#scion

The U.S. market, long in need of an affordable, compact, rear-wheel-drive sports car, allowed the hype to initially take hold. The Scion FR-S’s best ever month was its first full month of availability – June 2012 – when 2684 copies were sold.

But in the second-half of the FR-S’s first full year in the U.S., FR-S volume slid 4%.

• FR-S accounts for 24% of U.S. Scion sales

• Scion accounts for 2.4% of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. volume

• Subaru sold 25,492 WRX/STi Imprezas in 2014

The numbers weren’t terribly low. 18,327 FR-Ss were sold in the U.S. in 2013. But they weren’t terribly high, either. Nissan, for a reference point, sold 36,728 350Zs in 2003.

Regardless, only 18 months into the car’s tenure, monthly declines became notable because of their severity and consistency.

Scion has confirmed that their new iM hatchback will be joined by a sedan, debuting at April’s New York Auto Show.

It is difficult not to write satire – but this might be too subtle. Thoughts?

(H/T Jalopnik)

In a few short months, we’ll see the production version of the Scion iM, based on the European Toyota Auris. If only Toyota had sent this instead.

For the 18th consecutive month, the Scion brand’s U.S. volume declined in November 2014. The streak has reached a special low point, however, with the worst percentage decline since June and the lowest sales total since January 2012, when the iQ had only just arrived and the FR-S wasn’t yet on sale.

We’re long past expecting Scion to be capable of selling 14,400 cars a month as they did when the brand peaked in 2006. In 2012, Scion sold an average 6125 cars per month, an average which climbed to nearly 6700 monthly sales in the final seven months of that year.

But with just 3907 November 2014 sales, a 21.4% drop compared with November 2013 and a 30.3% decline compared with November 2012, the brand’s 18-month streak has tumbled to new lows.

When the Scion iM makes its way over to our shores in 2015, it will ditch the aggro-blue paint job and the import tuner bodykit. How do we know this? Logic dictates that a mainstream car would look, well, mainstream. Oh, and spy photos.

The long-rumored Mazda2-based Scion is a step closer to reality, with Mazda unveiling the sedan version of the Mazda2.

If you needed another reason why Toyota decided to kill off the Matrix, here it is.

Well, we called it. Scion will be bringing its own version of the Toyota Auris over here as their next new model launch.

With the unveiling of the Scion iM just weeks away, a bit of news out of Thailand has revealed some information about the other new Scion that will be released alongside the iM.

TTAC Commentator Sam Hell Jr. writes:

Hi, Sanjeev!

The first car I bought for myself was a 2011 Scion tC. Compared with some other decisions I made three years ago (cough, cough, career in human resources, cough), this one’s turned out okay — to date, I’ve put 40k on the odo with no repair costs but regular maintenance, and the hatchback utility and decent fuel economy have both matched up well with my needs. I’ll probably have the tC paid off this year, and I’m looking forward to debt-free living, so the car and I are stuck with each other for some time to come.

My biggest complaint is with the car’s interstate manners. I take a handful of significant road trips every year, and at freeway speeds on anything but pristine pavement (of the kind one does not often traverse on I-80), the ride gets jittery, and the tire noise is, well, tiresome.

The death of the Toyota Matrix will leave a hatchback-sized hole in Toyota’s lineup. But the replacement won’t be a Toyota, if Scion’s newest concept is any indication.

It’s not an exceptionally large showroom, but the façade is enormous. The Tesla retail store in Columbus, Ohio wraps around an entire corner of the Easton Town Center, that city’s premier upscale shopping venue. My trip to the store, the first time I’d ever set foot in a Tesla retail location, was an eye opener. Tesla’s retail model is an example of what Scion could have (and should have) been.

“If I were to be told that, I’d pass out…It’s not going to be just one generation.”

-Fuji Heavy Industries President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga