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Toyota gave the Crown luxury sedan a complete redesign about four years ago, and expanded it into a mini-lineup of its own. At the same time, it decided to bring back one version to America for the first time in decades to replace the Avalon. With four years under its belt (with three official model years), the Crown sedan is due for a refresh, and Toyota seems to agree, having just revealed the design of the new one. It's tough to see what's new, though.
A Tail That's Not As Old As Time
From the two photos shared on Toyota's Japanese press site, the updated Crown's only real design change appears to be to the tail end. On the current model, the two-tone car features black paint on the entire trunk lid, and it spills over onto the surrounding panels under and above the edges of the taillight bar. Toyota seems to have dropped that part of the two-tone altogether, leaving the whole rear section color-matching, save for the dark lower portion of the bumper. That section is black on mono-tone cars, too.
In addition to removing all the black paint, Toyota also subtly tweaked the bumper design. The separate panels under the outboard taillight sections are now part of the bumper (see the image of the current model above for comparison). The separate panels above the taillights are still in place, likely because it would've been much more difficult and expensive to revise the quarter panels, which are part of the car's unibody chassis. Just updating the bumper does give the back end a cleaner appearance with fewer mysterious panel gaps.
There's one other interesting detail we spotted in these photos. The brakes now have bright red calipers. We don't see any logos for Brembo or anything, but the highlights do have us wondering if Toyota has some sort of sporty package planned for this updated model.
Full Details Are Coming Soon
Toyota's Japanese site says that the updated Crown will launch in September this year, presumably with details coming sooner. We reached out to Toyota's American office to find out if it could at least confirm that the Japanese model we've been discussing will carry over to the US. All a representative could share was that there may be some differences, but also that details will be revealed on July 23. So we'll know what Toyota has in store for the 2027 Crown in about a week.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Toyota Crown sales were steady from its first on sale in the US, 2023, through 2024. Last year, they dropped from around 19,000 to around 12,000, a notable decline. This year is roughly on pace with 2025, so the big sedan could certainly use a little bit of a boost. We're hoping Toyota has a little bit more planned than just styling changes, though, since this is such a visually mild update. Changes to pricing and features could make a bigger difference to the model.
