GFerg

The thought of this actually happening really hurts if it comes to fruition. Could never think of the flagship sedan dying out for a SUV. But as you said, the Crown has much longer history and it's gone too. Wild times.

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peteharvey

Or ICEV midsize & full size RWD-based sedans replaced by ICEV SUV's for now, but in the next 5-10 years, RWD-based sedans will be re-introduced - albeit as BEV's?

UDel

That is just pathetic and disappointing.

peteharvey

I can see ICEV's being totally replaced by BEV's, but I just can't see medium height sedans being totally replaced by CUV/SUV tall wagons.
I just don't believe that everyone will want a high riding vehicle.

They're still making low riding coupes, and these sell in absolutely pitiful numbers.

It will be interesting to see if high riding CUV/SUV based tall wagons really cause the extinction of medium height sedans, just like automatic transmissions have phased out manual transmissions.
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UDel

I doubt that will happen anytime soon, the charging structure just isn't there and it solves nothing forcing everyone into BEV's, it just creates new and even worse problems, it is really expensive too.

If auto companies made sedans better looking, gave them more rear seat controls/entertainment options for kids, focused on better rear seat room, offered more awd on family sedans, and did not price lux sedans so high especially for a 6 or 8 cylinder they would sell much better.

peteharvey

It will take a good 10-15 years [say by 2035] for BEV's to phase in, while renewable energy power stations are simultaneously phased in.

I wish they would stop making medium height sedans lower and cramped inside.
In future, a 4" thick battery pack will only reduce the vertical floor to ceiling space inside a sedan by another 4"...

Motorola

It's especially notable that the Crown isn't a poor seller like the LS500 either. I believe it sold around 30K units in Japan alone last year- and even that was not enough to save it from the axe. The LS has less of a legacy and some of the lowest sales in its history, I can't see it surviving after this bombshell.

The Crown's cancellation also means that Toyota basically wasted money and got almost nothing out of their TNGA-N platform, which now only exists in the low-volume Mirai.

gengar

...especially in the Japanese market. That's what's so odd about this news.

Wallie3145

This is a good way of keeping the Crown nameplate living in the future. Toyota did the same with the Corolla when they unveiled the Corolla Cross. Ford did the same with the Mustang EV.

mmarshall

Same old story. One less sedan...........one more crossover.

UDel

You think "renewable energy power stations" can just go up in 10 or 15 years and will be able to charge thousands to millions of auto batteries or households? Who is paying for all this and where are they going, how is that even possible unless you are only building in very sunny areas or areas with very high winds and using hundreds to thousands of acres for them and even then they still won't be able to handle the energy needs of avg cities/towns, they don't produce enough power.

There have been recent meetings with EU/NATO nations where they are being told batteries/EV's are not the answer for energy/automotive needs, won't make any real impact environmentally, they are likely to make things worse. EV's being forced on the population is mostly about politics/control/money.

California can't even handle the energy load they have now, wait until they try forcing tens of millions of people into EV's and they are being charged daily/nightly.

UDel

It's a good way of confusing buyers and ruining the legacy of a brand/name.

Motorola

Ironically the version we'll be getting in the U.S. that the article alluded to likely won't even be called the Crown.

oldcajun

Didn't you just buy a crossover? The end of the sedans is not a manufacturer issue, but a consumer issue. A 3 cyl turbo foreign built crossover! What happened to our champion of NA V-6 engines and sedans? I'm a lot older than you, but now my neighbors are picketing my house and yelling at me as I drive my ES350 sedan through the neighborhood. My only choices are eather a Tesla or a Mustang Mach E.

mmarshall

Apples and oranges, though. First, that wasn't quite what I was addressing. Second, I strongly disagree that it is only a consumer-driven issue. A number of manufacturers, but GM and Ford, in particular, had company-agendas to try and force sedans out of the market because they simply were not satisfied with the profits per vehicle, irregardless of the actual number of sales. As with much else in the industry, it boiled down to unsatisfied bean-counters.

I have explained at length, in other threads, why I ordered an Encore GX....but I'll try and repeat it here in just a couple of sentences. I needed something smaller, more maneuverable, higher-stance, easier to park, a more versatile drive train, more safety-features, more efficient packaging, a fore-aft traditional shift-lever, and more buttons/controls inside to connect/disconnect certain features...at a reasonable price. I also wanted to stay with my current dealership because of the superb service they have give me. Except for the somewhat dinky/unrefined but powerful-for-its-size power plant, (which I don't particularly care for, but is not a deal-breaker) no vehicles do all of this better than the Trailblazer and Encore GX.

I may be wrong, but I doubt that you are THAT much older than me. I've been driving for more than a half-century now....got my license in 1968.

And, BTW.....no offense, but, with all due respect, I'm not a very big fan of the latest-generation ES.


And, respectfully, that's all I'll have to say on it, because we're getting off-topic.