If you’ve ever looked at a Toyota SUV and wished it could imbue a little more luxury in your life, but you’ve simultaneously felt like Lexus was simply too luxurious for you, then I’ve got absolutely fantastic news: the luxury-adjacent 2025 Toyota Crown Signia might just fill that hyperspecific niche!
Full disclosure: Toyota invited me to Coronado Island in San Diego, California for an all-out trip test driving four new or refreshed Toyota models in just two days. It was an impressive display of event organization, though I think I was most taken by the ducklings and flamingos living in the pond outside the hotel.
Here in the United States, you probably haven’t come across the Crown nameplate unless you’re already deep in the throes of automotive enthusiasm — but in Japan, it’s a big deal. Back in 1955, Toyota introduced the first Crown sedan, which makes it the longest-running nameplate that Toyota has ever had. The U.S. saw some Crown imports for a few decades, but they never quite made it beyond 1972. Over the years in Japan, the Crown has developed a reputation as a unique and luxurious Toyota sub-brand that epitomizes refinement and elegance, the kind that government officials and dignitaries love to use. The Crown sub-brand has also served as a way for Toyota to deviate from its standard design language and production goals. This is an important point, and I’m going to return to it in a moment.
In 2022, Toyota made waves when it announced its intention to build four different Crown models, with the first — a lifted, upmarket sedan that could easily do business as a crossover — destined for North American shores. The Crown Sedan and Crown Sport won’t be offered in the U.S., but the second Crown vehicle, known as the Crown Estate in Japan, is coming to America as the 2025 Crown Signia SUV.
The Crown Signia is a new offering from Toyota, of course, but it’s also filling the mid-size niche left behind by the Venza, which is being discontinued for 2024 in order to make room for the Crown Signia. It won’t be a perfect one-to-one replacement, as the Crown Signia will be both more powerful and more expensive than the outgoing Venza. Its underpinnings are also different than that of the Venza, though it is built on the same TNGA-K platform that serves as the base for the Crown Sedan.
For 2025 the Crown Signia will feature just two trims, XLE and Limited, that are both powered by a hybrid system. A 2.4-liter inline-4 engine is mated to a 230.4-volt Bi-Polar NiMH traction battery that’s also capable of storing energy for later use, and a hybrid transaxle that’s made up of four components: two electric motor-generators, one planetary gear, and a reduction gear. What this means for you as a driver is that you’ll have 240 combined horsepower to play with, and Toyota’s refined powertrain technology makes for a lighter, more efficient vehicle. Expect around 38 miles per gallon combined, about the same as the Venza.
Both trims also utilize on-demand all-wheel drive and have three drive modes: Normal, Eco, and Sport. Because it shares a platform with the Crown sedan, you get a slightly lower ride than you’d expect from an SUV, with the Crown Signia boasting 6.7 inches of ground clearance. Despite the lower stance, you still have the ability to tow up to 2,700 pounds.
Since this is a luxury-adjacent vehicle, you get standard leather-trimmed seats, a digital gauge cluster, piano key controls, a top-tier infotainment system with a 12.3-inch touchscreen, a telescoping steering wheel, and a hands-free liftgate. Also standard is a five-seat configuration with a fold-flat second row that can create a massive 6.5-foot-long cargo space in the rear.
The base-level trim for the Crown Signia is the XLE, which starts at $44,985 including mandatory destination fees. For that price, you’re getting 19-inch machine-finished alloy wheels, heated and ventilated power front seats, heated rear outboard seats, and a six-speaker audio system. For $49,385, you can nab the top-level Limited trim, which adds 21-inch alloy wheels, a fixed glass panoramic roof, an 11-speaker JBL sound system, digital key capability, and rain sensing windshield wipers. An additional $1,865 Advanced Technology Package includes a panoramic view monitor, lane change assist, traffic jam assist, front cross-traffic alert, parking assist with automatic braking, mirror puddle lights, and more.
Where the Crown sedan included some controversial styling elements, I think the first thing I noticed about the Crown Signia was its more conventional design. It most definitely looks like an SUV, albeit a stylish one with a flowing silhouette and a fun color-matched webbed grille, a design feature starting to spread across Toyota’s lineup.
Inside the Crown Signia has a spacious and comfortable cabin. Up front is a sleek and simple to use command center that has kept the physical button situation to a respectable minimum. One of the small-pleasure highlights for many of the folks I spoke to on my trip was the Qi charging pad, which is placed upright, sort of like a cup holder. Allegedly it makes a very satisfying thunk when you stick your phone in it, but the butterfingers-proof case I keep on my Google Pixel meant I couldn’t experience that myself. The rear seats, though, weren’t particularly inspiring.
As far as the drive itself went, I found myself in several different minds about the Crown Signia all at once. The engine sounded a little uninspired and definitely lets you know when it’s putting in some work, but you likely won’t notice much thanks to the quiet cabin. Its lower, sedan-ish ride height keeps the center of gravity planted closer to the earth, which meant I could take a twisty mountainside road without feeling like I was going to tip over. At the same time, I found the steering to be very free, to the point where I could wiggle the wheel quite a bit before there was any response. Obviously this is a more luxurious vehicle than a sporty one, but I do expect firmer and more intentional steering feedback from something that’s going to cost me $50,000.
My primary impression of the Crown Signia was that this is a vehicle that feels unfinished. I test drove it in April, and the embargo has just now lifted in June, so I entirely understand that there may be pre-production bugs that are still being ironed out. But my “unfinished” critique doesn’t solely apply to the driving experience — it feels like the general concept of the entire vehicle, as well as the Crown nameplate as a whole, needs work.
Let me return to the point I mentioned at the beginning, that the Crown has traditionally been a way for Toyota to color outside its own brand-driven lines. The Crown Signia doesn’t really feel like it’s breaking any boundaries or pushing any interesting limits. While the Crown sedan-crossover felt fun and fresh, the Crown Signia seems like the result of throwing the sedan and the outgoing Toyota Venza into a blender: A lot of it is already familiar, but more in the “acquaintance you mostly tolerate” way than a “family, friends, and loved ones” way.
That sentiment was driven home by a Crown Signia representative I spoke to during Toyota’s drive event. I tried asking several different but related questions about what makes this vehicle special and why buyers should care: What is the most interesting part of the car? What were designers and engineers most excited about? What’s the thing that journalists keep mentioning? The rep I spoke to was a marketing rep rather than someone deeply involved in the design and engineering process, so I wasn’t expecting in-depth technical insight. I was, however, expecting to hear something beyond the repeated refrain that the most important part of this SUV is the fold-flat second row that offers 6.5 feet of cargo space. Sure, that’s a cool and impressive feature, but that shouldn’t be the feature that Toyota is asking me to spend $50,000 on.
Despite my criticisms, though, I was honestly very charmed by the Crown Signia. I love that Toyota is experimenting with a nameplate that doesn’t create instant consumer recognition, because it means the automaker can experiment. I like that the Crown Signia blends the best parts of a sedan with the benefits of an SUV. I absolutely enjoyed the experience of being in the co*ckpit, which is quiet, flooded with light, and surprisingly calm.
Unfortunately, those positives aren’t enough to outweigh the mediocre driving dynamics, the odd attempts to generate interest, and the low-budget efforts at recreating a luxury experience (like the reliance on piano black interior trim, or the boring second row). The 2025 Toyota Crown Signia isn’t a bad car by any stretch — it just doesn’t quite know what it wants to be yet.
