Toyota's Crown Is Weird, But The Crown Landscape Is Weird Car Gold

The Toyota Crown is strange. It’s a lifted, hybrid, luxury-ish sedan offered here in the US, named after a famed luxury sedan that, for years, has been used to shuttle around members of Japanese high society. The Crown everyone thinks of when they hear that name (should they even recognize it) is Japan’s S-Class, and here in North America, it’s a $40k sedan wearing lifts that would make Ron Desantis blush.

Built for the Japanese market, Toyota made the new take on the Crown even more strange and arguably more appealing. The Crown Landscape takes the lifted ethos of the sedan to its natural conclusion, making it a taller, beefier sedan for adventurous excursions. The eco tires have been replaced with chunky 245/60 R18 all-terrain tires, complete with mudflaps. In keeping with the new, rugged ethos, Toyota Japan also fits extra cladding around the wheel arches. There’s even a tow hitch, though capacity is limited to a relatively low 1,653 pounds. Other changes include the Urban Khaki paint and a rear-mounted fog light. Strangely, the roof rack is optional- kind of an oversight on a car built for adventuring, but you can’t buy one anyways.

Powering the Crown Landscape is the sedan’s existing 2.4-liter hybrid four-cylinder paired with all-wheel drive. While it’s very unfortunate Toyota hasn’t made plans to bring this weird lifted wonder to North America, the price is the real downer, considering $45,300 USD isn’t all that much money to ask given the changes. For now, the North American market will have to make do with a more plebian (but still strange) Crown sedan.

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