2025 Toyota Crown Signia is a sign that SUV trumps sedan as flagship model
Although the new Toyota Crown sits at the same height as your average compact utility vehicle (CUV), Toyota wants you to consider it a sedan. Good thing we did not make that mistake, because a new Toyota vehicle for 2025 wants to wear the SUV Crown, as it were. And just like the diverse range of luxurious Toyota vehicles before it, this new Crown gets an additional adjective in its name: Signia.
The 2025 Toyota Crown Signia takes everything we’ve seen from the Crown and normalizes it into the iconic shape of an SUV. But the Signia isn’t a Crown with a different set of C- and D-pillars. The door skins are significantly different. and the front and rear fascias look more like other Toyota products. The Signia has the Prius-inspired grille (Hammerhead, in Toyota lingo) on a monochrome front bumper, visually differentiating it from the Crown, and from any other SUV on the market.
The only powertrain available is the 243-hp, naturally aspirated Hybrid powertrain with a CVT gearbox. That’s unfortunate, because the turbocharged, 340-hp powerplant and six-speed automatic we experienced in our Crown test vehicle were surprisingly punchy. At least the Signia’s lower-output hybrid system is good for an EPA-rated 36 miles per gallon, even with standard all-wheel drive.
The Crown Signia’s interior, aside from presumably having more cargo space than that of the sedan, looks very similar in terms of styling. It still possesses “only” two rows of seating, leaving three-row seating fans to shop the Grand Highlander instead. Soft-touch materials abound, with leather seats, JBL-branded speakers, and a panoramic sunroof as standard equipment in the more upscale Limited trim level. Safety features are many and varied, with everything from eight airbags, active handling, lane-departure warning, radar cruise control, and automatic high beams as standard.
Prices have yet to be released for the 2025 Toyota Crown Signia SUV, but it’s a safe bet it will be in the low $40,000 range, just like the Crown Sedan and Grand Highlander with which shares space on the showroom floor.
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Toyota has long made utility-minded vehicles that share front end components with the mass market cars, look back to 80s Tercel variants. (A diplomat in Canada had a 4×4 wagon version that wasn’t available in Canada well before the SUV craze).
This new vehicle’s “unique grill” is very downplayed by the example in the pictures being “body cladding grey”. A picture of a red, blue… hold your breath, even yellow would make this feature stand out way better.