Scion Set Out To Pasture, Some Models Absorbed By Toyota

Nonetheless, Toyota said that the average age of a Scion buyer – 36 – was the youngest in the industry and that most buyers were entirely new to Toyota vehicles. Toyota sold just 56,167 Scion vehicles in 2015, reflecting a broader drop in sales of small cars in a US market that is tilting towards larger sport utility vehicles and trucks.

“This isn’t a step backward for Scion; it’s a leap forward for Toyota”, he said. Toyota released a press release this morning confirming the news and announcing that most Scion models would be consolidated into the bigger, and more successful brand. The Corolla outsold all of Scion by four or five to one most of the time Scion was a brand.

Beginning in August, MY17 Scion vehicles will be branded as Toyotas.

This August Toyota is killing Scion, its 13-year-old attempt at luring young people to then-staid Toyota.

Scion owners can still visit Toyota service departments for maintenance and repairs. All 22 of the strictly Scion team members, covering areas including sales, marketing, distribution, strategy, and product and accessories planning, will all be offered positions with Toyota. But she says she would consider a Toyota in the future, especially if the brand adopts no-haggle pricing.

Beavis noted that all the roughly 1,000 Scion dealers already sell Toyota, making the transition easier. The last straw, you could say, was plunging gasoline prices, which have crushed sales of the type of small cars Scion pursued. It appeared that Toyota was on the verge turning the brand around, not once, but twice – first with the now-discontinued iQ city auto in 2011 and the FR-S sports vehicle (known to us as the Toyota 86) in 2012.

Considering that Scion just introduced two new models, the quite-good iA and the less-exciting iM, it’s a surprising move by Toyota.

The decision won’t have much real impact.

And the brand again seemed to be mounting a combeback with last summer’s launch of two new models, the Mazda2-based iA subcompact and iM compact hatchback, the latter a USA version of the highly regarded Toyota Avensis sold in Europe.

The Scion brand was launched by Toyota to target the youth audience across the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

A spokeswoman said Toyota would realise “efficiencies” from not having to promote a separate brand, but declined to provide figures.