Scion News: Toyota Executive Says No New Scion Models For The Time Being

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

September 11, 2013

With sales of Scion vehicles slumping down and Toyota telling its dealers who have Scion that they can step away from it with no penalties, it makes you wonder if Scion has any new models on the way to help out. Bob Carter, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Sales USA told Reuters that new products for the brand are coming later than sooner.

"We have a very robust and very exciting product cadence coming for Scion, however, it's further down the pipeline," said Carter.

Scion's sales peak was back in 2006 with 173,034 models. Last year, Scion only moved 73,505. Through August, the brand's total sales stand at 48,959, which is on pace for less than 70,000 vehicles sold this year. Also, Scion represents 0.3 percent of Toyota's total sales in the U.S.

Carter is confident that sales of Scion vehicles will rebound.

"It's just going to take us a little longer to see the growth," he said.

Source: Reuters

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

View full article

[Drew Dowdell]

Beginning of the End?

[TPhoenix]

Thankfully it doesn't represent a large percentage of their income, because that would be devastating. It's horrible to see the numbers declining, especially for a beautiful looking car like that. Something is obviously wrong.

[G. David Felt]

Sounds Like Toyota's Version of Pontiac/Saturn.

Just kill it off and move on. It was a failure.

[dwightlooi]

It's the PRODUCT guys.

[G. David Felt]

Dwight it was some of the product, but with quality where it is now, auto companies do not need alternative Product lines to win customers. Build quality products that strike a passion in the public and you will have sales. I do not think Toyota needs this product line for making money. They pretty much have everything covered by Toyota or Lexus. Just kill it off and focus the R&D dollars on the two main product lines.

[Drew Dowdell]

Why should the xD, xA, tC or xB ever be anything but a Toyota? They don't even offer a different dealership experience like Saturn did.

[bobo]

Scion's are supposed to be sold with a Saturnesque no-haggle price. I still don't get why they branded the FR-S a Scion, other than to try to bolster a lackluster lineup.

[G. David Felt]

bobo are you sure in how they are purchased as I have never heard that they had a no haggle price. Here in Washington you haggle on their price like anything else.

[bobo]

Scion has what they call "Pure Price", which is supposed to be no haggle. To get around that, some dealers negotiate trade-in or accessory price.

[Intrepidation]

The only Scion that matters is FR-S, and that could easily be rebadged as the Toyota it is in other markets.

[Drew Dowdell]

I dunno, the tC is a pretty decent car too, but there is no reason it couldn't be a Celica.