So Scion has a marketing and overall business model of discontinuing new models and bringing out "fresh" vehicles every couple of years. In my opinion, it's not a good plan. A few months ago I had to wait a week and a half to even get a white auto box from the local dealership, so obviously the cars were selling very well. Why redesign a car that's popular across the board? And for that matter, why redesign the exterior of a car that helped put you on the map?

If Scion were truly a company who listens to it's already loyal fan base of buyers or would-be buyers, they would have taken our criticisms of the OG box and worked with it. This means keeping the exterior design that was selling so well, put in a more high-power engine like so many SL'ers were asking for, make the upgrade radio the standard radio, add the new electronics and tech on the interior, and be done with it.

Or, if they must have a new model for the kids every couple of years, why not continue to sell the xB and make this "new xB" an xE model? Keep selling the box everyone loves, but give the fans the new model as well? It seems that Toyota could stand to produce both models at the same time and satisfy everyone.

 

 

I really don't need a bigger version of the xB. I guess all cars have a life cycle and they wanted to go out on top with the xB. My daughter took one look at it and said, "Oh it looks like a mini van".

 

if they kept making the original xB, it would become a PT cruiser. We don't like PT cruisers anymore.

 

I just said this in another thread but here's my opinion on the situation:

We drive cars that are "ugly" to the majority of people that are outside of the "scion community" but now they release the new models that WE predominately think are horrid...what in the world will the outside world think?...they will like them and THEY will buy them...probably just what Scion/Toyota wanted. Too bad for us.

Just my opinion though.

 

You have a point.....I think the BIGGEST thing is the NAME. Like I mentioned before if you say beetle to the VW crowd most think herbie....not the new better....so when you say xB you think 1st gen...At least scion can change the name I hope your READING scion. make it the t2B

 

I think Scion's main goal is not to sell good cars - that's Toyota's job. Scion exists to lure newer and younger customers to the Toyota family. Scion must keep new and fresh at all costs to reach the youth market.

Additionally, the "loyal base of buyers or would-be buyers" of the xB is actually quite small when you compare xB sales to Camrys, Corollas, all their trucks, etc. Even the TC far outsells the xB.

I think Scion is trying to combine the uniquness of the xB with the selling points of the tC. They want a piece of the maket who wants only like the xB because it is "unique loking" and at the same time is the "tuner" type who is into HP and superchargers. That's a mstake because the xB is not successful because it is "unique looking", but because it is an excellent design overall - form and function. The new xB is just a tC in the form of an xB.

 

I don't think that Scion wanted to oversell the xB. The whole point was to keep things fresh with new models all the time. If everybody drove a box it wouldn't be as unique.

Maybe to make it up the next time around they'll make one even boxier.

 

Like I said on another forum all they had to do was square off the front and rear bumpers make the hatch flat and viola.

 

Well the bottom line is that most auto makers redesign their vehicles every few years. Why should Scion be any different? I used to live next door to a design guy for mazda. He worked on the most recent RX-7 (1994?) redo. That was 4 years after the last RX-7 redo and they looked nothing alike.

And what about the US makers, How many times has the Ford F150 Truck been made over, or the Chevy Tahoe? Come on guy's you act like this is somthing new for the auto makers. Get over it and move on.

 

....I have no problem with the change . I have always asked for more models , not larger production of the 3.
....the xB name should have gone away with the car .

 

^^^Agreed.

 

if scion didn't market it properly and doing things on a totally different approach like other manufacturers..

they wouldn't be selling as many cars as they are doing.

i'm sure they know what they're doing.

they have their plan and it's been successful all this time.

 

Why redesign (which it isn't, it's a completely new car....new engine, generally same interior, different proportions and completely new exterior) a car that you had to wait a week to buy? In my eyes, the "classic" xB was doing everything right. It makes sense to redesign a car that isn't selling well, but a car that has a waiting list? That's the product you leave alone and let the public's spending decide when to swap it out for something new and different.

The xB can't become another PT Cruiser. For that to happen, you have to like it in the beginning and hate it later. With the PT Cruiser, I hated it from the beginning and still do ;)

In any case, Scion did a great job redesigning (oops, making a new model of) the xD, and in general know what they're doing in adding small niceties to the model line. But the new xB just isn't the same and I've no plans to sell it.

 

Or call it the xC or something. Who cares. Anything but calling it an xB. Might as well be calling it a Ford Astro (now you are like every other auto manufacture out there). It would be great 10-20 years down the road to try to modify the xB like VW did with the beetle, but another xB (that is not really an xB?) What were you thinking?

The xB is great. But if you are going to change it that much call it a ChevyXJCruzer. lol

It is really a mistake to call it an xB.

 

This is what I love:

 

and this:

 

I do agree on that it shouldn't be called an xB.
Because the xB is an instant classic like the Bettle
I don't agree on the idea of continuing to make a car until there is no longer a demand for it. Especialy not for Scion, which seems to be more interested in bringing buyers into the Toyota Family.
The only people that should be complaining about the xB not being made anymore should be the stockholders worried about the bottom line. Not the Enthusiast that loves the car. Say this to yourself and tell me if it doesn't sound stupid...." I love the xB and I wish they would keep making it until everybody drives one."


Me I am personally happy that they aren't making the xB anymore, and ____ed that the tC isn't going to only be a 3 year run also.

 

CA is not the only state selling scions.... We have white xB's all over in FL and we have outsold the LA region in scion sales for the past 36 months.....


All Toyota's get changed every 5 years for cars and 8 years for Trucks.. Thats a fact of the kaizen way its an improvement and if the NG scion doesn't sell becasue its not boxy enough, then people can buy the used ones that get traded in all the time for newer models or outgrown them. They don't go away, they just get recycled!


Not "everybody" loves the box.... and its not an cost effective to run 2 lines of the same vehicle that they don't produce a ton of anyway.. But on an inside scoop they are tossing around the idea of having a 4th scion model... but nothing concrete yet!

 

If everyone has the car, maybe it means....the car didn't need to be redesigned, it's popular and sells well. Which is more than you can say about the American automakers, who put out new versions of their cars every year to little fanfare (well, all but the Mustang and 300 sedan).

Volkswagen sold their iconic Beetle for 30 years here in the states and only recently stopped producing them for markets like Mexico. Very little was changed on that car. The only thing they changed that really made people happy....a bigger engine (the Super Beetle) and new gadgets like defrosting rear windows and air conditioning. That's it. It was a cheap car with a tiny engine that wasn't meant to be fast or perfect, just a people mover that people idolized. The xB is that car for me...I've had both a VW bug and the box, and the box was much more reliable, a car I would never trade off for the new and "improved" version.