never see for PKDM.. The high revving at launch which is typical with CVT with pronounced sound is very limited in case of this new transmission setup.
The hatch share exact same setup as far as suspension with sedan. The new corolla sedan is 45mm lower than previous sedan and with new multilink suspension I can assure you the driving dynamics would be way better than past. Now question is if PKDM Corolla would be that low.. I have driven a PKDM civic and that too is about 20mm higher than USDM Civic and I could feel the diffrence..
So, if a USDM is praised, its praised for its handling and problem is what happens when these praised cars dynamically changed when introduced in local PK market , add poor quality tires.