OFFICIAL: Scion Is Dead, Will 'Transition to Toyota' for 2017 Model Year
Toyota officially announced Wednesday morning that Scion will “transition to Toyota,” effectively killing off the youth brand started in 2002. Its first vehicles went on sale in California in 2003, and included the xA hatchback and xB wagon.
According to a release from Toyota, Scion “is now transitioning back to the Toyota brand” and most Scion models well be rebranded as Toyotas starting August 2016 for the 2017 model year, including the forthcoming C-HR. The Scion tC will be discontinued as of August 2016.
“This isn’t a step backward for Scion; it’s a leap forward for Toyota. Scion has allowed us to fast track ideas that would have been challenging to test through the Toyota network,” said Jim Lentz, founding vice president of Scion and now CEO, Toyota Motor North America. “I was there when we established Scion and our goal was to make Toyota and our dealers stronger by learning how to better attract and engage young customers. I’m very proud because that’s exactly what we have accomplished.
“We could not have achieved the success we have had without the incredible support of Scion’s customers, dealers and team members, so supporting them throughout this transition process will be one of our top priorities,” said Lentz.
According to Toyota, the average age of a Scion buyer is 36, and the Scion tC has the lowest-average age buyer in the industry at 29. New models — the iA and iM — claim 70 percent of their buyers as being first-time new car purchasers.
While Toyota didn’t overtly state there will be no loss of staff as part of the transition, it did say “Scion’s 22 dedicated team members, who represent sales, marketing, distribution, strategy, and product and accessories planning, will have the opportunity to take on new jobs at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. in Torrance.”
A total of 1,004 Scion dealers will be affected, though most of those locations are dual-brand stores that also sell Toyotas.
Toyota sold a total of 1,092,675 cars under the Scion marque from 2003 to the end of 2015.
More by Mark Stevenson
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Scion started out ok, especially with the tC, a sporty, inexpensive and decemt looking car that you could add some cool extras on. The xb was popular, and the whole lot seemed reliable enough. What happened after that was uglier cars in a half-hearted attempt to update, and tjr IQ, which just looked awful and tried to cash in on Smart's misery and stupidity. It seems like they just stopped caring after a few years.
I would not call it a failure. They attracted younger people to Toyota. Millenias do not like cars in general and if forced into car love brands driven by their parents (except my son of course) so they refused to buy Scions leaving the honor to own Scion to Xers and Boomers. It is the most conformist/socialist/jobless generation in American history. I had no idea that Scion was making cars other than tC and FR-S. tC is American version of Avensis as far as I understand. In EUrope it is class between Corolla and Camry (not sold in Europe anymore). I.e. something that was similar to Passat/Vectra (VW never had D-class car and Opel had Omega).