Toyota discontinues Scion after years of slumping sales

Toyota says it is killing its Scion brand of cars.

Speaking at a Spring 2015 launch, Scion’s former Vice President Doug Murtha explained the marketing strategy behind the launch of Scion brand and said that the brand aimed at young, energetic and urban buyers who wanted to differentiate themselves from their elders, in this case parents.

The average age of a Scion buyer was 36 years old, and 70 per cent of the brand’s buyer’s had never purchased a Toyota before.

Half of Scion buyers were aged below 35, a group which accounted for 27 per cent of Toyota sales and was expected to grow, the company said.

“Today younger buyers still want fun-to-drive vehicles that look good, but they are also more practical”, Lentz said in a statement. The Scion tC coupe will be discontinued, with production ending in August. It also means that the upcoming subcompact crossover previewed recently by the Scion C-HR concept will also be a Toyota. Scion owners can still visit Toyota service departments for maintenance and repairs. Toyota says it will work closely with them to deal with the change.

Toyota has made it official: the Scion brand is dead. Included in this mix for the U.S.is the iA sedan, which is marketed as the Toyota Yaris Sedan here in Canada.

Is this sort of like Volkswagen bragging that its Tiguan sales set a record in January when it struggled to sell anything but Tiguans, which don’t come with a diesel option in the U.S.? The Toyota Camry sedan has been the best-selling vehicle in the USA for 14 years, and the brand has a full lineup that appeals to Millennials and Baby Boomers alike. The brand is sold through 1,004 Toyota dealerships, which will continue service the cars.

This comes after the youthful line of vehicles sold over one million vehicles since its inception in 2003. In 2015, Scion sales dipped to just 56,167 units, despite the recent introduction of two new models that the brand hoped would recapture its lost customers.

Toyota Motor Corp. on Wednesday announced plans to scrap its Scion brand and fold its operations into the Toyota division. Even though it listened to customer feedback on its first models in developing its new cars, Scion’s second generation of larger, more rounded, more milquetoast cars – starting from the much bigger xB in 2007 – were not very well received.

Toyota will scrap the youth-oriented nameplate.