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By Charl Bosch

Motoring Journalist


Completely new Crown being prepared for Toyota’s iconic flagship

Crown's 67 year reign as a sedan will come to an end with the unveiling of an SUV in 2022.


Toyota’s legendary Crown sedan will reportedly be dropped during or after 2022 in favour of an SUV with the same name as part of the phasing out of large sedans due to declining sales.

Bar the Century, which in stretched Royal guise serves as the official state car of the Japanese Imperial household, and which is on sale, albeit in limited numbers, as the most expensive Toyota model in Japan, the Crown has served as the range-topping mass produced Toyota sedan since 1955 and entered its fifteenth generation two years ago with the internally named S220.

Fresh from a surprise facelift two weeks ago though, Japanese publication Chunichi claims that the Crown, which exited South Africa over half-a-century ago, will be re-developed into an SUV based on the same TNGA-K platform as the Highlander/Kluger and Harrier/Venza, and marketed outside of Japan in not only China, but also the United States.

It is worth noting however that nothing has been confirmed outright but even if it gets the green light, don’t expect the high-riding Crown to become available in South Africa after said year.

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