Scion sales finished 2007 24.8 percent below 2006. Last month, the once and future Gen Y brand dipped 12.6 percent. According to Brandweek, Toyota's sending three-person teams (including two "muscle men") into "hipster neighborhoods" in ten U.S. cities to promote the Scion xB RS 5.0. As the car only comes in Gold Rush Mica, they'll be making the scene in campaign-branded armored cars, handing out Scion-branded skullcaps in boxes made to look like gold bars, with cards that have the URL for a Scion microsite (and the pass code to access it). Whether this unorthodox approach will improve sales is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, analysts reckon Scion's facing external competition from the Fit and MINI, and internal threat from the Toyota Yaris. Looking a bit closer at Scion's overall sales figures, it seems Scion's promoting the wrong model. Even though the xB's sales were off last year, they appear to be recovering this year with a 17.2 percent jump in January. The tC, however, was down 19.3 percent last year, down a further 33.2 percent below last January's totals. Perhaps Scion should pay some real muscle men to prowl cubicles and offer secretaries shoulder rubs and a link to a tC-intensive webpage.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
Scion is a niche brand and Toyota has emphasized that many times. I don’t see sagging sales as a big issue for a niche brand. Toyota has already said it will intentionally supply-limit Scion sales if they get too high. As for how high “too high” is, only Toyota knows.
The only good car Scion has is the tC, and they continually promate the xB because it looks different. I don’t understand, why push the niche product when most people hate the look, promote the better product and have the niche product as a side show.
Then again, that seems to be Toyota’s overall plan.
“Don’t you buy no ugly car…”
Strange, I still see used ’06 xBs advrtised for just under the cost of a new xB. Personally, I didn’t really care for the tc when I test drove one a few years ago; so from my perspective, sinking sales aren’t a surprise.
When I buy a beer can, I expect it to have beer inside. Maybe if Toyota included a couple cases of the customer’s favorite beer they could reconcile this perception gap.
I think they effed up the xB, the original was just that, an original design, distinctive, if not compelling. The new one just looks like an Element with steel fenders, and we know how that worked out (Element sales down 32% in 2007, in the face of the move to more efficient vehicles)
The magic is lost in the new xB. Hopefully, Nissan won’t round out the Cube with the redesign (before it shows up on our shores.)
At the car show, the small crowd at Scion’s corner looked like a casting call for Gen Y types. No one else seemed to go near them.
tdoyle :
February 19th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
“Don’t you buy no ugly car…”
(Killing myself laughing) If anyone knows where I could find those adverts, please let me know!
As for Scion, I’ve just come back from my holiday in LA and I was driving around and saw some Scions on the road. I still don’t see the point of the brand. Now I can see the point of the cars (i.e they want some fresh, funky cars for young people), but I believe they could have marketed them under the Toyota brand. And before Mr Farago tears me a new one, look at Europe. Toyota are successfully marketing the Yaris and Aygo as fresh, young funky cars (and they are good cars) under the Toyota marque with great success, so it can be done without harming the brand. In fact, it enhances it.
They should make up their minds.
At one point they bragged about scaling back production when demand was too high, in order to preserve the brand’s niche status. Now they’re complaining that this was successful?
Quote: Finally, the decision to scale back production when the car was set to exceed targets by 20% was a bold assertion of Scion’s willingness to leave some dollars on the table to preserve the exlusivity of the brand.
It doesn’t surprise me. Just about all of the original xB’s charm has been jettisoned on the new one. The minimalism is now deemed passe. I am surprised that the Toyota marketing juggernaut got this one so horribly wrong. Longer, lower and wider (and more powerful and heavier) was the old GM-Harley Earl mantra that Toyota used to eschew.
On the contrary, the xB IS the Scion brand and defines it more than anything else. Toyota had a real hit with the orignal but the consensus seems to be it got too big and fat after the redesign. Too Americanized if you will. The market Toyota is going after wants unique cars with unique styling, the tC and xA are neither.
LOL! “…preserve the exlusivity of the brand.” I didn’t know dimestore cars were meant to be “exclusive!” Darn, I shouldn’t have let my Chevette owner’s club membership run out!
I wouldn’t evaluate Scion’s brand value or lack thereof in quite the same way that I would most other brands. It’s intended as a gateway brand to Toyota’s main brand, with the goal of bringing more and younger buyers into TMC’s product line.
Scion is an extension of the main Toyota nameplate that emphasizes youth and customization within the same dealership network. Its ultimate goal is to woo customers into the TMC family of products, but where they land doesn’t matter, just as long as they buy something from the parent company.
If would-be Scion buyers are being converted into Toyota buyers, then it is successful. If they are helping to reduce the median age of Toyota buyers, then it is successful.
But if they are leaving the showroom to buy something else entirely, then it is a problem. And if the number of younger buyers isn’t increasing, then its success is certainly questionable.
I don’t know what the actual results are, but these are the differences that would differentiate success from failure. I suspect that it isn’t working as well as hoped, but I don’t have the data to support or contradict that.
When the new xB debuted – Toyota relied to heavily on the fact that many owners asked for more power and what did Toyota do? Dump in the 2.4 Corporate 4 cylinder (aka Camry motivation) making it very front heavy and though faster in a straight line it ruined any handling/braking the original did so well (for it’s box shape that is). Same thing with the tC – big 4 cylinder in small car but it weighs a gargantuan 3100+ lbs. Scions are supposed to be hip and young – and unique / niche. They are now becoming irrelevant. The xD is now the new unique Scion as it has a 1.8 and has a unique approach.
GenY, at least the ones like me, don’t have cash to spend on “cool” for the sake of being cool, especially if the brand is trying too hard. It seems like VW has the cool factor cornered with the Rabbit and Golf. Everyone else is looking to the Fit, Civic, and Corolla for some bang for their buck until they can move on up to something nicer. Giving out skullcaps won’t send people rushing to the dealership. Or will it?????
Are we sure Scion wasn’t the brainchild of an elite team of infiltrators from Detroit to damage Toyota?
Yes, they needed a youth brand because we all know how the kids hate Toyotas… hey, Toyota, maybe that’s because you make too many appliances and stopped making more cars with character. Go look at the stuff you made in the 70s, come up with new versions that borrow design cues, keep the weight down and the quality up and you will have a winnah!!!
Maybe I’m out of touch, but I never really understood the demographic target for Scion. What 20 year old happy meal server can afford $15-20 thousand for a new car ? When I was that age you drove a beat up clunker as a badge of honor because anything newer implied you were mommy’s boy (though my parents would still be laughing now if I’d asked them to buy me a new car). I can see a market for the (original) xB as a non-SUV sporty utility vehicle, but trying to create a business model around selling large ticket items exclusively to people who can least afford them seems doomed to fail.
+1 new Scions are boring heavy and pointless
But also, the ad campaign for Scion has gone from exciting to dumber than stupid:
Old, great, design-focused ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrFoG_LSBUg
New crappy “love it/hate it” ad:
xB, they would sell more just going back to the old design. The current one is just not interesting and less useful.
tC- should be replaced with a new AE86, cheap, small RWD fun.
xA- just dump it. Who needs a smaller Matrix/Vibe wannabe?
I may be wrong, but I think part of the appeal of Scion was that it was different, and no one else had one.
Now that
1. boomers all got their xB,
2. tC are the official college car, and
3. tC also are the official car of people who want to one day own a BMW (kinda like the previous gen jetta)
The brand has lost its main appeal. That’s the problem of appearing different. unless you sell $200,000 cars, you’ll end up with so many on the road that the brand won’t feel “exclusive” anymore.
Yeah, they screwed up the new xB. It’s too big. What they should have done was the following:
1. Kept the name xA for the xD. It’s the same basic car, just redone with a more powerful engine (but basically the same fuel economy) and more standard features. The old one was never a hot seller, though (although it is a great car-I own one personally), and the current xD is worse. The name change didn’t help any.
2. Bring over the new Japanese Toyota bB as the new xB, but put the engine from the xD in it.
3. If you must build a bigger xB, call it something else-like the xD, and sell it on top of the smaller xB.
I’m curious as to what their replacement for the tC will be, as it is due soon. As for the xB’s sales, they are worse than they look. Year over year sales look good, but that’s only because there was no 2007 xB-that is, all that was left in January 2007 were leftover 2006 models (although they intentionally overproduced at year end knowing there would be a gap between the 06s and the 08s, which didn’t come out until spring IIRC). In reality, sales of the new xB are nowhere as near as good as Toyota expected.
I think Toyota really screwed up by making the XB heavier and more gas thirsty than the original. I am now waiting to see what the new Cube looks like. If it is what the original XB represented, then I am a serious buyer for the Cube. Let’s hope Nissan doesn’t give the Cube the ‘Detroit Treatment’ like Scion did. Scion must be run by exDetroit automotive specialists. Sad that they ruined the new models. I thought Toyota was smarter than that.
The huge leap to the 2.4 ruined the xB, as they sized the vehicle around it; too bad Toyota didn’t have a 2.0 in the lineup to build this generation around.
Funny though that Motorweek (good Saturday entertainment) named the xB their “Best of the Best”!
I should not be surprised that most of the replies so far have shown a completely clueless understanding of Scion and its success. The tC, the oldest model in the lineup has been trending down for the past year, and this is not surprising, as sports cars always fade in the waning years of their lives. The xB is actually up double digits for at least the past three months. Consumers are responding very favorably to that for which they asked-more power and more room. Only the xA (always the poorest seller of the group) is not living up to its expected sales goals, and that by just a few hundred units a month.
To claim that Scion is in trouble because of a new marketing campaign is to show clearly that you just dont get it. This is exactly how Scion is marketed. And it is why Scion will continue to be the success that Toyota envisions for it-about 150,000 units per year. Scion was off some 20,000 last year due to the changeovers of two of its three models, leaving months where there was no inventory. They should have no trouble returning to 150K this year, even with waning intere
st in the tC.
Once you take your blinders off, the analysis is not that hard.
Why couldn’t they have kept the old xB size and shape with two engine options, the 1.8 and a slightly larger 4 cylinder?
This is interesting. We shall see how Ford’s xB will do.
My friend bought a Scion xB, I tell him it looks like a Hummer Escape Pod.
KatiePucrik: I bet you loved the money exchange rate on your holiday in L.A., everything must have seemed cheap.
I love the new xB and here’s why–the retail value of my 1st gen. xB is the same as what I paid for it brand-new a year ago. This is the first vehicle I’ve ever owned to hold its value like that. Not like it’s helping me, though, because there’s no way I’d sell. Cheap upkeep, big enough to camp in, and a consistent 33-35 mpg in mostly city driving is good with me. Yeah, it’s ugly but who gives a shit? I’m not a teenager cruising the strip for cute girls.
I disagree, Toyota already has a brand image and it is not cool or exciting. Thus, Scion was born a hip and cool brand. They need this brand to sell these cars. Yaris demographic is different than Scion.
The xB is mechanical great loaded with standard features and responded to all the customer complaints from previous generation.
It is the styling where the new xB falls flat. The new style has lost its edge and uniqueness the original xB had. Stick the old style with new mechanicals it would be a hit.
The tC is old, it needs updated design. With Scion demographic things happened quickly and what is cool last year isn’t so this year.
Unfortunately with this demograhic constant management is needed to keep thing fresh because their customer base has a very short attention span.
Marc:
Only the xA (always the poorest seller of the group) is not living up to its expected sales goals, and that by just a few hundred units a month.
I guess so, since it was discontinued last year and replaced with the xD.
To claim that Scion is in trouble because of a new marketing campaign is to show clearly that you just dont get it.
Oh, but I do get it. I also have the numbers. Any brand that finished the year 25 percent below the previous year (as did Scion) needs attention. That’s a greater drop than even Buick, Mercury or Chrysler divisions showed last year. Toyota realizes the brand needs help, hence the new campaign to reignite interest. It’s as simple as that.
I rarely spot one on the road. And it is so ugly you would absolutely notice one.
Well, I am the market for these vehicles (mid 20’s, single, male) and I will say that there are two reasons that Scion is hurting as a brand:
1. The tC is dated and a new set of lights did not do much for it. The new civic coupe offers much better gas milage and more toys than the tC. My guess is that initial mark-up on Civics have stopped and the cars are more competitive with tC pricing now.
2. The xB was panned my the newsstand rags. Frankly, I like the style of it, but it needs to drop 300 lbs and have the 1.8 in it from the xD/corolla. Toyota took it too far. Yes, people wanted a car that could keep up on the highway, has side airbags, and didn’t get hit by crosswinds as much. However, adding 6 inches, a bit more weight, and the 1.8 could have done that and kept it true to its roots. It went from the only option for a 30+ mpg box to one of many 20-25 mpg boxes (cr-v, element, etc.). Too bad, I would have bought one if it had been smaller.
As it stands, I can’t figure out wht I wouldn’t buy an AWD pre-2008 impreza instead of these two. The mpg difference is negligable and at least I get something for the un-civic like difference. The xD would have been a consideration if it didn’t need a bodykit to not look vomit-worthy.
Looking at some of the related numbers, I’d say that the picture is a bit gloomy for Scion.
One of my questions was whether TMC is making up for the decline by selling other Toyota’s. I can see that this is probably not the case. Corolla sales declined by about 16k units during 2007 compared to 2006, while sales of the xA, xB, and tC fell about 23k, 16k and 16k, respectively. In the small car space, that’s a decline of more than 70,000 units.
Overall Toyota sales were up, but not due to small car sales. The growth was largely due to the Tundra (heavy incentives), Prius (obvious home run hit), RAV4 (a winner in its class) and Camry (ditto), with some modest gains thanks to the Yaris, while most of the trucks and SUV’s elsewhere in the lineup declined, in line with the market.
Meanwhile, Honda gained sales with both the Fit (up 28k) and Civic (up 14k), while the Mazda 3 gained 26k in sales during 2007. This is probably where a lot of your potential Scion sales are going (since they don’t seem to be going to the Corolla), and are not a good sign that Scion is fulfilling its mission.
Targeting youth is quite difficult, the automakers have yet to quite figure out how to do it without hitting bumps along the way.
I think a lot of people are missing something rather obvious causing at least part of Scion’s demise: the mortgage meltdown.
I know more people than I have fingers and toes to account for that bought their too-hip offspring new cars with a Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC).
I could throw a stone in any direction in my office and I would likely pelt someone in the head that serial-refinanced their way into an IS350/G35/328i, with a corresponding corporate econobox for the youngin’.
Well, the HELOC gravy train is over and serial refinancing is done. Credit is getting tighter by the day. I’d bet that one of the very first cuts in discretionary spending for a family watching their monthly mortgage payment reset 150% higher in the face of declining house values is to tell Junior to get himself a flashy ’97 Civic with his newfound job at Taco Bell.
“But mom you said I could get an xB on dubs!”
“Tough.”
-Drew
It will be interesting to compare Nissan Cube sales to the revised Xb sales. Hopefully Toyota will see the error of their ways. Does anyone have an ETA on the cube?
I think ALL of you have missed an extremely important point about Scion – and why it exists and what it’s about.
The American dealership franchising system is massively regulated and flawed, mostly by virtue of not being able to keep up with the times. Americans, especially the younger generation (Gen Y, I guess), want to be able to configure and buy a car online. They absolutely do NOT want the hassles of running from dealer to dealer and experiencing the same painful bargaining/negotiation pressure and time consumption over and over again. They want what they buy to be available to them at their own (fast) pace, and to be Internet-style convenient to purchase.
Scion offers these young folks “PURE PRICING,” which is Saturn-style non-negotiable pricing – combined with the ability to configure the car in many personal ways, allowing the car to be “purchased” PRIOR TO CONTACTING ANY DEALER! The dealer merely takes the order, provides financing (if desired), and delivers and supports the car.
Do NOT dismiss this piece of the puzzle in trying to figure out why Scion is not the same as Toyota. It’s actually quite a novel way to escape the confines of the “necessary evil” of the American dealership experience, and gives Toyota (the company, not the brand) a leg up on this youthful – but growing – market.
franz, it don’t…. no-haggle pricing has the contra effect of turning off those who want to negotiate and gives the competition the opportunity to underprice their wares from the get go.
Scion needs to ACTUALLY HAVE SOME SPORT in their line-up. I’m no talking about just the Tc which actually has been a very successful vehicle. The current Xa and Xd simply do not exude even an ounce of sportiness. They’re not fun to drive and as long as that’s the case, Scions sales will suffer.
franz> That was one of the major reasons I bought my Scion. I’m technically Gen X, for whatever that’s worth, but I still have no interest in haggling over a car. I live in a rural area and there aren’t many dealerships anyway. It was an hour’s drive to the nearest Toyota lot and I certainly didn’t want to waste the gas and time to visit several dealerships. Besides, I’m not going to save a whole lot haggling on a hot seller that doesn’t cost much to start with. I can see how fixed pricing is a bad idea for a $50k vehicle, but in the sub-$20k range I’m all for it.
Steven Lang,
I guess you don’t “get it”, and that’s OK. Many folks have gotten so used to doing it that way, as dirty and distasteful as it may be for some to degrade themselves in the humiliating (dog-like?) experience of submission to the dealer.
But I argue that there is a definite demographic of youthful buyers that did NOT grow up appreciating the art of patient negotiation (haha!). Rather, these folks crave instant gratification, no hassles or obstacles, and a quick no-fuss transaction…whether they’re buying a car, a cell phone, or a meal.
You seem to remain hung up on Scion being all about the cars…yes, the cars play a role. But the ability to achieve the purchase in the manner I described above will outweigh MANY of the drawbacks of the vehicles being sold. There is simply no where else to turn if you crave Scion’s style of shopping experience. THE DEALERS ARE NOT EMPOWERED TO CREATE SUCH ENVIRONMENTS! Only the manufacturers can do this, and Toyota is the only one working hard on it with their Scion brand.
I’d say that Toyota is creating an environment where you don’t have to puff yourself up and be assertive, forceful, or savvy in order not to get ripped a new orifice. Instead, they are treating you like an individual, worthy of the same sales treatment and pricing as any other individual. I wish other automakers would wake up and try this too.
Scion screwed up when they made the xB bigger and more powerful – its physically larger yet gets worse fuel economy AND has less cargo space.
The old model was toaster shaped chic, and since it was small and light (600 lbs lighter), it was actually fun to drive, fuel efficient, yet still space efficient.
Tuners (Scion’s lifeblood) have walked away from the brand since they ruined the old xB and moved on to other quirky little cars like the Fit.
Meanwhile the tC will NEVER replace the Celica – that thing has a damned Camry motor in it – the Celica had a frickin Yamaha built inline four that revved to 8400 rpm and made 100 hp per liter – and is currently in use by the Lotus Elise.