In 2003, I was 18 and Scion was born specifically to market cars to drivers right around my age. It was great, they said. No haggle pricing, hip vehicles that are quirky and are endlessly customizable to speak to your teenage individuality, plus the cars have enough room to haul your stuff to and from college. Add to that the dependability of a Toyota, and you really couldn’t go wrong.
As a petrolhead, Scion’s first offerings didn’t really do much for me on paper, but my first car (which I still had at the time) was a Toyota and I loved it, so I gave Scion a chance and drove both the xA and xB on a Saturday when I had little else to do. The experience, more than anything else, was surprising.
In the xB, I was surprised that I could like a small van so much. At this point in my life I hadn’t yet visited Japan, but the car exuded so much character that I saw in Super Street and other import magazines that featured “JDM” on nearly every page. Centre-mounted speedo aside, I really enjoyed the xB, which was peppy and practical, but more than anything else, felt special. It felt like you were driving a little slice of Japan and there was nothing else quite like it on the road at that point. Even after the Cube and the Juke and the Kia Soul came out, and after visiting Japan a few times, the xB is still one of the most quintessentially Japanese vehicles ever sold in America, and that made it special, and other consumers thought so too, buying 170,000 first generation xBs in the US throughout its lifespan.
As beige in colour as it is to drive.
What was surprising about the xA though, was how I felt almost the complete opposite about it. Being a small hatchback, I expected something light, nimble and fun to drive, with a bit of practicality sprinkled in for good measure. Instead it felt like a Corolla that had been doused in black and silver paint, with the gauges moved to the middle so your parents could see if you were speeding while you drove them around. It was a sterile experience, and certainly nothing special that would convince the target demographic of young people to buy this instead of a Mazda 3, which also debuted that year, looked much more attractive and drove significantly better.
They didn’t Follow the White Rabbit
It was from this point that Scion could have seen just how far the rabbit hole went or woken up in its bed, forgetting anything ever happened and become Toyota Junior. Instead of asking “what is the Matrix?” (though they did reintroduce the Matrix hatchback as the iM shortly before demise), Scion abandoned the aspects of the original xB that made it special and embraced the sterile, generic feeling of the xA, spreading it across their other products.
The tC was a good looking and also well-selling car, but didn’t quite have the performance to match and there was always a feeling it was only there because Toyota discontinued the Celica and didn’t want to lose the sales. That said, it was the brand’s best-selling vehicle and did genuinely appeal to the target demographic, so Scion’s plan to kill it off in 2016 without pursuing a replacement was that much stranger.
The xD was perhaps even worse than the xA, though it did return the gauges to their correct orientation, it failed to deliver any sort of innovation, style or substance to attract buyers away from a Nissan Versa or Honda Fit. Eventually the beige even made it to the xB, neutering its character by applying heavy coats of mainstream “appeal.” This meant a larger everything – engine, body, weight, interior – but at the sacrifice of its Japanese kei-car style. It even just looks bloated.
There were exceptions, namely the iQ and FR-S, the former being a car legitimately terrifying to drive at highway speeds because of the short wheelbase, which caused steering inputs to be direct and immediate. It was at least different and interesting, but, as proved by the Smart FourTwo, American consumers don’t want driveable micro machines where you can fix a tail light bulb while driving.
The FR-S Concept made promises the production car couldn't fulfill.
The FR-S, on the other hand, is a great car that handles superbly and is a blast to drive. The same enthusiasts who are buying them though, are the first ones to either admit that the BR-Z is a nicer car in which to drive or are rebadging their cars as Toyota GT-86s. It’s a niche product that doesn’t really reach the demographic Scion aimed to satisfy when they first started 13 years ago, but then that’s been the case throughout its life.
The Body Cannot Live Without the Mind
By 2005, the average age of Scion buyers was 36, or roughly twice the age of the individuals the brand was targeting. While this posed a problem from a marketing standpoint, sales were actually still pretty strong, which should have caused them to reconsider either their marketing or their vehicle lineup.
Again they chose wrong, deciding to alter the DNA of their lineup while continuing to advertise Scion as a brand for young drivers. By making the cars blander, perhaps they thought the folks in their mid-30s who were buying the vehicles would buy more of them when, in fact, it was probably the original xB’s uniqueness and young-person appeal that was attractive to them in the first place.
In 2012, as sales continued to decrease, Scion chief Jim Farley stated that the primary goal of Scion was to provide a place where Toyota could experiment with minimal risk. And what a fantastic brand Scion would have been if Toyota had just let its designers and engineers loose on projects, creating niche vehicles that were innovative, attractive and daring, all while integrating the legendary Toyota reliability without affecting perceptions of the parent brand.
Imagine if the iM actually looked like the concept and performed as well as it appeared?
But the goal was only stated and never pursued, instead condemning the brand to a slow and meaningless death as its largely boring products stagnated and other brands capitalized on the original xB’s daring venture into uncharted territory, including the wildly popular crossover segment, on which Scion never capitalized. The truth is Toyota didn’t know what to do with Scion, and their addiction to selling in volume rather than producing niche, compelling vehicles won out. The company already had a brand for that, so why support two?
Whereas Saturn died at the hands of GM right when it was finally getting the good Opel cars from Germany, Scion was a mercy killing because they got it right the first time and didn’t know how to replicate it. The cost seems minimal, as the models will largely go on as the Toyotas they were always meant to be, but Scion will forever be a missed opportunity. Rest in peace, Scion.