Toyota dumps Scion

[Rope-Pusher]

Toyota's youth-oriented sub-brand is put out of its misery

Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/to ... z3z9wzDuO7

[Rope-Pusher]

Scion is not Japan's only failed U.S. brand

Just 2,000 Toyopets were sold in two years before Toyota killed the Toyopet brand. But the company remained in the U.S. selling only one vehicle, the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Four years later, Toyota came back with a better car, the Toyota Corona, and a more efficient distribution system.
http://www.autonews.com/article/2016020 ... news-daily

[IMBoring25]

Youth brands don't seem to fare well...Plymouth, Pontiac, Mercury (yeah, I know, they didn't exactly hit the youth demo they were targeting), now Scion...

[tankinbeans]

Youth brands don't seem to fare well...Plymouth, Pontiac, Mercury (yeah, I know, they didn't exactly hit the youth demo they were targeting), now Scion...

Mercury was a youth brand? Are you sure? I thought it was supposed to sit between Ford and Lincoln.

The problem is that youths in general couldn't give two flying forks at a rolling donut for a car and couldn't afford a new one if they did.

[IMBoring25]

Yes, that probably is a strong term for what they were trying, in retrospect. I wound up equating their market position with Pontiac because they were both performance-biased, but Mercury did usually slot a little more personal-luxury, kind of between Buick and Pontiac, maybe closer to Oldsmobile. They did try to go younger towards the end with the FWD Cougar.

[potownrob]

Youth brands don't seem to fare well...Plymouth, Pontiac, Mercury (yeah, I know, they didn't exactly hit the youth demo they were targeting), now Scion...

plymouth was a youth brand?!? i always thought it was just there for people who refused to drive a dodge . and mercury may have been a youth brand earlier on and with certain models into the 90s, but they seemed to be more of an upscale ford (between ford and lincoln) in later years (e.g. sable, milan, grand marquis)

[theholycow]

How has nobody mentioned Geo? It's almost exactly the same thing, 15 years earlier. GM created it with similar goals and strategies (less sporty and more efficient, but that was the trend at that time) and ended it the same way, by abandoning the brand name/logo and gobbling the models and dealerships into Chevrolet.

[tankinbeans]

Wasn't Geo supposed to be GM's vain attempt to rebadge their competitors' cars and take in tech for themselves? I can't recall a single Geo that wasn't wearing drag.

Prizm/Toyota Corolla
Tracker/Izusu something
Metro/Suzuki Swift

[theholycow]

Don't forget the Storm and Spectrum, also Isuzus.

The Tracker was a Suzuki Sidekick.

[IMBoring25]

Prizm was a co-developed platform and GM actually owned a substantial minority stake in Isuzu and a lesser one in Suzuki.

[tankinbeans]

Now I'm recalling. The few times I've ridden in Geos were hateful experiences. Geo was supposed to be cheap to buy, but I don't necessarily think Cheap is automatically synonymous with youth brand.

My dad would have bought a Geo, if it weren't GM, because he's a cheapskate. I don't know of a single younger person who would have bought a Geo had they had a chance.

As for Mercury, Ford lost the plot. Nobody was interested in a gussied up, uglier Ford. When there is no substantial difference people are going to load up the "pedestrian" model rather than pay a premium for the brand while getting less stuff.

[Rope-Pusher]

I would have said that Geo was an attempt to sell cars a melange of badge-engineered vehicles under one brand, but obviously not badge-engineered versions of other GM vehicles. If the customer didn't associate Geo with GM, so much the better, because they weren't looking to sell to regular GM brand customers.

[Teamwork]

My first memory of Scion was back in 2005 inside a Circuit City which has gone the way of the wind as well. They had two cars parked inside the store (the first gen TC and xB) and I remember thinking to myself that these cars didn't even look like real life cars that you could drive on the street but production concepts. I didn't really know it was the division of Toyota until I looked further into it. I've experienced the 1st generation of the TC, xB, and xA and the only one which I thought wasn't that great was the xA which was basically a 4 dr Echo. The 2nd generation of every car they had from inception was a noticeable step sideways (but mostly backwards) and the newly introduced vehicles like the iQ were pretty much answers to questions that were never asked.

I feel that this brand ran the same route as GM with Saturn... something that started out really hot and fizzled quickly without any reinforcements from the mother brand. Some of the interviews in regards to Scion's last day really show how clueless executives at Toyota were and still are. I would easily want to own an iA as an every day commuter car but that's pretty much Mazda's creation. They said the FRS name plate has too much brand equity to change when it becomes a Toyota but... more than GT86?

[potownrob]

My first memory of Scion was back in 2005 inside a Circuit City which has gone the way of the wind as well. They had two cars parked inside the store (the first gen TC and xB) and I remember thinking to myself that these cars didn't even look like real life cars that you could drive on the street but production concepts. I didn't really know it was the division of Toyota until I looked further into it. I've experienced the 1st generation of the TC, xB, and xA and the only one which I thought wasn't that great was the xA which was basically a 4 dr Echo. The 2nd generation of every car they had from inception was a noticeable step sideways (but mostly backwards) and the newly introduced vehicles like the iQ were pretty much answers to questions that were never asked.

I feel that this brand ran the same route as GM with Saturn... something that started out really hot and fizzled quickly without any reinforcements from the mother brand. Some of the interviews in regards to Scion's last day really show how clueless executives at Toyota were and still are. I would easily want to own an iA as an every day commuter car but that's pretty much Mazda's creation. They said the FRS name plate has too much brand equity to change when it becomes a Toyota but... more than GT86?

back in the say, when scion was new (or newer), i was considering a scion tC. i thought it was cool that you could personalize it on their website (and possibly order it online?? i forget), and that big glass moonroof was cool. i was comparing it to a 4 cylinder accord coupe of its vintage (~2003-2005 i think), and was having a hard time choosing between them. ultimately, i ended up getting another used car instead. the 2nd gen tC and other models were kinda unimpressive, but i was also older when they came out. if the FRS can't make it as a Toyota, then I'm not sure how it made it as a Scion. I also miss the real Celicas.

[Teamwork]

back in the say, when scion was new (or newer), i was considering a scion tC. i thought it was cool that you could personalize it on their website (and possibly order it online?? i forget), and that big glass moonroof was cool. i was comparing it to a 4 cylinder accord coupe of its vintage (~2003-2005 i think), and was having a hard time choosing between them. ultimately, i ended up getting another used car instead. the 2nd gen tC and other models were kinda unimpressive, but i was also older when they came out. if the FRS can't make it as a Toyota, then I'm not sure how it made it as a Scion. I also miss the real Celicas.

I probably did too but I realized that they had a pretty negative stigma attached to them because it wasn't "really" a celica. If I was single, and about 4 years younger I truly believe my next car would've been a Scion FRS/Subaru BRZ and I even test drove one but realistically in my head knew there was no sell. The salesman was a really nice guy, a straight shooter even- but he was also about 6'6 and probably pushing 250 lbs. I've never seen a guy look with such regret sitting next to me on a test drive. I'm pretty sure that 5 minute test drive took 5 years off his back/neck. If that car has the same FA20 in the current WRX I think it'd sell better, tenfold.