Toyota US chief says no fourth Scion
Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:25 AM ET


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) has no plans to expand its popular youth-oriented Scion line, the company's top U.S. executive said on Thursday.

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. President Jim Press said the Scion brand would lose its cachet -- and its usefulness to the Japanese automaker -- if it got any bigger.

"One of the values of Scion is as an incubator for us to understand young people and new buyers," Press said in an interview with Reuters.

"If we increase the volume too much, we lose the essence of Scion. It becomes a volume thing. So we want to keep it about where it is and the number of products very simple."

Asked if Toyota might add a fourth vehicle to the current three-car lineup, Press said, "No."

Since the Scion line was introduced in 2003, Toyota has sold more than 160,000 of them in the United States -- often to buyers a lot older than the drivers the company targeted. Still, the average age of the Scion buyer is 31, Press said, making it, he said, "the youngest brand in the industry."

Press declined to share Toyota's market share goals for the United States in 2006 and insisted the company was not fixated -- as much of the media is -- with whether it will surpass the Chrysler arm of DaimlerChrylser AG (DCX.N: Quote, Profile, Research)(DCXGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and become the No. 2 automaker in terms of U.S. sales.

"Last year, a couple of the companies struggled a little bit," Press said, "and so their sales were down and our share was up. I anticipate they're going to come up, their sales will be up and our share will come down, and that's OK."

Press also questioned the inevitability that Toyota would soon eclipse General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) as the world's largest automaker.

"We don't aspire to be the volume leader," he said. "It has responsibilities and disadvantages. And I'm not so sure that GM is going to be second. They could come back stronger. They got a lot better products that they're developing. Their volume is growing globally and they're really growing quickly in China."

Looking further into the future, Press said he believed the global vehicle market would eventually be dominated by "six or seven players with 15, 20 percent share ... some Asian, some North Americans and some Europeans."

Asked if one of those Asians companies might be Chinese, Press said, "longer term, it wouldn't surprise me. But in the short-term the Koreans will be there well before the Chinese globally ... With the Chinese, I can imagine in my mind that some day they may be there. With the Koreans, I can feel their breath on my neck."

original link: http://today.reuters.com/business/ne...HOW-TOYOTA.xml

 

So no "xR" then probably...

Booo...

 

scion doesn't need a 4th vehicle....3 original works of art are enough.

 

hmm..so no 'abC' after all.

"A little bit of everything you want from each scion, and a bit of what you don't"

 

it's stuff like the above that I really enjoy this forum that is CLASSIC!!

 

Now that is just fugly. I don't know what to say.................... but "Hell yah.....do that son"

 

well i rellay dont know what the company is trying to do......... i think a 4th scion would be great and what would be better is if they created a 4th and got rid of the xa or xb then it would go in high demand and then bring back the xa or xb in a couple of years

 

i give u a 7 kind of ugly but good try heheheh
why purple?

 

That isn't the 4th Scion! Are you crazy? That is obviously the next Miata!



But in all seriousness. The bigwigs at Scion have long preached that they will not grow the brand, but as each model ages they will replace it with a new and fresh niche design. It should remain a trio of interesting vehicles for quite awhile.

 

I think it's great news. It's fitting...for the Scion brand and for most of its buyers. Scion is a unique brand of vehicle and this decision helps maintain that point.

Don't get me wrong, I've been excited to see if they had a 4th vehicle released soon, but I'm okay by that!

 

^^werd dont need too many.

 

I don't underdtand why they would waste money on concept vehicles then.

 

Well concepts serve a few purposes.

1. It allows Toyota to guess and validate what the general public might want in the future.

2. They are testbeds for future technology and styles.

3. It displays to other manufacturers their direction and superiority -- like playing poker.

While concept cars almost never make it into production EXACTLY they way they are built, many of the features can make it onto production cars.

For example, the glass roof on the Scion CCX concept made it onto the low-production tC, and is now on the high-production Lexus ES!

 

I didn't see anything there that would preclude them dropping one of the current vehicles and replacing it with a new, "fourth" scion. Just because they want to keep three at a time doesn't mean they can't come up with a fourth one. They'll just have to drop one of the current ones...

 

Exactly!

 

yeah, i'm pretty sure they just meant that they aren't gonna have 4 models at once.

 

Doesn't surprise me. Scion wasn't designed for volume sales. They already have that, it's called Toyota...

 

He said "NO" to a new model. But what about model trims . . . like a Scion tC convertible, engine sizes, etc. I like that fact that it is small and to the left. That's why I love this project. I'm also left handed and in my right mind. Plus I LOVE Apple ;)

 

He said "NO" to a 4th model, not a new model...

 

^^ i think mfbenson is right... press asked about the current three line-up... although they didn't asked anything about replacing one but i doubt that there won't be a new model... there might be three new models... if you guys would analyze the t2b... it has each of the three cars aspects... they might split tha t2b and create three new line-up for scion...

In my opinion, toyota have thought that these three cars are already perfect for the age of consumers that they are targeting... they have different personalities in each of these cars not to mention after you have personalized your car it will become who you are... if they would add atleast a sedan to the line up... it will change the average age of buyers that they currently have which is 31(they've targeted 25+/-) to let say 45? if that happens the essence of "scion", will disipate... scion will become just like any other lame cars around...

the essence of scion that he ment is the personalization which drives their consumers to get what they want to their cars... most of these buyers are us, the youth... they are a bit surprised that they've gotten an average age of 31... meaning there are older people which still wanna experience that essence... or wanna be young again... hehe...

they wanna keep scion as "scion"... not toyota or honda or gmc or nissan... they also wanna limit their cars to the youth that's why they are limiting their production... because of scion's pricing, an average person can buy it... but they want that average person to really personalize his car... basically they wanna do what big shots do... just like corvette, or getting a viper, or ferrari etc... but with unlimited options and not spending big bucks and of couse in fresh style...

at least that's my opinion