It isn’t just the dark color scheme that makes this stealthy. . .

By Gary S. Vasilash

Quick: what is the top-of-the-line car model offered by Toyota?

As you’ve probably read the headline, you made a correct guess.

And I’m guessing that it was a guess because the Toyota Crown is something that is not as well known as it ought to be in the lineup.

The Crown was introduced in the U.S. as a model year 2023 vehicle. It replaced a vehicle that also didn’t have the visibility it deserved, the Avalon.

(Arguably in the case of the Avalon there was reduced promotion because it was so well executed that the owners of Lexus dealerships probably wouldn’t have liked that the Avalon would give the Lexus ES a run for the consumers’ money.)

While you might think that this is a bit of an exaggeration to talk about the relative invisibility of the Crown, consider this:

Through the first three quarters of 2025, there were 8,669 Crowns sold in the U.S. (The Crown Signa, which, in effect, replaced the Venza, a crossover, had nearly double the sales of the sedan: 16,277.)

The GR86 sports car—even available with a manual transmission, so this is not designed and engineered to take the kids to school or to shop at Costco—nearly had as many sales at the Crown: 8,107.

And the Crown is the kind of vehicle that you can take the kids to school in and to shop at Costco (it is a hatch that offers 15.2 cubic feet behind the second row, so there is space for stuff).

The Crown has stylish sheet metal, which is certainly not unusual for Toyota models of late. It could be said that one of the reasons why Toyota still has cars on offer while Chevy and Ford have abandoned them (yes, yes, there is the Mustang, but it is hardly a “car” in the sense of the classic four-door architecture: the GR86 is a car, too, but the “sports” modifier separates it) is because it has freed up its designers.

For the Nightshade edition there is that “dark” theme, with Storm Cloud paint, 21-inch, 10-spoke wheels with a black finish, and dark door handles, mirror caps and rear badging.

Inside there’s a black leather interior and features and execution that may bring Lexus to mind, but not in the way the Avalon did (and if I had to think of a Lexus that might be Crown-like it would be the HS 250h, the brand’s first hybrid sedan, which had but a short (2010-12) run in the U.S.). The front seats are heated and cooled; the rear seat is heated. There is a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster and a 12.3-inch infotainment screen (which has, just below it, a volume knob for those so inclined to take advantage of the JBL 11-speaker system).

The Crown is a hybrid that produces a system horsepower of 236. (For those who want more power, there is the Platinum trim providing 340 hp.) By and large the 236 hp is certainly sufficient for the aforementioned daily drives. This is an all-wheel drive vehicle.

 The vehicle EPA rated at 42 mpg city, 41 mpg highway and 41 mpg combined. Given that it has a 14.5-gallon tank that is filled with regular fuel, if you were to drive the Crown such that you’d leave one gallon in the tank just in case, you’d have a range of over 550 miles.

Which means Crowns are certainly not seen that often at gas stations.