What kind of car can you drive to show your unique identity and status? If this question is put in the present, I think in addition to the ultra-luxury brand Rolls-Royce, Bentley, only super running. But if this question goes back to twenty years ago, then I think at that time, the definition of high-end luxury cars by Chinese consumers will almost always be it - Toyota Crown. As one of the first luxury cars to enter the Chinese market, its status in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even early 90s is quite unique.
However, over time and changes in consumers, "Generation Legend" eventually had to be discontinued due to poor sales. Recently, the Japanese media exposed a set of hypothetical drawings of Toyota's new Crown models, and the new car is likely to abandon the longitudinal rear-drive platform for cost-based reasons. According to reports, the new car is expected to be officially unveiled as soon as 2023.
Judging from the renderings exposed by the Japanese media, the new crown completely abandons the past design style and completely leaves the past luxurious and stable behind. The overall shape of the new car is more like the coupe design style of the Audi A7, the new Crown front uses a large area of honeycomb grille, and the light cluster design is very slender. In general, the shape of the front of the car is more futuristic.
In terms of side styling design, the side roof line of the crown is very flat, which really has a bit of a coupe flavor. In addition, the position of the side waistline of the crown is very special, from below the front door to above the back door is one, from above the front door to the second below the back door, and the two waist lines converge into one, and show an upward trend.
Looking at the rear, the taillights have the flavor of the lexus ES predecessor model. According to Japanese media speculation, the size information of the new crown may be 4900×1850×1450mm, such a size is not dominant among the current competitors.
I think the appearance will always be a matter of opinion, but the most important thing about the new Toyota Crown is to change the drive form, because according to Japanese media speculation, the new Crown is likely to use the same TNGA-K front-drive platform as the Camry, which can also be seen from the rendering, the brake calipers have been moved from the rear to the front, because the rear-drive car must be longitudinal, so most models with longitudinal engines can only arrange the steering lever in front of the engine. Therefore, the brake calipers can only be placed in the rear of the brake discs.
In terms of power, the new Crown is expected to be equipped with a 2.5L engine and match the 8-speed manual transmission, and it is believed that Toyota will also launch a hybrid system model. After all, Toyota is also very sure about the new energy market.
Of course, before the new car is released, the above content is speculation. However, if the new Crown really replaces the front-drive platform, in fact, for consumers with Crown feelings, it will inevitably be a little disappointing, but from the perspective of Toyota's strategy in recent years, this development trend is also inevitable.
And from the history of the development of Toyota Crown, it can also be roughly seen that the future development of the crown. Toyota Crown was born in 1955, has been 66 years of history, and the history of the crown in China is not short, in April 1964, the first crown through the way of imports into the country, from the beginning of the 80s to the first half of the 90s, the number of crown imports in the country has been rising, and even many netizens joked: If you can have a crown at that time, it can definitely be called a dragon phoenix among people, and now there is no Rolls-Royce to count the family road.
Although the crown has a long history of entering China, the models that really impress Chinese consumers are the three generations of models from the 12th to the 14th generation. Thanks to the "Crown Complex" accumulated by the early import into China, the sales volume of the domestic twelfth-generation Crown surpassed the Audi A6L in the first month of listing, becoming a very best-selling luxury car in the Chinese market.
In the following two months, the order volume of the twelfth generation crown exceeded the 10,000-unit mark, and by the end of 2006, the cumulative sales volume of the crown exceeded 60,000 units, with a market share of more than 30% in the premium car market.
Although the thirteenth-generation crown is not as popular as the twelfth-generation model, the market ownership is not small. It lasted until 2015, when FAW Toyota officially introduced the 14th generation of the Crown into China in March of that year. However, this replacement has also caused great controversy, because compared with the previous crown's calm and business shape, the fourteenth generation of the crown is undoubtedly younger, and even has a touch of sportiness, so many potential consumers cannot adapt. Moreover, it was also in the 14th generation of crown that FAW Toyota cancelled the large-displacement model and began to use two engines, 2.5L and 2.0T.
In fact, everyone understands that no matter how earth-shaking changes the new crown, it is difficult to grab the big cake of the Chinese market from the BBA. Judging from the current car purchase, the crown at this time has long lost the glory of that time. Of course, the main reason is not only the lack of product strength, but also due to the continuous introduction of new models and a series of problems in faw Toyota's marketing system, which has led to the decline in the performance of crown in the domestic market. Some netizens even said: After 13 generations, there is no crown! But in any case, the deep impression left on consumers by the crown, which was once the representative of Japanese luxury cars, will not be easily erased.
Write at the end:
In any case, the crown is a model of strategic importance under Toyota, and the news of the new generation of crown models is also a continuation of the spirit of this model. For a classic model like the crown, there must still be a lot of people paying attention, and the author is also looking forward to the release of more information about this car.