Like ma-… sev-… like some people on this continent, I’ve looked at Japan’s Toyota Crown as something to envy and admire. You have to be quite high on the food chain to own a Toyota Century, but anyone with a parking space can have a Crown. It is in many ways Japan’s equivalent of a certain long-gone vehicle bearing the Crown name in the United States, down to its extensive use in fleets. So when I heard that the Toyota Crown was going to make a return to American shores, I was ecstatic. Then I saw what we get to call the Crown, and I gave it a little bit more thought.
That the Crown is an entire lineup is nothing new. It was in the sixties when Toyota realized that their vehicle was so popular that they would derive more money from creating tiers crowns, with the plutocrat-spec Crown Eight (as in V8) appearing on selected showrooms not twenty years after Japan’s surrender. Over the decades the tiers have expanded to the Crown Comfort, taxi spec and looking straight out of a photo of Tokyo circa 1988, the Crown Majesta taking the place of the Eight, and the middle-rung, middle class Crown. Or so it was.
The new Crown lineup is designed to bring the model name back from its exile in select Asian markets to global dominance. To that end, the first vehicle of the new lineup to be released was this, the Crown crossover. So…um…let’s take it from the top; It reminds me of the Subaru Legacy SUS in the worst possible way. I would like to say something positive about it, but I’m really struggling. Especially with the second punch that this model is allegedly going to be the replacement for the Avalon in the states. 50 year olds will run into the loving arms of the Lexus ES in droves.
A further point against is this, the Crown Sedan. If they had announced that this was the replacement for the Avalon, it would’ve landed with a resounding “okay”. Naturally, it appeals to me much more than the rather Germanically named “Crown Crossover”, which is a crossover about as much as the BMW X6 is a coupe.
The actual crossover is rather amusingly referred to as the Estate. I’m curious to see how it sells, as Crossovers are nothing more than a somewhat taller station wagon, but sales of them tank as soon as you make any reference to this fact. Presumably because of an uptick in visions of being strapped to a wood-paneled box and dragged halfway across the country to see relatives you don’t like.
Finally, there’s the Crown Sport type, in case you want the Crown Estate but smaller and less practical.
I freely admit to my reaction to this new lineup coming from a salty and extremely biased place. It’s my fault. I’m trying to fit the new Crown lineup in the hole where the old one used to live: a solid, staid, extremely conservative vehicle for the Japanese upper middle classes. Inoffensive in the best way. As robust and unwilling to bring unnecessary attention to itself as the average Japanese Salaryman. In an age where everything in the automotive world is being re-evaluated, I have to concede that Toyota is likely to have made the right call in bringing it to our current definition of “Normal vehicle lineup”
The other option was building it like they always had…and selling six.
