Automotive industry indexer J.D. Power has published some sales figures for Scion that back up recent news that Toyota’s youth brand may be loosing a bit of traction.
Scion has added numbers to the Toyota sales behemoth for the last five years, but recently those sales have started to flag. The sub-brand saw sales grow from 10,898 units in 2003, to as high as 173,034 in 2006. But last year deliveries of Scion products fell to one-fourth to 130,181 units.
(Click through the jump to read more or check out Scion’s newest stab at renewal, the Hako concept.)
Further reinforcing the notion that the public is losing interest in the Scion brand is the data regarding the time vehicles spend sitting on dealer lots. In 2006 through the early part of 2007, Scion vehicles spent an average of 35 days in a dealer’s hands before being sold. During the same period in 2007 through 2008, that dealer wait had increased by over two-weeks to 50 days.
Could it be that Scion is simply charging too much for their vehicles these days? J.D. Power tells us that the transaction price for each sale has gone up for every model the automaker sells. The average sale price of the tC is up by $479 to $18,758, and the redesigned xB is commanding $1,749 more year-over-year.
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One of the main reasons the brand is faltering is the “Toyotafication” of the xB and xA, making them fatter and thirstier and less appealling to the youth audience, who don’t want their parents Matrix. Those huge C-pillar blind spots don’t help either, and are a just plain stupid styling flourish. Scion has lost its way, and kids can see this.
They had a great product mix, all efficient in both space and fuel. Then they scewed it up by upping the size of the xB and putting a much larger engine in just as gas prices rose! Stupid is as stupid does. The shelf life of coupes is less than a snow cone on a summers day so that coupled with the xC’s lack of “sport” means it’s days are numbered.
Bruce
The whole Scion plan was fresh when it launched. The styling was purely hip and urban, the pricing was generous, and practicality was all there. These vehicles were small, cheap gas sippers that looked unusual in a good way.
Scions have gotten bigger, more expensive, more consuming, and no longer have that “Wow!” factor as when they first hit dealer lots. This is a failure on the part of Toyota planners and designers. The Scion marketing is great. I love it. I don’t care for the vehicles. They aren’t bad: my buddy has a new xB and it’s pretty good. It has lots of room and ample power. There’s just nothing “new” about this new xB anymore.
Another problem is that it cost him over $17,000 with his Toyota employee discount.
When Toyota launched Scion, the bargain-bin segment from Japan had been abandoned. Since Scion’s launch, Honda released the Fit, Nissan the Versa and Toyota the Yaris.
That’s where your Scion sales have gone.
It is actually the tC that has had the most dramatic sales drop. There was virtually no xB inventory from Jan to May 2007 and the xD was not introduced until August 2007 and dealers had very little xA inventory. Actually sales of the xD are doing fairly well and xB sales (current monthly figures - not 2007 totals)are about the same as the old model. Scion did make a mistake in introducing a total redesign of the xB. They should have kept the previous xB and introduced the new one a different model. Wait til Honda introduces the Zest and Nissan releases the cube. You will then see a real drop in Scion sales.
One of the main reasons the brand is faltering is the “Toyotafication” of the xB and xA, making them fatter and thirstier
Amen.
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When Toyota launched Scion, the bargain-bin segment from Japan had been abandoned. Since Scion’s launch, Honda released the Fit, Nissan the Versa and Toyota the Yaris.
That’s where your Scion sales have gone.
Agreed.
This car needs to be a bargain basement.
Toyota should also take the Matrix and Corolla so that the pricing isn’t interfering with Scions.
scion was never meant to be a bargain basement discount machine. Leave that to the cavalier crowd. scion is premium small vehicles. Premium. Not the cheapest thing on wheels.
Scion wants the youth market, right?
Then it needs to not increase prices and not make fuel economy worse like it has with the xB and xD. Kids don’t have a lot of money to buy cars or to buy gas. Kids are also stupid and will throw money at customizing, so continue offering dealer accessories but keep the base car cheap.
Put the xB back on a diet. Sell the Toyota iQ as a Scion and steal sales from Smart. Make the cars less ugly–”different” doesn’t necessarily mean you have to make the cars ugly.
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