Autoblog and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article.Remember the Cressida?For those born in the 2000s, you'll be forgiven for not knowing the Toyota Cressida. It was introduced in late 1976 and spanned four generations, ending production in 1995. In essence, it was the export market version of the Mark II sedan sold in Japan. After repeated attempts to sell the Crown in North America, Toyota's flagship sedan, the Cressida, had proved fruitless.One can also say that the Cressida was the precursor to what would eventually become Lexus. Back in the day, if you wanted the nicest Toyota in America, the Cressida was the way to go. It was, in many ways, a traditional executive sedan (and occasional wagon), as it was rear-wheel drive. It was eventually replaced by the larger front-wheel drive Avalon, but if we're being honest, it wasn't quite a direct successor.Toyota CressidaRenewed Trademark FilingIt has been over 30 years since Toyota used the name Cressida in any capacity. At the same time, the Avalon was discontinued in North America after the 2022 model year. Currently, it's only being sold in China, and the Crown Crossover has effectively taken its place in most parts of the world.AdvertisementAdvertisementInterestingly, Toyota had recently renewed its trademark filing for the Cressida. Before anyone over the age of 35 gets too excited, let's run down the possible reasons why the name has cropped up again.ToyotaA New Large Sedan?The Crown Crossover currently serves as Toyota's largest sedan, if we can actually call it that. While the lifted Crown was meant to take over the Avalon's role, it never quite matched its predecessor's sales, even as demand for the latter began trailing off. On the flip side, the wagon-esque Crown Signia is doing far better than its sedan counterpart.The Crown Crossover was supposedly made to revive interest in the large sedan segment. While a successful product in Japan, it hasn't translated to more sales stateside. The U.S. market doesn't get the more traditional Crown, and there's no chance of that large, rear-drive executive sedan ever coming stateside.Perhaps a name more familiar to Americans might do the trick, and bringing back the Cressida name for the replacement for the Crown could be a way to do that.ToyotaIt Could be a Renaming of a Current ModelToyota could also take the easier way by simply swapping the Crown name for Cressida in North America. Remember, the Crown wasn't sold in North America for 50 years after the last model, so its equity probably wasn't as strong by the time it returned to America. Meanwhile, Cressida was a name truly intended for export markets.AdvertisementAdvertisementThat said, it could be a temporary fix at best and could backfire in the long run. A name change won't fix the car's divisive looks, bringing us back to our first point.ToyotaProtecting the HeritageToyota could simply be protecting its heritage by keeping the Cressida name for its self. Of course, it's not barring its use for other things, but rather for automotive applications. That means no other car manufacturer can use Cressida except for Toyota. However, that name is only protected in the country it's registered in, which in this case, is Paraguay. Toyota could take the next steps by renewing the trademark in other countries.Will Toyota ever reuse Cressida in the future? It's hard to say, but it's keeping it in its back pocket just to be sure.ToyotaThis story was originally published by Autoblog on May 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.