Scions join Toyota lineup, fail to catch on with youths

Toyota confirmed Wednesday that it has killed its ailing Scion brand, which was spun off as a separate lineup of vehicles in 2003 but slumped in recent years after critical flops and slumping auto sales.

Speaking at a Spring 2015 launch, Scion’s former Vice President Doug Murtha explained the marketing strategy behind the launch of Scion brand and said that the brand aimed at young, energetic and urban buyers who wanted to differentiate themselves from their elders, in this case parents.

“It’s been a great run and I’m proud that the spirit of Scion will live on through the knowledge and products soon to be available through the Toyota network”, he said. With collective sales surpassing a million units, 70 percent of Scions were purchased by customers new to Toyota and half of buyers were under 35 years old. So, with new Toyota vehicles evolving to feature the dynamic styling and young peoples’ desire…it only made sense. The brand will be phased out, and existing models-including the MY17, FR-S sports vehicle, iA sedan, iM hatchback, and C-HR concept car-will be folded into the Toyota lineup.

More recently, Scion’s successful FR-S sporty coupe harkened back to iconic Toyota cars such as the Celica of the 1970s. The tC sports coupe will have a final release series edition and end production in August 2016, the automaker said. All current Scion customers can continue to visit Toyota dealerships for service. Despite a small spike in 2012, sales were only 56,167 in 2015, despite the two new models, which typically boost a brand’s overall sales. I don’t know that it was ever an exciting brand though, which could be part of why it never became the runaway success Toyota might have hoped it’d become. If Toyota didn’t already have plans to rebrand some of your best models, I’d say so long and farewell. Regardless of how you look at the Scion brand from Toyota, it will be no more in due time. Rather, he said that it is a leap forward. Toyota says it will work closely with them to deal with the change. Three years ago, Reuters reported that the average Scion owner was 49 years old, whereas a Toyota exec had claimed the average age was closer to 30. Killing Scion now might take some of the spotlight off lagging sales and negative attention every time sales numbers are announced.