Will Toyota kill the Scion brand today?

[2o6]

The original xB and xA twins were great.



Then they sort of lost the plot :/

[Payman]

The original xB and xA twins were great.



Then they sort of lost the plot :/

Yep. Dunno about great, but the xB was definitely unique.

[MX793]

Don't forget the Euro-Capri of the 1970s or the original Mazda-derived 1988-89 Tracer which was nearly identical to the Australian Ford Laser.

Tracer was a rebadged 323 (available at Mazda dealerships).  Both the Euro Capri and first Tracer came and went outside of the 20 years before Ford killed the brand.

[2o6]

Yep. Dunno about great, but the xB was definitely unique.

Around that time, there wasn't a subcompact car out there that didn't feel or drive like trash. You either had the Accent or Rio, those two felt like claptraps at all times.

[Madman]

I'll never forget the XR4TI's. I hated those fucking things. Pains in the ass to diagnose. And the Merkur. I made the sign of the cross every time one of those satanic vehicles came in the service drive. 

Sounds exactly like the reception I received whenever I pulled my Merkur XR4Ti into the service lane at my not-so-friendly local Lincoln-Mercury dealer.  I have never before, or since, met dealership service personnel who clearly didn't want my business!

Why did they hate this car so much?

[SVT666]

Saturn had a solid following.

Yes, it was so solid the brand had a hard time selling cars

[shp4man]

Sounds exactly like the reception I received whenever I pulled my Merkur XR4Ti into the service lane at my not-so-friendly local Lincoln-Mercury dealer.  I have never before, or since, met dealership service personnel who clearly didn't want my business!

Why did they hate this car so much?

Ford's service publications left a great deal to be desired and the Euro elements of the design weren't easily reverse engineered.

[CALL_911]

Awesome. Good riddance

[Eye of the Tiger]

Stupid brand, grate cars.

[AutobahnSHO]

silly Americans. How did they convince the Japanese overlords this was a good idea in the first place?

As for Mercury- the Mercury Cougar of the 90s was sold in Yurrup as the Ford Cougar.

[Morris Minor]

My daughter had a Scion tC. I remember detailing it with her; it looked great, for a Scion. Then, the next day...

[AutobahnSHO]

My daughter had a Scion tC. I remember detailing it with her; it looked great, for a Scion. Then, the next day...

eek!   Someone else's fault?

[cawimmer430]

I wonder how many tears will be shed for Scion.

Are there even Scion fans out there?

[Eye of the Tiger]

I wonder how many tears will be shed for Scion.

Are there even Scion fans out there?

There is a club around here. They call themselves the Scichotics or Scikotics.

[ifcar]

Millenials were pretty much indifferent to Scion. I believe the actual average buyer was 47 or something like that.

Scion's average buyer age was actually a good stat by brand standards, but that's just because the entire brand was small cheap cars, and young people are more likely to buy small cheap cars from any brand.

The other issue is that the average Scion buyer got to be a pretty rare bird by the end.

[ifcar]

There is a club around here. They call themselves the Scichotics or Scikotics.

They'll buy up all the Scion badges that people pulled off of their FR-Ses and stick them on some Toyotas.

[giant_mtb]

My daughter had a Scion tC. I remember detailing it with her; it looked great, for a Scion. Then, the next day...

Did you put tire shine on the treads?

jk

[cawimmer430]

There is a club around here. They call themselves the Scichotics or Scikotics.

Sounds like they have some serious drug issues!

[MrH]

What the Toyota exec said on why they're killing scion actually made sense. The taste of the demographic they're going after has changed considerably.

Keep in mind this brand came out during the pimp my ride/fast and the furious era. They pushed hard with from the factory customization and really marketed the cars as a canvas to make your own. That trend is dead now. No use in the additional cost to run the brand if it chasing after a dead trend.

I say good move Toyota

[giant_mtb]

They tried to create a factory aftermarket type brand for people that had no idea what the word aftermarket meant in the realm of ridez.

[Cookie Monster]

Damn, lots of hate for Scion. I thought it was a decent idea. It's not like it cost them that much since they just rebranded JDM Toyotas. It was an easy way to sell compact cars to younger people without having to develop new cars while distancing themselves from their "old people" Toyota products, and in a sense, they succeeded since they had a relatively younger customer base.

It's not their fault kids went from ricing FWD compact cars to drifting and destroying Miatas and S2000s ().

[12,000 RPM]

These were the kind of cars in FnF



Not this

[Eye of the Tiger]

These were the kind of cars in FnF



Not this

[2o6]

I don't know why you guys were hating on Scion - the original xB was a hit.


Then they fucked it up with xB gen 2, and then the Kia Soul happened

[93JC]

I don't know why you guys were hating on Scion - the original xB was a hit.

One car did okay, sales-wise. It was cool because it was different, and very practical. Different enough to capture the interest of younger people who didn't want something stodgy like a Corolla, but practical enough to capture the interest of older folks. The rest of the brand was the embodiment of 'meh'. The xA, xD, tC, iQ: they're not complete crap, they're just 'meh'. 'Meh' sold with a painfully forced effort at being "hip"; it was very off-putting to almost everyone between the ages of 23 to 49.

From "Is there a brand you absolutely refuse to buy?":

...there is a brand I'd never buy: Scion. I'd rather not associate myself with people who succumb to the most cynical marketing I've seen in recent memory. I don't really have anything against the cars themselves, although I think they're quite mediocre, but the idea that marketing these things as some sort of 'hip' alternative to Toyota is... You know what? I can't even think of an adjective that would accurately articulate my contempt for the idea of Scion.

And I called this months ago:

Scion is a crap brand, and everyone knows it. They should badge the iM as "Corolla hatchback", kill off the tC and rebadge whatever's left as Toyotas.

YOU'RE FUCKING WELCOME FOR THE FREE PRODUCT PLANNING, TOYOTA.

[Eye of the Tiger]

I like that most, if not all Scions had damn good stereos.

[giant_mtb]

I don't know why you guys were hating on Scion - the original xB was a hit.


Then they fucked it up with xB gen 2, and then the Kia Soul happened

The original xB was a hit and then...........lol

[ifcar]

Damn, lots of hate for Scion. I thought it was a decent idea. It's not like it cost them that much since they just rebranded JDM Toyotas. It was an easy way to sell compact cars to younger people without having to develop new cars while distancing themselves from their "old people" Toyota products, and in a sense, they succeeded since they had a relatively younger customer base.

It's not their fault kids went from ricing FWD compact cars to drifting and destroying Miatas and S2000s ().

The thing is, young people were also buying Toyotas; there was just one affordable and competitive Toyota, which was the Corolla. So Scion brought in more small cars, which also would have sold to young people under the Toyota name.

The original xB was a hit and then...........lol

The first tC was an even bigger hit, and perfect for its demographic -- exactly what a young person would actually want and less like something an old person would (unlike the xB). But then Toyota made it less classy and missed the boat on young people wanting good gas mileage.

[Madman]

From "Is there a brand you absolutely refuse to buy?":
And I called this months ago:



YOU'RE FUCKING WELCOME FOR THE FREE PRODUCT PLANNING, TOYOTA.

[Raza]

Yep. Dunno about great, but the xB was definitely unique.

Yeah, they sucked.  But they had an appeal to some, it seemed.  Couldn't go five minutes without seeing one back in 2004.