04 February 2016

Scion Brand Ending

A 2011 Scion tC

I never really understood why Toyota did Scion. It was only for the USA, then belatedly Canada was included. It was to appeal to younger buyers that didn't want to drive a Toyota because their parents did. I think if you want to appeal to a car buying demographic in society, creating a specific brand to do that is bold but flawed. The target market is limited and constantly changing.

It was launched in 2002, and by 2006, 173,000 sales was quite successful for a short time frame. Taking it to the next level was the challenge and maybe at this point Toyota was complacent about the brand. From there the sales fell sharply until 2011. By then Canada was welcomed into the fold but that seemed to be too little too late.

Yr USA Canada Total

2002 2,054 - 2,054

2003 8,916 - 8,916

2004 99,259 - 99,259

2005 156,485 - 156,485

2006 173,034 - 173,034

2007 130,181 - 130,181

2008 113,904 - 113,904

2009 57,961 - 57,961

2010 45,678 679 46,357

2011 49,271 4,720 53,991

2012 73,505 5,783 79,288

2013 68,321 4,978 73,299

2014 58,009 3,962 61,971

2015 56,167 4,659 60,826

2016 5,099 256 5,355

Tot 1,097,844 25,037 1,122,881

The marque would need constant attention to keep the interest up. The Toyota brand relies on repeat customers. For Scion, a young person would buy one, then get older and buy something else. There would be little if any buyer loyalty. It was like a dependent child always needing attention and that forced Toyota to announce it is pulling the plug, and from August 2016 Scion models will be sold as Toyota cars. It probably should have been done sooner.

The Scion xB from 2009

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