Toyota Scion was introduced as a youth brand in 2002 at the New York Auto Show with just two concept vehicles: the bbX and ccX which were later renamed as xB and tC. In 2004, two models xA and xB were launched while another named tC was released in 2005. Scion (means 'descendant') enjoyed a life span of 13 years full of varied experiments and reckless creativity. It essentially fulfilled its role by absorbing all sorts of criticism and losses that came it's way, without letting any of that affect the primary brand Toyota.
Scion was a success in its initial days because of its out of the box designs. All the models were available in single trim levels which cut the complexity of shopping and enabled more personal customization. Standard features, Pure price, Scion Service Boosts and no haggle policies were the highlights that tried to lure new buyers in. The direct approach of sales and Pure Process Plus not only simplified the shopping process but also enabled the customers to check out with their favorite vehicles without leaving their couch. Interestingly, Toyota revealed earlier in 2020 that they are about to roll out their own Express Purchase program soon, inspired by the Scion shopping model. On top of all these pluses, Scion had the durability and reliability of the brand Toyota, but somehow it couldn't fly.
Scion failed to capture the young and first buyers' segment miserably because of small but significant mistakes. In 2016, Toyota announced that they were killing the Scion. The bestsellers from the brand were rebadged and transitioned back to Toyota.
Even though Consumer Reports called it the most reliable brand, why was Toyota's Scion discontinued? Scroll through the end to find out.
The Pricing Structure And Plummeting Sales
Scion’s marketing plans were unique, and we bet they looked promising on papers. Since the brand was primarily targeted towards the Generation X buyers, they had exclusively designed guerrilla marketing techniques to attract the young blood. The marketing plan was oriented towards offering something new without the hassles of traditional marketing. For a short time period, the strategy hit home but as soon as these buyers matured, they switched back to Toyota.
Next up, the millennials whom Scion had expected to be loyal customers never actually went for them and chose Toyota instead. Apart from that, the pricing structure of Scion didn't help either. Since most of the expensive features came as standard on Scions, consumers found them costlier than the rivals. For example, a tC coupe cost $2,600 more than a standard Honda Civic. Additionally, the brand failed to keep up with modern trends. They didn’t offer any SUVs which has been a popular style since forever. All these things affected the sales badly. As a result, the brand sold barely 56,167 cars in 2015 while at its peak in the year 2006, it had sold a total of 173,034 according to Car Sales Base. However, by now Toyota had achieved one key goal. They had been successful in retaining the old buyers and adding new ones (mostly young) to their own consumer base.
Unpopular Design Modifications
Scion overlooked a key factor of its initial success- its unconventional (sometimes boxy) design. They modified the successful designs in the name of a refresh to connect with more buyers. However, they didn’t realize that mainstreaming these will alienate those consumers who had made them successful in the first place.
For instance, xB was an instant hit when it launched but Toyota failed to keep the interest up. Instead of updating it periodically, they let it age. Later they revamped the xB in an attempt to resurrect it, and in the process stripped it off of its original identity- boxy shape, height, compact size, etc. The result was evident soon after. While the model xB had sold 61,306 units in 2006, it sold only 45,834 the next year and eventually was discontinued in 2015. Toyota forgot that Scion's simple oddball lineup had made them successful and tried to mainstream most of their cars, which was in short, a recipe for disaster. This is a very small but extremely significant mistake that led to Scion's doom.
This Was Planned
We like to think that Scion was always slated to fold back into Toyota. If you remember, Scion models sold in the name of Toyota everywhere, except the US. So, it was sort of an artificial branch-out of the primary brand to create a hype. Of course, Scion also served as a creative outlet for them to try out new models and policies without hampering the brand reputation or tampering with the existing Toyota fan base. The relatively shorter product cycles point to the same thing too: that Toyota was most probably just experimenting with different products and services, and subsequently retained what sold at the end of the day.