Scion brand is dead, 2017MYs To Be As rebadged Toyotas
Just hours after rumors began circulating on the Web about the disappearance of Scion Toyota has formalized Wednesday morning oriented brand Youth Japanese automaker will cease to exist in August this year after 13 years on the market, with most of its existing cars to be rebadged as Toyota in the north American market including the sports coupe FR-S, and the newly introduced iA hatchback and iM 5-door hatchback that will continue 2017MY Toyota, as well as the next version of production concept crossover C-HR, which recently debuted at the LA Auto Show and will go on sale next year.
The tC sports coupe will have an edition of the series of the final version and the production of end in August 2016, while Scion had already made the decision to ax the xB last fall, even if it is still available on the dealers.
Scion was launched in 2002 as a great brand for younger buyers Gen-X, which saw Toyota as an old person's brand, he managed to in his early years, especially with their models boxy xB and xA compact, with a peak in 2006 with 173.034 sales.
In subsequent years, a combination of the Great Recession and the scandal of unintended acceleration of Toyota, the Japanese company has seen diverting his time and sources elsewhere, while the blow came recently when Toyota decided to reinvent move his attention to a younger crowd with more aggressive designs namely the new Prius and better performance in other words, why he created Scion in the first place, has ceased to exist.
Toyota's decision was made in response to customer needs, the company said in a statement younger buyers today still want the fun to drive vehicles that look good, but they are also more convenient They, like their parents, have come to appreciate the Toyota brand and its traditional attributes of quality, dependability and reliability at the same time, Toyota new vehicles have evolved to provide dynamic style and manipulation of young people want.
Scion has sold just over 1 million cars on its long 13 years, with its worst year being 2010 to 49.271 deliveries Adding the FR-S coupe and iQ city car brand gave a temporary boost but he never managed to recover only selling 56,167 vehicles last year.
This is not a step back for Scion; it is a leap forward for Toyota Scion has allowed us to accelerate the ideas of tracks that would have been difficult to test across the network Toyota said Jim Lentz, vice president of Scion founder and now CEO, Toyota Motor North America, I was there when we established Scion and our goal was to Toyota and our dealers stronger by learning to better attract and engage young clients that I'm very proud because this is exactly what we have accomplished.
The current owners of Scion cars won t see change as Toyota will continue to manage any warranty, service, repairs and financing.
We appreciate our 1,004 dealers Scion and the support they have given the brand, said Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations Toyota We believe that our dealers have gained valuable knowledge and have received a return on investment during this transition period, we will work closely with them to support this process and help communicate this change to customers.
It's Official Scion Brand Is Dead To Be 2017MYs rebadged as official Toyotas, Scion, brand, rebadged.