Toyota gives the Crown a new shine for its 60th birthday

Toyota's flagship sedan model in Japan, the Crown, is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this year. To mark the occasion and prepare for its seventh decade of production, Toyota is treating the Crown to a mid-cycle update.

The range of upgrades includes a new direct-injection turbo 2.0-litre engine for the Athlete series, tuned for increased low and mid-range punch. There are also the 2.5 and 3.5-litre naturally aspirated engines as well as a hybrid option, available in rear or all-wheel drive, and channelled through six or eight-speed automatic transmissions.

Finally, there's an array of new technologies packed inside the new Crown, including right-turn collision, red light, and traffic signal warning systems, along with radar-enabled cruise control, emergency vehicle warning, blind spot monitor and intelligent parking assist.

The Crown will also be the world's first mass market vehicle to offer a driver assist function that uses a dedicated ITS frequency. The package, named ITS Connect, uses Japan's standardised ITS frequency of 760MHz to receive and share data transmitted by external infrastructure and other vehicles, data that often cannot be picked up by onboard sensors.