2025 Toyota Crown Signia SUVOTY Review: Hey, Look, a Hot Wagon!
A wagon disguised as a midsize SUV sneaks its way into our SUV of the Year competition.
Pros
- Gorgeous station wagon styling
- Long driving range
- Spacious rear seat
Cons
- Groans under heavy acceleration
- Tight cargo area
- Watch your head on the way in
OMG, a wagon! Can’t you just feel the excitement? Exactly one wagon-shaped vehicle has truly broken through in the U.S. over the past couple decades, and it’s called the Subaru Outback.
Now picture a design that’s everything the rugged and chunky Outback isn’t, and you have the new 2025 Toyota Crown Signia.
It feels like we’ve seen this story before. Toyota’s midsize two-row SUV journey met with failure first with the Venza in the 2010s and then another Venza-badged SUV that’s just now ending production. The 2025 Crown Signia is Toyota’s latest attempt to break through, and would you just look at it?
The Crown Signia is as gorgeous a wagon as the Crown sedan is unusual. Or call it an SUV, as Toyota does and which we’re going along with here—however you describe it, watch your head on the way in. The A-pillar stretches back enough that a couple MotorTrend SUVOTY judges had to duck their noggins to avoid it as they entered the vehicle.
Once inside, enjoy the saddle-colored leather, an available color on both the 2025 Crown Signia’s two trims. Although some materials can’t match those in the Lexus RX’s cabin, the Toyota is plenty premium for its mainstream segment.
A base price of $44,985 sounds like a lot for a base-model Toyota, but remember this is a midsizer, not a compact like the RAV4. No compact SUV will ever get the looks this one does, except maybe a Mazda CX-5. And Toyota helps justify the price with a standard hybrid powertrain that gives it 551 miles of combined city/highway driving range—a class-leading number among two-row midsize SUVs. A hybrid motor-based AWD system is also part of the package.
Unfortunately, so is a hybrid powertrain that groans under moderate to heavy acceleration. The Crown Signia is a match made in heaven for drivers who never visit the bottom half of their accelerator pedal travels. Push any harder, and the pedal buzzes and the cabin fills with more noise than we’d like from an SUV with premium aspirations. By far, this was the biggest drawback the judges cited, despite class-competitive 0–60-mph acceleration.
Otherwise, the Crown Signia presents itself well. The rear seat feels spacious, and the driver display is highly configurable. There are tons of ways to change its look, but it’s the kind of thing you’ll probably futz with once to find your preferred display and then never touch it again.
On the downside, the cargo area can only hold 24.8–25.8 cubic feet of stuff. That’s enough for most of our daily lives, but pretty much every competitor has more space, from the outgoing Venza and RAV4 to other midsize SUVs.
That brings us back to design. Stop thinking practically, and you’ll see the Crown Signia for what it is: a vehicle more than a foot longer than the RAV4, with a slightly lower and wider stance. In other words, less SUV, more secret wagon in disguise. “If calling this vehicle an SUV is the only way we can get sporty station wagons in this market,” technical director Frank Markus said, “then I’m all for it.”
