The first half of the year proved that selling cars in the US is no longer a walk in the park. Industry leader General Motors clung to its crown with 1,341,325 units sold, but a 6.8 percent slide compared to last year shows the armor is cracking. Normally, Toyota would pounce on such a slip-up, but despite a 10 percent spike in June, the Japanese giant settled for second place at 1,243,391 deliveries.
While Toyota relies on the boringly safe volumes of the Camry, Corolla, RAV4, and Tacoma to do the heavy lifting, its pricier, niche experiments are free-falling. The rugged Land Cruiser plummeted 40 percent, while the Prius took an equally brutal 42 percent nose dive. Meanwhile, the premium Crown series is struggling to find its footing. The Crown sedan crept up a meager two percent to 5,152 units, while its crossover sibling slid nine percent to a depressing 11,231 vehicles. It turns out buyers aren’t lining up to pay premium prices for raised fastbacks.
Perhaps Toyota should have kept things simple. Over in China, executive buyers still enjoy the classic comfort of the fifth-generation Toyota Avalon, a full-size cruiser America killed after the 2022 model year. While we were steered into crossovers, China facelifted the Avalon twice in 2022, and Chinese MIIT filings reveal a third refresh for 2026. This update brings the aggressive “hammerhead” design language to the sedan, a face currently shared by the Prius and Crown.
To show us what we are missing, digital artist Sugar Chow, known as sugardesign_1, bypassed the official Chinese reveal to CGI-render this upcoming Avalon facelift.
His hypothetical design cleans up the front end, detaching the slim upper grille from the bumper, adding C-shaped LEDs, new alloy wheels, and a tight rear with interconnected taillights. It is a stunning visual reminder of the dignified sedan Americans were tricked into abandoning, proving that the forbidden fruit across the Pacific looks far better than the bloated crossovers filling our driveways.
