Scion Dying

Today’s Supra CC is a humbling reminder that Toyota has stumbled before. With all the hoopla about Chrysler’s sales being down 38% this year, its easy to overlook that Scion’s sales are crashing, down 51% this year, and a whopping 66% since its peak in 2006. That year, Scion moved 173k of its youth-oriented cool-mobiles,even if most of them went to the target buyers’ parents. This year, Scion will be lucky to sell even 57k units. Time to prune the family tree?

It’s not exactly a new issue here at TTAC: we’ve editorialized about the intrinsic limitations and pitfalls of Scion’s youth-oriented marketing repeatedly, starting back in 2004. And we haven’t exactly helped either: my review of the current xB was a bit of a shot heard around the internet world. Now the chickens are coming home to roost, but Toyota is still acting oblivious.

In a freep piece, Scion Vice President Jack Hollis speaks but does not hear (or read sales stats):

“My goal is to expand,” Hollis said. “There’s no way to say if it will be four, five or six models. We’ve got to figure out what’s the next type of buyer we want to reach and develop vehicles for them.

“We have the youngest customers in the industry.”Scion’s not about sales totals,” Hollis said. “It’s about getting a new type of customer.”

But Scion’s claims about its (relatively) youthful median buyers’ age is being disputed by Strategic Visions, which claims that the current median age of Scion buyers is a not-so-young 47. And it’s been trending higher ever since 2006. The median age of all car buyers is 54.

“Scion hasn’t been a standout for any product reason,” said Mike Bernacchi, a marketing professor at the University of Detroit Mercy. “There hasn’t been much innovation from Scion vehicles. It made an early splash, but hasn’t shown great legs.”

“They started with a very innovative and aggressive idea,” said Stephanie Brinley of AutoPacific. “When the first vehicles were successful, they got nervous about losing sales and lost the innovation.”

Echoing our repeated Scionic mantra, Rebecca Lindland of IHS Global Insight sums it up:

There’s a disconnect between Scion’s cars and its marketing message. Creating a brand to feed buyers into Toyota and Lexus is risky…If it doesn’t work, you’re committed to a brand that loses money. We’re not sure how many additional vehicles Toyota has sold because of Scion.”Just because a brand has a mission, that doesn’t mean it will succeed.”