2025 Toyota Crown Signia Interior Review: Watch Out, Lexus SUVs?

Hop inside the 2025 Crown Signia with us, and don’t buy a Lexus NX or RX until you’ve seen this Toyota’s interior.

Lexus essentially builds nicer Toyotas—so why is Toyota threatening its own luxury subsidiary? See the new 2025 Crown Signia, which arrives with multiple aims: replace the Venza; diversify the Crown badge; and assume the, erm, crown at the premium end of Toyota’s lineup. This hybrid SUV’s sleek exterior connotes that on first impression, as its cabin demonstrates a different approach than Toyota’s typical hard-wearing economy cars.

We’ve Seen This Before

In many ways, the Crown Signia is a crossover-ized version of the Toyota Crown midsize sedan, clearly seen in these vehicles’ interiors. The overall cabin design is understated, relying mostly on materials and a few gentle curves for visual appeal. Copper-colored inserts highlight the dashboard, steering wheel, and center console.

On the center console, a stubby gear selector is surrounded by black plastic infused with subtle sparkles. Ahead of that is the wireless charger. Integrated vertically within a slot, it keeps smartphones secure and mostly out of sight, although extra-large devices might not fit. Cupholders share space with a little pod that puts dual USB-C ports within easy reach.

Front and Back Seats

Atop the dashboard are two 12.3-inch digital displays, one serving as the gauge cluster and the other as the infotainment panel. Centrally located in the dashboard is a volume knob, with a panel of physical HVAC controls beneath it—all appreciable in a time when many automakers obfuscate basic controls within touchscreens.

We viewed a Crown Signia in high-end Limited trim. Its available caramel leather upholstery was applied generously around the front row. Toyota would’ve done well to extend that color treatment to the rear door panels, which are simply black. Still, those support the premium impression with soft-touch finishing applied above the armrest. Second-row occupants have access to pockets on each front seatback, as well as dual air vents and USB-C ports on the back of the center console.

Slim windows benefit the Crown Signia’s exterior proportions, but make for a somewhat confined sensation in the back seat. However, spaciousness is earned back by the large quarter-panel windows, and even more so when the available large panoramic sunroof is equipped.

Thoughtful Storage Features

Clever practical decisions extend beyond the center console bin, which has a trick mechanism allowing it to open from either side. In particular, the flaps behind each second-row seat are a feature that more SUVs should have. Those flaps, made of a rigid material, can extend when the second-row seats are folded down, providing a solid barrier that prevents cargo from sliding forward or sullying the front seatbacks.

There’s no lip at the base of the cargo area, making it easy to slide cargo in (but also potentially easy for it to slide out if it shifts while driving). Underfloor storage amounts to a wide, narrow bin—not much, but better than nothing. The entire cargo area is lined with exceptionally, unnecessarily soft carpeting, making us wonder if perhaps Toyota chose this material to improve in-car camping.

2025 Crown Signia Interior: Better Than Lexus?

Even though the Crown Signia’s interior is a clear step upmarket from typical Toyota SUVs, it doesn’t go so far as to overlap with its Lexus counterparts. The NX and RX feel built to a similar standard of quality, but prove their luxury status with more evocative designs displaying attractive trim details and expensive-seeming material finishes. In that sense, it could be best to stick with the Toyota Crown Signia XSE—if your budget allows for a Limited, an entry-level NX or RX could be within reach.

2025 Toyota Crown Signia First Look: Taller Sits the Crown SUV

This compact, upscale SUV expands the resurgent Crown family in America.

In Japan, the Crown nameplate is entering its 15th generation and covers a full family of vehicles with an assortment of body styles. In North America, the Crown name returns this year on the 2023 Toyota Crown, an unusual lifted sedan, after a 51-year hiatus, having last adorned a new Toyota car in the ’70s. Already it’s expansion time: Toyota is using the 2023 Los Angeles auto show to debut the 2025 Toyota Crown Signia, a five-passenger SUV to join the family for American buyers who love their tall wagons. It is the first SUV for the Crown lineup that dates back almost 70 years.

Signia is a made-up name, derived from the word “insignia.” In Japan, the wagon-like crossover will be called the Crown Estate, but Toyota did not think that name would resonate in North America. The emphasis is on growing awareness of the Crown name, and once in the showroom customers can decide if a sedan or crossover is best for their needs.

The Signia is larger than the Toyota Venza, a compact hybrid-only crossover, and is more practical and functional with its ability to tow up to 2,700 pounds. Design-wise the Crown Signia has Lexus-like cues in the grille to give it a more upscale look, allowing the automaker to pitch it as a luxury Toyota—a bridge between the two brands.

Hybrid and All-Wheel Drive Come Standard

The Crown Signia comes standard as an all-wheel-drive hybrid. The powertrain consists of a 2.5-liter inline-four with two front motors and a planetary type continuously variable automatic transmission, plus a third rear-mounted electric motor that delivers on-demand all-wheel drive in certain conditions. This same 2.5-liter setup generates 236 horsepower in the Crown sedan, but produces a higher 243 hp in the Signia. If the torque stays the same, it would be 163 lb-ft. Of course, the Crown sedan also offers a burlier 2.4-liter turbo four-cylinder and six-speed automatic transmission, delivering 340 hp combined, but no word on offering it on the SUV.

Toyota expects the Crown Signia to get 36 mpg, which is somewhat expectedly lower than the 41 mpg combined this same powertrain delivers in the lower-profile Crown sedan. There is even an Eco drive mode that will provide electric-only driving at low speeds for a short distance; and we suspect that, as in the sedan, the Signia’s fuel economy will be slightly better at city speeds than on the freeway.

The Crown family rides on Toyota’s TNGA-K global architecture which also underpins the Crown sedan, making the Signia a car-based crossover as opposed to a body-on-frame SUV.

Amenities in the 2025 Toyota Crown Signia

The crossover will be offered with a choice of five exterior colors and tan or black interior choices. The base Crown Signia XLE has 19-inch wheels and cloth seats, so move up to Limited for leather trimmed seats that can be heated and cooled.

The Signia has the same floating 12.3-inch center touchscreen as the Crown sedan, as well as wireless phone charging, three USB-C ports up front, and a slot in the middle of the cupholder for a phone, tablet, or wallet. The Limited has an upgraded 11-speaker JBL audio system and the vehicle is compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which provides access to Google Assistant, as well as larger 21-inch wheels and a panoramic glass roof with an optional retractable shade.

There are air vents, more USB ports, and cubbies in the second row. The seats fold flat and have clever extension panels (or flaps) that fold out of the top of the rear seatbacks so that, when those seats are folded flat, they complete an uninterrupted 6.5-foot-long rear cargo surface that easily accessible with the power rear liftgate. Those flaps fill the gap left between the front seatbacks and the folded and second-row seats, a space typically left open in other cars and SUVs with fold-flat rear seats.

Safety and Tech Features

Techy features include a digital rearview mirror on the Limited, and there are a number of connected services that are free initially before subscription fees are applied.

Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 is standard, offering pre-collision prevention systems, lane-keeping assistance, adaptive cruise and more. Other driver-assist features including hands-free driving up to 25 mph, come on the higher trim or are optional.

Built at the Tsutsumi Plant in Aichi, Japan, the Crown Signia will be on sale in the U.S. in the summer of 2024 in XLE and Limited trim levels. Pricing has not been announced, but we expect it to cost a few thousand more than the sedan’s $40,000 starting price.