Scion Gives the TC a Funeral Pyre Edition

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

If you’ve been holding out on buying a Scion tC until the right special edition came along, this is your last opportunity.

Scion’s parent, Toyota, took the youth-oriented brand behind the woodshed last month, making the upcoming Release Series 10.0 version of the tC coupe an aerodynamic swan song.

Developed in partnership with designer Kei Miura, the Release Series 10.0 goes to town on the tC’s suspension and body.

The tC’s ride will be stiffened up (and center of gravity lowered) with the use of TRD performance shocks, a growl will be added (to replace the brand’s whimper) from a TRD exhaust system, and a Miura-designed aero kit will boost the body’s visual aggression.

Available only in Barcelona Red, the Release Series 10.0 comes with gloss black wheels and red stitching in the otherwise all-black interior. Special badging will allow owners to tell their tC Release Series apart from their neighbor’s.

The model will be displayed at next week’s New York International Auto Show before going on sale for $23,190 (in six-speed manual guise).

The show will be Scion’s last. Like John Dillinger’s fateful trip to the Biograph Theatre, this lady in (Barcelona) red is a portent of the brand’s imminent demise.

Toyota claims that Scion’s existence was an experiment in luring younger and first-time car buyers to the company, and that the tC had the lowest average buying age in the industry (29).

Once the Scion name had been officially laid to rest, the remaining models in the lineup — iA, iM and FR-S — will have their badges swapped for Toyota logos.

[Images: Toyota]



Steph Willems
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  • MRF 95 T-Bird MRF 95 T-Bird on Mar 16, 2016

    They could have tweaked it a bit and rebadged it as a Celica. I'm sure there are plenty of Toyota customers who have fond memories of them and would like one instead of a vanilla Corolla. I saw one today similar to this but with a faux center exhaust. TRD does offer a supercharger kit for these which apparently gives it more grunt.

  • Chi-One Chi-One on Mar 16, 2016

    Corey & Kyree RE: Challenger script The presence or absence of the call-out depends on year and model. My '13 R/T Plus had the fender script and HEMI on the hood bulges. My '16 R/T Plus has the HEMI replacing the fender script and nothing on the hood.

    • See 1 previous
    • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Mar 17, 2016

      Interesting. I bet it will be a while before they return to script again for that model.

  • MaintenanceCosts In Toyota's hands, these hybrid powertrains with a single motor and a conventional automatic transmission have not been achieving the same kind of fuel economy benefits as the planetary-gear setups in the smaller cars. It's too bad. Many years ago GM did a group of full-size pickups and SUVs with a 6.0L V8 and a two-motor planetary gear system, and those got the fuel economy boost you'd expect while maintaining big-time towing capacity. Toyota should have done the same with its turbo four and six in the new trucks.
  • JMII My C7 isn't too bad maintain wise but it requires 10 quarts of expensive 0W-40 once a year (per GM) and tires are pricey due size and grip requirements. I average about $600 a year in maintenance but a majority of that is due to track usage. Brake fluid, brake pads and tires add up quickly. Wiper blades, coolant flush, transmission fluid, rear diff fluid and a new battery were the other costs. I bought the car in 2018 with 18k in mileage and now it has 42k. Many of the items mentioned are needed between 20k and 40k per GM's service schedule so my ownership period just happens to align with various intervals.I really need to go thru my service spreadsheet and put track related items on a separate tab to get a better picture of what "normal" cost would be. Its likely 75% of my spend is track related.Repairs to date are only $350. I needed a new XM antenna (aftermarket), a cargo net clip, a backup lamp switch and new LED side markers (aftermarket). The LEDs were the most expensive at $220.
  • Slavuta I drove it but previous style. Its big, with numb steering feel, and transmission that takes away from whatever the engine has.
  • Wjtinfwb Rivaled only by the Prowler and Thunderbird as retro vehicles that missed the mark... by a mile.
  • Wjtinfwb Tennessee is a Right to Work state. The UAW will have a bit less leverage there than in Michigan, which repealed R t W a couple years ago. And how much leverage will the UAW really have in Chattanooga. That plant builds ID. 4 and Atlas, neither of which are setting the world afire, sales wise. I'd have thought VW would have learned the UAW plays by different rules than the placid German unions from the Westmoreland PA debacle. But history has shown VW to be exceptionally slow learners. Watching with interest.
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