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| Toyota may drop some famous model names while redesigning a popular one. |
Toyota is a company that plays it very safe with their cars.
They rarely outright discontinue products I’ve noticed. However, it appears as
if there a couple of models that are making an exit soon in Toyota’s portfolio.
One is the Land Cruiser, which might exit the U.S. market after 2021. If this
is true, this marks the end of one of the longest running nameplates in
America. This is akin to the Chevrolet Suburban line ending production! Toyota
sold its first Land Cruiser in America in 1958. Its worth noting that Lexus
will continue to offer the LX, the Land Cruiser’s luxurious cousin.
Toyota may also drop the Crown sedan, which we don’t get in
America, but is their longest-running model in their global portfolio. The
Crown is a large, four-door RWD sedan used as a police car, taxi, personal
vehicles and more in Japan. Think of it as Japan’s “Ford Crown Victoria”. As
you can imagine, sales for the Crown these days are poor due to SUV demand,
even in Japan. Rumor is that the Crown name might be reborn on a new crossover
based on the Highlander. That ought to make fans of the Crown very, very happy
I’m sure…
Finally, a new Tundra is on the way. We know this because it’s
been spotted testing in camouflage. It seems like the 2022 Toyota Tundra will
have a new interior design, front end design, and other new styling elements.
Its rumored that the new Tundra will come with a twin-turbo V6 engine. I also
wouldn’t be surprised to see a hybrid model at some point with eAWD (or 4WD),
since Toyota seems to be going big on this setup lately, like on the RAV4
Hybrid. Offering a twin-turbo V6 powertrain and an eAWD setup would allow
Toyota to compete with the new 2021 F-150 Hybrid while potentially offering
class-leading fuel economy figures.
Toyota seems to be more about slow innovation than
groundbreaking statements in my opinion. Hate it or love it, this is a strategy
that has worked well for them thus far. It’ll be interesting to see how
dropping historic nameplates such as Land Cruiser and Crown while continuously
innovating for an electrified future will shift the company.
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