Apples and Oranges. Rattles are a product of vibrations in the car. 1KR-FE develops vibrations because of 3 cylinders. Corolla GLI has 4-cylinder VVTI and it's 1.5. Swapping the engine for 4 cylinder in the Vitz makes it similar to GLI or Swift, but much better. I believe 3rd gen Vitz has better sensors and may be manages the 1KR-FE better. Most problems people face in this car is failing to understand the car. They treat it like local cars, and do tuning and plug cleaning etc without the proper programming tool. For example if you clean the spark plugs, the car will have much more vibrations for few hours, then you will have to do idle calibration properly to get it back to normal or after cleaning the throttle body, it needs to be calibrated to work properly.
Corolla GLI is Euro 2 spec car, Honda cars are Euro 4 spec. There are some key differences in sensors and emission control between the two. Means newer updated sensors and more robust ECUs on Euro 4 Honda and newer JDMs. Corolla can be tuned by local mechanics. JDMs need special programming tools to properly tune and calibrate.
There is no better option, just your knowledge and willingness to manage the car properly.
Build quality is much better on JDMs, better seats, better plastics, more airbags, rear seat belts etc.
XLI is a better comparison to 1.0 Vitz. GLI can be compared to Honda Fit.
