Just curious.....

Where do you honestly think Scion will be 15-20 years from now? Will they have more models? Will their be hybrids? Will they increase production? Will Scion still be around!?!?!

I'm interested, being a Scion Sales manager, what people think will become of Scion in the future.......

 

SCION who? In the post 9-11 world, 15-20 year economic projections for the automobile industry are at best just SWAG. Might as well get some chicken bones & feathers and cast your own projections. But don't dispair, management is management and there will always be a demand for people with demonstrated skills. Spend time on the internet researching what the experts think. I wouldn't base any life changing career moves on our opinions!

 

As far as the future of Scion, who knows. All I can say is that the primary goal of a business is to make money. I think they are doing that, hell they got mine. I'm not too sure if they will bring out more models or not. Personally I think they might bring out a total of 4 vehicles but thats about it. We all know that the vehicel models will have a shorter life span than some other vehilces on the market. I think they will keep true with their goal of keeping things fresh/new. Just my .02

 

Hmmmmm...

Just for the record, I wasn't going to base any career moves on what people stated in reply to this post. I was just curious as to what people thought about Scions future in general. Hence the post being in the "Dear Toyota" forums.

Nor do I have the time, or the patience, to investigate economic projections for the automobile industry for the next 15 years. If I did that, i wouldn't have the time to get on here and post with you fine folks!

 

I think they will be around for a little while, as long as they keep makng money o the level toyota expects or better. Dont think they will have more than 3 or 4 models out at any one time, but there will definitely be models beyong the xA xB and tC.
Hybrids..no, dont think so....at least until the whole toyota line switches to hybrid (if that actually happens)

 

I think that Scion will still be around and will expand to maybe 4 or 5 models, but no more than that (if even that).

I think Toyota is trying to be very careful to not compete with themself by bringing out the Scion line (i.e. no more Celica or Echo). The upcoming Yaris will fit in just under and just above the xA, with the ability to buy a truely basic Yaris for less than the xA for those who just want very basic transportation, and the slightly more upscale Yaris sedan will fit in as somewhat of a sedan alternative to the hatchback xA. Overall, the Yaris is aimed at the compact car buyer who does not want a Scion for whatever reason. The next xB is expected to move up a bit in power and size to move it up and away, but let's face it, the xB does not fit into a typical compact car description anyway. The tC (and its replacments) will probably stay in its segment for a while (sports coupe). All in all, Toyota is trying to stay away from the same problems that GM has run into where they are competing against themselves by having multiple cars in the same segment which means that if one of their midsize sedans, for an example, was gaining ground, many times it would mean another midsize sedan of theirs was losing sales as a result.

If Scion comes out with a fourth or fifth model it would probably be some kind of mini crossover-type vehicle that would fit somewhere below the Rav 4 (like a Mazda5 with more edge, and more car-like attributes, and of course some LED lights too). Maybe a fourth or fifth model would be an inexpensive mini Evo/STI like car(Toytota's new involvment with Subaru and its 4WD parts bin would make this possible). All of this is just educated speculation based on what the Scion demographic would want and the Toyota lineup does not have either kind of vehicle I just mentioned. I would assume that Toyota would want to keep future Scions close to the same price range they are now to keep them attainable to the target demographic but they also need to keep the products as competitive in the market as they are now by keeping features and power on par with what else is out there.

You can also only fit so many models into the 10-20k range without over crowding the market and competing with yourself, it is generally more profitable to sell 150,000 cars between 3 models than it is to sell the same amount of cars spread out over 6 models because of R&D and Production modification costs. It costs a huge amount of money to design a new model, and an all new model usually takes years to recoup that cost; the Scions were easy for Toyota because the xA/xB were already existing models that only needed to be modified to be sold in the US, and the tC was built off an existing platform. Bringing over models that have already been designed in the rest of the world will keep Scion profitable and affordable and will fit right in with Toyota's plan to keep Scion as a (relatively) low-volume brand. Don't forget that the whole point of Scion is to get new, young customers trained to buy Camrys, Siennas, and eventually Lexus' later in life by selling them Scions now.

Another angle is the changing face of fuel in the world. There are those who say that we will run out of oil in the next 15-20 years; even if that doesn't happen that soon, it will eventually, and the automotive world is already trying to figure out what the cars of the future will run on. Who knows, in 30 years from now, we might be all excited about the new 2036 Scion HoverBee

Those are my thoughts on the future of Scion, what do the rest of you think?

 

I think all cars will be electric/hydro fuel cell because THE EARTH WILL RUN OUT OF OIL!