Toyota Crown Vs. Lexus ES: How Do These Premium Sedans Compare?

For the 2023 model year, Toyota resurrected the Toyota Crown nameplate that had been dormant in North America for 50 years. The company had been making this car in Japan for all that time, but this model year saw a revamp for the car into a mid-size luxury hybrid sedan. While Toyota is a beloved company that continuously produces some of the most reliable vehicles on the marketplace, few people would consider them to be luxury vehicles. For that label, you would need to go over to Lexus. Since its launch for the 1990 model year, Lexus has been the luxury arm of Toyota and has enjoyed great success fulfilling that space, and one of the cornerstones of that company is the Lexus ES, the mid-size luxury sedan that has been on the market since that very first model year and is among the company's most successful models.

With these two mid-size sedan models being produced ostensibly by the same company, you may be wondering what exactly distinguishes them from one another. Are they simply just the same car that has different branding, or are there substantial differences that would make a person prefer one car over the other? We are going to break down the powertrains, the trims, the features, the interiors, the receptions, and the prices of the 2025 Lexus ES and Toyota Crown and see where there is overlap and where they diverge. This way you can have a better handle on determining which luxury sedan from the Japanese automaker is the best fit for your life.

One of the most important details there is when it comes to the 2025 Toyota Crown is that it is only available as a hybrid vehicle. If you were hoping to just get a standard gas-powered version of the Crown, you are out of luck. Of course, being a hybrid comes with many benefits, with the most obvious of them being improved fuel efficiency and helping you save money in the long term on gas. However, just because it is a hybrid does not mean that you are confined to a single powertrain option for the car. You actually have two to choose from.

At the most basic level, the Toyota Crown comes fitted with a 2.5L I4 engine paired with an electric hybrid motor. With this under the hood, you are looking at a combined output of up to 236 hp. Even more enticing is its fuel economy, as it is able to get you 42 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway. These are the specs you can expect on three of the four trim levels for the Crown. If you choose the highest-level trim called the Crown Platinum, you will instead be treated to a 2.4L turbocharged I4 engine with an electric motor that together can generate up to 340 hp. What you gain in power you lose in economy. The Crown Platinum delivers 29 city mpg and 32 highway mpg. These powertrains are exclusive to their respective trims, so if you want that Turbo I4, you need to go Platinum.

Unlike the Toyota Crown, the Lexus ES is available as both a traditional gas-powered vehicle and as a hybrid. Through those two options, there are three different powertrain options for you to choose from. For the gas-powered folks, you have the option between the ES 250 and the ES 350. The former features a 2.5L I4 engine that gets you 203 hp. This engine is essentially the non-hybrid version of the engine in the Toyota Crown. The ES 350 instead has the larger 3.5L V6 under the hood that gets you 302 hp. These two models actually cost the exact same, so it ultimately just comes down to personal preference on which to choose. Besides the actual engines, the difference between them is that all of the ES 250 models are all-wheel drive, and on the other hand, the ES 350s are all rear-wheel drive vehicles.

You also have the hybrid version of the sedan called the Lexus ES 300h. You might assume that it would have a 3.0L engine, but that is not the case. Instead, it features the exact same 2.5L I4 hybrid engine that the Toyota Crown uses, though its output is rated slightly lower than that car at 215 hp. However, its fuel economy is still incredibly impressive at 43 city mpg and 44 highway mpg, especially compared to the 28 combined mpg of the ES 250 and 26 combined mpg of the ES 350. This is the sole hybrid engine option for the sedan, so if you want that turbocharged I4 upgrade, you will need to head over to the Toyota dealership instead. 

Of course, when you are buying a new car, you are not just purchasing a one-size-fits-all model. Every model has its own tier system that does not just account for what powers the vehicle but also all of the technology, convenience features, interiors, and whatnot as well. The Toyota Crown is no exception to this, and in total, there are four different trims to choose from. At the most basic level, you are looking at the Toyota Crown XLE, and from there, you have the Limited, the Nightshade, and the Platinum.

Many terrific features are available across all four trim levels. These include things like heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, wireless smartphone charging capabilities, five USB-C charging ports, and a smart key system. However, as you go up the trim ladder, more and more features become either standard or an option for you. For example, all four trims have power-adjustable seating, but the XLE does not support memorizing your seat positions. Another is the ability to use a digital key. This comes standard on the Platinum, but you need to purchase an additional package to get that on the Limited. However, the XLE and Nightshade don't support this. The XLE features bi-LED projector headlights, but the other three trims use quad-LED projector lights instead for greater visibility.

The Platinum is the trim where everything you could want comes standard, including a 10-inch heads up display, a power trunk with hands-free kicker sensor, panoramic view monitor, lane change assist, or more. Some of the other trims have these too, but they are usually additional package purchases.

In a stark difference from the Toyota Crown, the Lexus ES has a grand total of 15 different trims to choose from. That may seem overwhelming, but you need to remember that the ES line is already split up into the ES 250, 350, and 300h for the various powertrains. Within each of those numbered models, there are several different trims to mull over. All three of them have the standard trim, the Luxury, the Ultra Luxury, and the F Sport Design trims to them. That is all the trims that the ES 250 has. The ES 350 and 300h have an additional trim called the F Sport Handling, and the former also has the unique trim named the ES Black Line Special Edition.

The base level ES models actually do not feature some things that come standard on the Toyota Crown XLE. For instance, if you want heated and ventilated front seats, seat memory functionality, or wireless charging capabilities, you will need to either go up a trim level on the ES or purchase an additional package to get that feature. However, the standard ES models to give you the opportunity to upgrade far more of its standard features with additional packages than the Crown, which simply doesn't have them available for the lower tiered models. These include features like a heads-up display, intuitive parking assist, wood trimming, or a Mark Levinson 17-speaker premium sound system. That final one is actually an additional charge no matter what Lexus ES model you select. It can be a lot to sift through, but the optionality means there is a perfect Lexus ES for you.

Part of the reason people may jump at the Toyota Crown over the Lexus ES is because they assume that the Crown is a more budget-friendly option. After all, Toyota has a number of very affordable vehicles, whereas Lexus is a luxury brand that has several models that have starting prices north of $100,000. Well, when it comes to these two mid-size sedans, the price difference is not nearly as large as you might think it would be.

The starting price for a 2025 Toyota Crown XLE, the base level for the car, is $41,440. Meanwhile, the Lexus ES 250 and 350 models have a starting price of $43,215. An $1,800 price difference is rather small in the grand scheme of things, but it does not tell the whole story because this is not a one-to-one comparison. For that, you need to go to the Lexus ES 300h because then both models are hybrids. In that case, the base model starts at $44,615, upping the difference to roughly $3,200. They are still in the same ballpark, but the Toyota remains the more affordable option.

However, this does not hold true when you go the highest level trims of each respective model. The most expensive version of the hybrid Lexus is the ES 300h F Sport Handling, which has a starting price of $50,910. Going over to the top tier trim for the Toyota Crown, the Plantinum, you have a car that starts at $54,990. In fact, the starting price for the Lexus ES Black Line Special Edition doesn't even reach that at $53,640. So, the price range between the two are more similar than you'd imagine.

You can go through all of the details of the Toyota Crown and Lexus ES until you are blue in the face, but it's one thing for the car company itself to tell you what the cars can do. It is another to get the opinions of actual drivers for their experiences with these cars. On the whole, the two have very similar scores from drivers. However, each car has its own area in which it is able to outpace the other by a pretty good margin.

According to drivers surveyed by J.D. Power, they gave the 2025 Toyota Crown an overall average of 82 out of 100, which shows a consistency in opinion as the previous year's model received the same score as well. It gets this in large part thanks to a quality and reliability score of 81 and a driving experience average of 82. The 2025 Lexus ES actually earned the exact same 82 out of 100 overall average from J.D. Power drivers. It's the details where they differ. The ES has an incredibly impressive 88 out of 100 quality and reliability rating, but the 73 driving experience score leaves quite a bit to be desired to be desired. Choosing between the two on this basis ultimately comes down to whether you want your car to be more reliable or a smoother driving experience. Whether it is the Toyota Crown or Lexus ES, it is clear that there are plenty of fans for both vehicles, so you are unlikely to be disappointed.