2025 Toyota Crown Signia gives America a hybrid wagon

• Toyota’s latest hybrid cosplays a crossover SUV while it’s actually a wagon

• Crown Signia buyers will find lots of room for cargo and comfortable seats, but taller adults will feel pinched on headroom

• Toyota’s latest hybrid bests the Highlander for fuel economy, but isn’t quite as efficient as its sedan sibling

Toyota’s showroom is getting crowded, and borderline confusing, with all its hybrid crossovers SUVs. The latest one is a marketing ploy.

Later this summer the 2025 Toyota Crown Signia will roll into dealerships and buyers will find a spacious, more practical iteration of the Crown sedan, which replaced the Avalon atop the automakers passenger car lineup. But at $44,985 including a $1,395 destination charge some buyers are going to notice some rough edges, especially when the price crests $51,000. 

Also, Toyota’s overstating the Crown Signia’s crossover bona fides. This isn’t a crossover SUV. Here’s the deal.

Toyota Crown Signia markets a wagon as an SUV

Toyota calls its latest hybrid a crossover SUV. It’s a wagon, and here’s one way I know: The rear windows aren’t tinted from the factory. Vehicles classified as trucks by the EPA (which weirdly includes most pickups, SUVs, and crossover) can come from the factory with tinted windows, and America loves tinted windows. Passenger cars, which include wagons and sedans can’t come from the factory with tinted windows because of wonky laws.

The Crown Signia looks more attractive than its sedan counterpart. It’s all about proportions. The bulbous Crown sedan stands on stilts, where the Crown Signia stretches that bulk into a more shapely wagon form. At 194.1 inches long the Crown Signia is nearly the same length as the Highlander three-row crossover SUV. The gunslit LED daytime running lights sit near the hoodline while the headlights are mounted lower in the bumper. The rear end wearsfull-width LED taillights.

Inside the Crown will look familiar to anyone having been in or around a Crown sedan. That’s because it’s basically the same from the B-pillars forward. The dashboard features a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster and 12.3-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The console’s covered in plenty of shiny piano-black plastic, ready to get scratched, but the Crown Signia gets it right with real buttons, knobs, and switches for essential climate and audio controls.

The interior can haul five people in comfort, and 6-footers won’t have an issue sitting behind 6-footers, but headroom for taller folks will become an issue. The front seats are mounted on plastic spacers that decrease headroom but make you feel like you’re sitting up high like in a crossover SUV. It’s a trick: the Signia has only 6.7 inches of ground clearance like a sedan. The higher seating position does make getting in and out of it easier than it was in the Avalon. The 60:40 split-folding rear seat enables the Crown Signia to haul an item, like a surfboard, that’s up to 6.5 feet long. With the rear seats upright the Signia sports up to 25.8 cubic feet of space, but that swells up to 68.8 cubic feet with the second-row seat folded compared to just 15.2 cubic feet of space in the Crown sedan’s trunk.

Toyota Crown Signia gives America a hybrid wagon

Every Crown Signia is powered by a 2.5-liter inline-4, as part of Toyota’s planetary-based hybrid system producing a combined output of 240 hp. The Toyota team was mum on whether the more powerful HybridMax powertrain with the turbo-4, which is available in the Crown sedan, or a plug-in hybrid that’s available in Japan will be available at some point. All-wheel drive is standard, but the system sends all the power to the front wheels under normal conditions. Toyota said the power split can shift on demand up to 20:80, though in sunny California I didn’t experience this.

Acceleration isn’t brisk, but with an estimated 0-60 mph sprint of 7.1 seconds, according to Toyota, the Crown has enough motivation to get onto a highway without issue. Matting the skinny pedal to the floor generates quite a bit of noise under the hood. It’s far from a Lexus-like experience. The powertrain prefers to lope along and fade into the background.

The Signia rides softly, oriented more toward the comfortable end of the spectrum. It controls its body motions well, but exhibited some unmoderated wheel hop while slicing around the canyons of San Diego. Most Crown Signias probably won’t spend their days weaving through canyon roads, though. 

EPA fuel economy ratings of 39 mpg city, 37 highway, 38 combined are the best America’s going to get with a wagon with a gas engine under its hood, but that’s off from the Crown sedan’s 42/41/41 mpg due to the extra weight and aerodynamics of the longer roof.

Safety comes standard on Crown Signia

Toyota equips every Crown Signia with its advanced suite of safety tech including automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, active lane control, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot monitors. The $1,865 Advanced Technology Package, which is only an option on the more expensive Limited trim, adds a surround-view camera system, parking sensors, and front cross-traffic alerts. 

Toyota crowds its hybrid crossover showroom

The 2025 Crown Signia lineup is a simple affair. Base XLE models cost $44,985 while the Limited model checks in at $51,250. Both are well equipped, though it’s borderline embarrassing the $50,000-plus Limited model lacks adjustable lumbar support on the front passenger side.

Toyota priced the Crown Signia right on top of comparable Highlander Hybrid models, which are about the same size but offer a third-row seat.

For wagon lovers or buyers seeking something different, the Crown Signia makes some sense. For most families, fewer seats will have them looking across the showroom, we think, at the Highlander.

Toyota paid for travel costs and I got sunburned to bring you this test drive review.