Toyota revived the Crown nameplate in the US after 50 years away

The Crown was Toyota's longest-running model name — its first mass-produced car in 1955 and the first Japanese car sold in the US in 1958. But Toyota last sold a Crown here in 1972, keeping the nameplate alive only in Japan and elsewhere while the US got the Avalon as its big sedan.

By the mid-2020s the US market had shifted firmly to SUVs and the Avalon was being discontinued. Toyota made a counterintuitive bet: instead of dropping a large sedan entirely, it revived the Crown name and reapplied it to a tall, SUV-influenced sedan with a standard all-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain. The 2023 Crown was the 15th generation of the nameplate.

Toyota was explicit that it was betting the prestige of its longest-running model name on buyers' preference for SUVs being satisfied by a 'puffed-up sedan' with up to 21-inch wheels. The top Platinum trim used Toyota's Hybrid Max system generating 340 horsepower, while lower trims relied on a 2.5-litre hybrid predicted to return 38 mpg combined. It replaced the Avalon as the brand's flagship car.

Returned a revered 15-generation nameplate to the US as the brand's top car, replacing the discontinued Avalon

The Avalon, the brand's big sedan, was being discontinued and left a gap at the top

US buyers had moved decisively toward SUVs, but not everyone wanted a full truck-like vehicle

The Crown carried prestige and 15 generations of history no new name could match

A tall hybrid sedan split the difference between sedan comfort and SUV presence

Building it in Japan let Toyota leverage its flagship-grade assembly and craft

Reviving a storied nameplate works when you reinterpret it for where the market moved, not where it was

The 2023 Crown went on sale in the US that fall as the brand's flagship car, priced and positioned above the departed Avalon. Its hybrid drivetrains — a standard hybrid and a 340-horsepower Hybrid Max — gave it both efficiency and performance in a single package. The nameplate that had been absent from America for half a century was back, now reimagined for the SUV-driven market rather than as a retro re-run.