Toyota says it is killing its Scion brand of cars.
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A press release issued this morning said the decision to discontinue Scion was made in part because the younger buyers Scion was founded to attract are happy buying Toyota models.
Over a million Scion cars found homes with a younger demographic than your typical Toyota buyer – buyers averaged an age of 36 years old. “At the same time, new Toyota vehicles have evolved to feature the dynamic styling and handling young people desire”.
In August, model year 2017 Scions, including the FR-S sports vehicle, iA sedan, iM 5-door hatchback and recently debuted C-HR hatchback, will be rebranded as Toyota models. The tC coupe will have a final release series edition and end production in August, according to Toyota.
The widely admired C-HR concept shown at the LA Auto Show will become a future Toyota model.
The automaker says its Toyota dealerships will continue to service and fix Scions.
A spokeswoman said Toyota would realise “efficiencies” from not having to promote a separate brand, but declined to provide figures. 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. Toyota abandoned the early design distinctiveness of the brand that was exhibited by models such as the boxy xB. It will just call them Toyotas. Scion also doesn’t have any SUVs, which are rapidly becoming the most popular style of vehicle in the U.S.
“While some Scion products were more appealing, and more successful, than others, they were always limited in price and cost to draw in young buyers”, Karl Brauer, senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book said.
Scion owners: what do you think about the brand name going away?
With an annual sales target of 100,000 cars, Scion managed to deliver fewer than 60,000 past year.
Scion, which started in 2003, has seen lagging sales, with a mere 56,167 cars sold previous year in the U.S. After all, most Scions were just mildly rebadged Toyotas to begin with, so not much is actually changing – aside from the sign outside the dealer.
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The launch of two new mainstream 2016 models, the iM hatchback based off the Toyota Auris sold outside North America, and the iA compact that was based on the Mazda2 and came with Mazda’s SkyActiv powertrain, was indicator that Scion was sliding back into the Toyota fold.
