i hope they never do away with the xb. it's a great city car with the amount of stuff you can put in there. it's true that you see more old people driving the soul than the xb. i guess reverse marketing is working for kia.

 

You guys do realize that Toyota is still going to produce the xb2 right? The 2014 has slight changes to front bumper but not much else. Still 2.4l and 4speed auto from what I herd. Should be the new 2.5 with 6man or 6 auto.

 

It needs to lose weight and get better mpg. I'm not sure why they would still produce the xb2 in 2013. It's dated and gets terrible gas mileage vs its competition. I still love mine and keeping it because its paid off.

 

They should keep making it for the 2013 year for sure... and are... but here's the reason...

It's a ONE CLASS vehicle. there is nothing in this class. The Hamster Suit is Much Smaller inside, and is built by hyundai, and is newer to the market.... the durability of it is still on the block in my estimation, I don't really think Anyone has owned one long enough to compare to the Toyota/Scion name and reputation... Keeping in faith with the basic size and capacity and all of the Gen 2 xB is a relatively good move, as long as they do some makreting, and maybe make themsleves ready to build and sell a good number more. Exclusivity may bring prices up a smidge, but in the long run, a good solid car with much less limited numbers is a better corporate model, no matter how anyone sells it to the rest of us.... Limited sales is silly. Unless you are building by hand and the number built is a human limitation. This only works if you can sell at a price that far outweighs the average car buyer's budget... and the desirability is there.... How about keeping the RS series limited, but upping the model build numbers along with awareness.... I just sold my Daughter on an xD this weekend.... She didn't even know they existed..... the only reason she knew mine existed (xB) was that she had ridden in it and driven it.... she felt it was too big and she wanted to go ahead and buy a Hamster suit.... because her mother had one and that was all she knew.... those two cars.... Gurlz do that kind of stuff... they lock onto what they know and are terribly unaware of what else exists....

My wife didn't even know what the xB was like until I sat her in one and she fell in love with it.... Totally unaware it existed.... No marketing on Toyota/Scion's part is their biggest problem with sales.... Not the vehicles and their appeal once folks are aware.

 

I own a 09 Xb. I love it! I am not in the "marketing demographic" that Toyota set out to sell the Scion to, however I see more people in my age group driving them than the younger set. They wanted to use Scion as their stepping stone for younger people to get them familiar with Toyota products, so they developed the Scion. Hoping that later on, when they could afford it, would trade on up to the Camry, Avalon, etc. then finally to the Lexus line. What they didn't expect was that the older adults would like these vehicles and would buy more than their target audience. Most of the Xb's owned by older adults are being used for their business delivery vehicles.
I also own/operate my own business and use this as a delivery vehicle. I was employed by Toyota for several years and I can tell you there is no rhyme or reason to their thinking. I was pretty ticked when I heard that they were planning to kill the Xb, however I heard last week, (info obtained by someone who read the internal news letter) that there is a 2014 Xb on the horizon. There was not a release date, however I am hoping for late summer/early fall 2013.

 

These cars can be bought on the cheap in my area used, a few 08 and 09 for 10K , to me thats are steal for such a versatile vehicle.

 

Our dealership has a total of about 5 scions out of the total 250 new toyotas along side em. In terms of how much the dealership makes it's all about accessories. That's the money maker on scion but the downside is the price of the parts. Being an employee I get a huge discount on trd parts so it doesn't affect me. After I bought my xb2 a week ago we had a few people come in and order xb's because they talked to me outside of work and really liked my car. I bought mine because I used to own a Subaru forester xt and loved it for the shape and comfort. When looking at the xB I love the shape and the folding seat allows me to fit skate boxes and all my rails perfect. The marketing is lazy, it literally helps a lot when us owners show out love for them. Believe me people love to talk to owners not salesman lol. Especially us younger buyers.

 

When in Chicago or Las Vegas you see a ton of xB's taxi's on the streets. That is good advertising when people use them and they see how much room is inside and easy entry/exit.

 

I believe that both the xD and xB are going into their 6 year so the 2014 model would be year 7. Hopefully they would redesign both of them or have one compete against the Juke/Mazda CX3 (rumored)/Honda urban concept/Outlander Sport. All of these vehicles are under 170 inches in length. Maybe even some exciting colors like what they have for the Veloster. Isn't Scions supposed to be for the youth segment?