The Toyota Crown Signia GT-S Performance Concept Is Cooler Than You
Confession time: Of all the cars Toyota sells at the moment, the oddball Crown Signia is easily my favorite. It's about as practical and efficient as the RAV4 Hybrid while being significantly nicer to live with in person. It drives better, it looks cooler, and it has a quiet-luxury aura that even a comparable Lexus NX arguably falls short of. Among my car reviewer colleagues, however, it's split — some quietly love it, too, but a lot just find it perplexing.
In other words, you either get it or you don't, and it looks like at least somebody within Toyota tasked with managing its presence at the SEMA Show this year absolutely gets it. Toyota is showing up to Vegas next month with the Crown Signia GT-S Performance Concept built by the Toyota Motorsports Garage, a vehicle Toyota calls "a sleek grand touring machine that blends everyday space and comfort with the attitude and road feel of a true sports car." Yep, it's an unnecessary sporty version of an enjoyably un-sporty car, and that's arguably why it's so damn cool.
It's a station wagon on HREs
Sitting nearly 5 inches lower than the stock Signia on one-off MCS coilovers, the Signia GT-S also lets the five-door Crown be the station wagon I feel it always wanted to be. Officially, Toyota describes the standard car as a crossover, but in reality, its ride height almost perfectly splits the difference between that of a Camry and that of a RAV4. What is a slammed half-crossover other than a station wagon?
The fenders are seamlessly swollen, the hammerhead element up front is trimmed red just like all the badges, and it gets both a front lip and rear diffuser that make it look like it came off a Super Street cover. The dark gray metallic paint is a custom mix, and the exhaust with trapezoidal tips is also a custom job. Plus, check out the vents above the front fenders that probably don't do anything, but look wild nonetheless.
Toyota
Inside, new front seats look both extremely well-bolstered and comfortable, while a red shifter with GTS on it in big letters is undoubtedly goofy, but you know what? I'll allow it. Mods that actually change how the Crown Signia drives are all close to the ground. Brake calipers are borrowed from the 366-horsepower Lexus RX 500h F Sport and sit behind 21-inch HRE wheels and 295-section Toyo Proxes ST III tires.
This is technically a concept car, which means it isn't coming to a Toyota showroom near you any time soon. But if this is Toyota soft-launching the idea of, say, a future GR Sport Crown Signia with more power, more grip, and sportier looks, I'm all for it.
Toyota