The Toyota Crown gets Off-Road Treatment for Special Edition

Just when you thought Toyota's jacked-up Crown couldn't get any weirder, here comes the Landscape. It's the name of a new special edition for the Japanese market where the model is sold as the Crown Crossover. Targeting outdoorsy people, the off-road variant has increased ground clearance by one inch to tackle rougher terrain better.

Toyota is fitting the Crown Crossover Landscape with 18-inch two-tone wheels wrapped in 245/60 R18 all-terrain tires, and there are even contrasting red mudflaps behind them. The extra cladding around the wheel arches has a matte finish and we're being told those over-fenders are painted by hand. Another upgrade is at the back where there's a towing hitch for hauling up to 1,653 pounds.

The limited-run version comes painted in Urban Khaki with black accents and gets a rear fog light mounted next to the license plate. For greater practicality, the roof rack is optional and can be installed at a dealer. Inside, Toyota gives the Crown Crossover Landscape a glossy black trim along with a laser engraving of the model's name on the passenger side of the dashboard.

Available exclusively with all-wheel drive and the 2.4-liter hybrid powertrain, the lifted sedan costs the equivalent of $45,300 in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Crown Crossover is one of the four Crown-badged launched domestically, alongside the smaller Crown Sport crossover, a larger Crown Estate (which is actually an SUV coming to the US as the Crown Signia), and the traditional Crown sedan.