The Struggling Toyota Crown’s Main Rival Comes From Within Toyota’s Own Ranks
The basic premise behind introducing the Toyota Crown made sense. It replaced the Avalon, a car popular with older buyers, with a higher-riding sedan that’s easier to get in and out of. It also had slightly more legroom than the Camry and a more premium feel, justifying the higher price. It was never meant to be a high-volume model, but when sales dropped from around 19,000 a year in its first two years to just 12,309 sales last year, right as the new Camry arrived, it became clear that the new Camry is clearly hurting the Crown. Let’s see why.
Exterior And Interior Differences
Despite the styling making the Crown look stubbier than the Camry, your eyes deceive you. Believe it or not, the Crown is bigger in every way other than width, where they’re identical. It’s 2.6 inches longer on a 1.0-inch longer wheelbase, and it’s 3.7 inches taller with 0.4 inches of extra ground clearance.
The Crown tries to further its more premium appearance with a two-tone look that extends to the hood and trunk on the higher trims, and it also offers larger wheels, up to 21 inches, compared to the 19-inch ones that are the largest available on the Camry. That, combined with the higher ride height and taller profile, makes the Crown resemble a crossover sedan, and that’s no coincidence. In Japan, these are actually called the “Crown (Crossover)” in a lineup of four different Crown models.
The Camry, on the other hand, has a long, low profile that gives it a sportier vibe. It also offers the SE and XSE trims, which add sportier bumpers and wheels. Meanwhile, the Crown’s only sporty trim is the Nightshade; the rest are more luxury-oriented. The Camry does still offer a black roof option for the two-tone look, but it doesn’t go as far as the Crown.
Moving to the inside, the Crown’s longer wheelbase and larger dimensions do give you a little more space in most areas, at least on paper. There are 0.9 inches more rear legroom but no additional front legroom. You get 0.7 inches more front headroom but actually 0.1 inches less rear headroom in the Crown, possibly due to its more sloped roofline. The Camry also pulls ahead in shoulder room, with 0.6 inches more for both front and rear occupants, and hip room, with 0.2 inches more up front and 1.5 inches more in the rear. Lastly, you get a tiny 0.1 cubic feet of extra cargo space in the Crown.
As far as interior styling goes, they’re very similar, as you can see. They both get Toyota’s dual 12.3-inch screens, with a few buttons and switches underneath, and a dash that curves downward on the passenger side. However, the Camry is actually the one that’s a bit more stylized, with lines connecting the screen to the air vent, and the option of red leather compared to the black, beige, and tan options in the Crown. They both also offer nearly identical features across their various trims. However, the Crown starts higher, with the XLE as the base trim and heated and ventilated leather seats as standard, compared to the more basic Camry versions, which still get simple cloth seats.
Even just looking at these differences, you can already probably see why the Crown struggles to sell and stand out from its more popular Camry sibling. There’s not much separating the two vehicles, nor any significant advantage for the Crown.
Powertrain Differences
One area where there are larger differences is in the powertrains offered and what they provide. In the Camry, the only choice is whether you want all-wheel drive. Otherwise, they all run Toyota’s fifth-generation 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine, producing 225 horsepower with front-wheel drive and 232 hp with all-wheel drive.
On the other hand, the Crown uses the older fourth-generation hybrid 2.5-liter engine, which produces a combined 236 horsepower. The biggest differentiator is that the Crown comes with the Hybrid Max powertrain when you go for the top Platinum trim. That one gives you a big jump in horsepower, with 340 horsepower combined, thanks to a turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder and a stronger rear electric motor. But all Crowns come standard with all-wheel drive.
After spending a week with the Hybrid Max version a few years ago, I appreciated the extra power, but the overall experience wasn’t as sporty as I expected. For traditionalists, it does have a regular 6-speed torque converter automatic transmission, compared to the eCVTs in the other Crowns and the Camry, but the 6-speed has pretty relaxed tuning. Both cars could use GR and/or GR Sport versions.
The other big difference is in fuel economy. The best the Crown can muster is a still-impressive 41 mpg combined, although the Hybrid Max versions drop that to 30 mpg combined. The Camry’s newer hybrid system clearly gives it a big advantage here, with the least efficient Camry still doing 43 mpg combined and the best version (with the smallest wheels) doing a whopping 51 mpg combined.
Price Differences And Supply
The biggest thing that’s hurting Crown sales is pricing. It starts at $41,440 plus $1,295 in destination fees for the XLE trim, and can go up to $55,965 before destination fees for the Platinum, with the powertrain the Camry doesn’t offer. But even setting that aside, a comparable Camry XLE AWD will only cost you $36,325 before the destination charge is included. That’s a savings of over $5,000 for a car that gets better fuel economy, offers slightly more space in some ways, and has just about all the same features. And if you don’t need all-wheel drive or are willing to go with a lower trim, the gap widens even more, with the cheapest Camry costing just $29,600 before destination charges.
The other thing hurting sales is supply and recognition. Everyone in America knows what a Camry is. Only a tiny percentage of those people know what a Crown is, or that it’s even available in America now. And they’re unlikely to run across one at the Toyota dealer either. To illustrate, online listings currently show 16,246 new Camrys available to buy nationwide, compared with just 422 new Crowns, or roughly nine cars in each of the fifty states, if they were spread out evenly.
With rarity like that, it’s no wonder that Crown sales have never been strong, regardless of how appealing or unappealing they are. And now, with the impressive new Camry that arrived last year, sales have dropped even harder, down from the 19,000 range in its first two years on the market here to just 12,309 last year. And 2026 doesn’t look like it’s shaping up to be any better for the Crown, unfortunately. Meanwhile, Camry sales for the first half of 2026 are up over 15% compared to 2025.
Which One Should You Buy?
Unless you really hate the idea of joining the millions of Camry drivers out there and want something unique, it’s really hard to recommend the Crown to anyone over the Camry. The only angle we can find to justify it is for those who really want more power and are willing to pay the $55,000 or more for the Platinum trim. Since even the new Lexus ES doesn’t offer that much power unless you go electric, there’s certainly a case to be made for that tiny segment of drivers.
For everyone else, the Camry will be many thousands of dollars cheaper to buy, easier to find, cheaper to run, and offer a very similar amount of space and creature comforts inside, too. It’s cool that Toyota offers the Crown here, but it doesn’t seem to make much sense to do so anymore if Toyota doesn’t give it something to help it stand out from the Camry, beyond just more power in a single, expensive trim.
Maybe now that the Lexus LS is gone and more premium buyers are going to mainstream brands, Toyota will swap our Crown for the actual Crown sedan that Japan already has, which is noticeably bigger and grander than the Camry. In the meantime, stick with the Camry.
Sources: Toyota, AutoTrader