Featured The 2024 Toyota Crown May Just Be the World’s Greatest Luxury Car

I was right behind a Crown today for a couple miles. First time seeing one in the wild. The driver was apparently having trouble overcoming the spring tension in the gas pedal. It never went faster than 5 mph under the limit, even after the cars in front of it disappeared in the distance.

 

Rewritten from my idea of a luxury vehicle:

But if I am honest with myself, the things that make me happiest these days—and, transitively, the most luxurious things in life—are things that Just Work.
Things that do not force me to think more than I have to.
Things that let me adjust the temperature and skip to the next track without taking my eyes off the road.
Things I never need to take to the gas station.
Things that have a full ‘tank’ every morning.

Actually, I would not call that ‘luxury’.
I would call that what any car should be at a minimum standard.

 

What should people not need to take to a gas station and how do you have a full "tank" every morning?

I'm guessing that you're referring to owning an EV. But owning an EV and renting a home in a small town like I do means you probably have to charge somewhere else away from your home. And planing trips takes a lot more thinking in an EV as far as I've experienced.

Not that I wouldn't buy an EV again. But expecting to have a full tank every morning as a minimum standard means a lot of us are probably never going to be able meet your minimum standard. I'll be 52 this year and have no chance of ever owning my own home, let alone a home with a charging station.

 

Please note, this was my definition and not one I expect to be shared by everyone.
Planning trips has taken me no more than 5 more minutes, and most of the time no additional time.
Unless on a trip, I have never needed to charge away from home.
For me, it is incredibly convenient, and therefore fits my definition of incredibly convenient for me.

Others may have different experiences.

Again, that is my personal “standard” and just about any EV will meet that standard for our second car, most EVs will meet it for our first.

You don’t need a ‘charging station’. A garage with a dryer plug or arc welder/RV plug will suffice.

 

Gotcha! And sorry if I was sounding like a sour puss. (Acidic felines never sound good.) But if it works for you that's great. My interest in EV's may be for different reasons, but we do share liking EV's in common.

Having a garage or a dryer would be nice. I'm doing good if I'm able to park close enough to my apartment to get a 120V/15A cord out a window down to my car, hence one of the reasons I love the idea of the Aptera. Just one more kid to move out and then the wife and I would fit in one and here it's sunny most of the year. I actually wanted to put solar panels on the Leaf, but decided that it was more complicated than it would be worth.

 

Saw one the other day and my reaction was "Oh, that is the Avalon successor".

But then my wife's Avalon gets 43 mpg in its hybrid trim. And I call it a plush mobile. It is darn nice and has been super reliable with no unscheduled repairs in around 25k miles.

 

Yes I should have stated the wish that way

 

I wish there was a PHEV version of every car in Toyota's line-up and that they all were sold in the USA.

There have been a lot of things that have gone on thatnow have me a bit afraid to buy another used vehicle. Yet if I were to buy a new vehicle right now I would only be able to afford a Nissan Versa, which is on it's way out. But if there were a new PHEV Yaris available the day my Avalon dies, that would be perhaps the perfect vehicle at the perfect price, assuming it follows what one would guess is the right price for a PHEV Yaris. The good new for me is that the Avalon seems like a solid car, so I shouldn't worry about this for now. But the closer I creep up on 200,000 miles, the more nervious I get.

 

idk if toyota struggles to package the battery properly, or don't thing they will sell. even our hycam got a reduced gas tank, idk where they could put a phev battery and charger

 

I wouldn't go PHEV without some thought. The batteries are significantly bigger, at least double, and if they ever fail are hard to find, and very pricey. The car's heavier too.

If you've got a garage with electricity, are doing a lot of short trips, it might be a good fit. But think it through.

 

You don't use your car enough to cash in on the upside of having a PHEV.

Somebody who drives a lot more than you would be able to get far more benefit from the same expense and risk.

 

And every year even less. Gonna end up frozen on some event horizon...

 

Exactly!

For an example, I pay about $150 on average per month for fuel, in a car that is supposed to get 40mph and fuel is just barely $3 per gallon (about $3.10 last time I checked). Now if I could drive an EV or PHEV and spend half or a 1/3 on fuel (electricity is 11 cents per kWh), then that's as much as $100 less on fuel per month. (And with my charging where it's free when I can, even less). $100 per month is $1,200 per year or $12,000 in 10 years. Assuming the battery lasts 10 years before needing replaced then it's not a bad deal. And as fuel prices go up it's even more of a deal.

Now if I need a $7,000 battery every 5 years, then it would be a bad deal, but I don't think that would happen.

 

Chargers are getting smaller. Even 6 years ago our - 40 amp portable Tesla charger could put out 9.6 KW - 100% duty cycle.



Yet it fits in yer hand ....

As for putting in a decent amount of batteries for a decent range, it looks like the $39K Ford Escape is about the same height as the crown - & it will yield around 37 Electric miles.
.

 

Is that a charger or evse?

isn’t the escape more similar to rav4 prime?

 

Onboard charger does the same thing as an evse, it converts AC to dc. As for the similarity of the Ford plugin to the RAV4 prime ... it is somewhat similar - but it's a whole lot less expensive.
.

 

The earliest of the early batteries - age-wise are what, maybe 7 years old? 100k miles? Even in non-carb areas that means they're still under warranty, right? Don't know about anybody else, but anytime warranty work comes out, has anyone ever seen costs?
.

 

I think with EV's and PHEV's there are still a lot of unknowns. What we do know may be plenty good for a new car buyer. Will the lithium batteries hold up as well as the NiMH batteries? My Prius has just over 200,000 miles, and at this mileage it finally needs a new battery. If Lithium can do more, maybe double, then these Toyota Prime versions (Prius/RAV4) are a great deal. If it doesn't last as long, then they probably are not a good deal.