The automaker has announced that it is killing its youth-oriented Scion brand and transitioning the models currently sold by the division to Toyota in August.

Scion was launched in 2002 in an effort to attract younger car buyers to the Toyota fray, and was successful at that. Its average customer age of 36 is the lowest in the automotive industry, but its overall sales peaked at 173,034 in 2006 and were just 56,167 last year.

Not a Honda Fit story, except for those who were comparison shopping. Might be a good time to consider the Scion, if prices are lowered to clear inventory.

 

That's pretty bad, the iA was a great option in Fit's segment, great equipment for the low MSRP, I feel it would have kept Honda and Ford on their toes.

Hopefully the Mazda-2 based new Yaris will keep up.

 

Really a shame in some respects.

The original xB (bbX in the Japanese market) was a wonderful vehicle from the few people I knew who owned one. Decent mileage and plenty of room for occupants and cargo, but the slab-sided design (sometimes called The Toaster) was prone to being tossed about in high winds, and the nearly vertical windshield was extremely prone to cracking from road debris. Scion bloated the xB in '08 I believe, and took a lot of charm out of the original vehicle - mileage dropped and it became more SUV-like.

I know someone who bought a xD recently, and really regrets it - all kinds of maintenance issues with not that many miles.

 

Apparently it will be the Toyota iA. I helped my friend buy a car, and we bought the Scion. With the exception of the godawful front, it's the best car in the segment; the only car that competes with with my Fit for value and quality. I'm no fan of C&D, but they ranked it first, Fit second.

 

Other than killing off the tC, the other models will simply be re-badged as Toyotas. The Scion name wasn't fooling anybody, everyone knew it was Toyota.

 

So I get the frs will now be the Toyota frs? Or are they canceling that and just selling it as a Subaru.

 

Seems like a good idea to me. Maybe we'll see a return of a true performance line from Toyota, with XRS engine packages, the return of the Celica, etc, all good ideas that were canned when Scion came online.

 

Dang, that's too bad the tC was my favorite Scion - it was the perfectly balanced car between being sporty and practical for me.

 

The tC was the other car on my short list when I bought my Fit, but the dealer seemed completely uninterested in selling me one. They lowballed the trade-in quote on my Beetle Convertible TDi - several thousand lower than the Honda dealer offered.

I still like the styling of the tC, but am satisfied with my final choice - the Fit has worked out quite well for me.

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My wife had an iQ that i've recently took on as a little run about since I work from home and she wanted something bigger. Pretty fun little car honestly. Little slow and a little disconcerting at higher speeds because of the 78.8" wheelbase, but well built and really fun to fling around a a set of TE37's and Neova Advan tires that I had sitting around. Seats are absolutely HORRIBLE, having no lateral support and sitting up way too high.

Really surprised when we picked it up that they wanted $2000 more for a Smart Dumbtwo with 30,000 more miles and one year older than what they wanted for the iQ. I guess the iQs sell for pennies at Manheim auction according to to the salesman after we purchased (he said average Manheim auction values were $5000 to $7000 for 2012-2013 with under 40,000 miles).

 

We have and really like an '04 xB. Probably the best car made by Toyota at that time, because it was intended to be a Japan-only car.

Toyota needed something to counter the graying of its customer base and came up with Scion to lure the youngsters into the showroom. They grabbed existing JDM models and brought them here with minimal redesign. The xB was a huge hit, and they sold every one they made. Unfortunately, they didn't stay the course, since the bB's redesign in Japan prompted Toyota to replace it with the porky "New xB" that featured not much more room and far worse mileage. Sales tanked and Kia became the hot box with the Soul.

Most Scions are already Toyotas outside of the US, so the only difference will be rebadging and elimination of the one-price model that dealers hated anyway.

 

Market is again proving that one-price tactic is not working.
Scion is following the footsteps of Saturn, even with better overall products.