Well GLi is by far the best selling variant of the new Corolla, other variants do not sell as well. If you observe most new corollas on road these days are GLIs. Liana also has 3 variants but it does not sell well. Figures are published by PAMA(Pakistan automobile manufacturers association).
If you compare the cost and features, GLI is not so cheap. Main reason for high sales of Corolla is that the car is very popular here for quite sometime now. The car has a good resale which is the critical factor in our market. You are right that as Civic has become expensive, potential civic buyers are shifting to GLIs but other cars are available in the market also.
City offers more or less the same features as GLI at a much lower price. Even Swift has same features as the GLI plus alloys, fog lamps, bridgestone tires and immobilizer, the same also goes for Liana and sunny as well.
In my view, initially there was a lot of hype as far as swift was concerned and many people showed interest but unfortunately because the company was not allowing people to book and demanded premium/own during the time the car was launched, that discouraged a lot of potential buyers.
Now, swift is being delivered immediately with no premium but since its initial market got suppressed, it is not selling well despite having a good image in the market.
