April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. says its Scion brand, designed to attract young buyers and serve as a laboratory for marketing ideas, is making a profit three years after its U.S. debut.

``We're learning so much by experimenting with a lot of different things,'' Mark Templin, the U.S. brand's chief, said in an interview this week. ``If we didn't make a dime, it would be worth a lot of money to us, but we are making money. We're making good money.''

A profit for Scion, which this year will contribute less than 2 percent of Toyota's global sales, is a bonus for Japan's biggest automaker. The brand's main purpose is to find ways of attracting young U.S. consumers who have ignored Toyota and aren't reached by traditional television and print advertising.

Templin, 46, spoke as he introduced replacements for two of Scion's three vehicles this week in Los Angeles. In keeping with Scion's against-the grain image, Toyota expects Scion to account for no more than about 170,000 sales annually through at least 2008, about the same as in 2006.

Toyota itself has doubled its U.S. sales in the past decade to 2.54 million annually and threatens to pass Ford Motor Co. this year as the second-biggest U.S. automaker.

Scion, sold only in the U.S., is also eschewing costly network television ads in favor of film or animated ``viral'' Internet spots and nightclub and art gallery events.

Toyota has won over the baby-boom generation born after World War II, ``but they need to pull in some of that 78 million under-30 generation, who are high-level consumers of the digital world,'' said Doug Scott, senior vice president at GfK Automotive, a marketing consultant in Southfield, Michigan.

Dodging Television

``That's exactly the group Scion is going after, and means they can avoid conventional marketing streams -- mainly network television,'' said Scott, who worked for Toyota as a researcher in the 1980s to help develop its Lexus luxury brand.

Lessons learned so far from Scion about targeting specific types of buyers have already been applied to the current campaign for the new Tundra pickup truck and in 2006's promotion of the Yaris small sedan and hatchback, Templin said.

Toyota's television advertisements for the Yaris, developed by former Scion chief Jim Farley, ``were more youthful and much less conventional than any done before by Toyota. That came right out of Jim's Scion experience,'' Templin said.

The Tundra is being promoted with television ads that tie into Internet content, and Toyota is encouraging dealers to hold more events to promote the truck to potential buyers, a Scion technique.

``If we're all about experimenting with new ways of doing business, what is that worth to the company?'' Templin said.

New Models

Scion next week replaces the box-shaped xB wagon with a bigger, second-generation version. In August, it adds the five- door xD hatchback to replace the smaller xA model. Sales of the two cars should be 100,000 units next year, Templin said.

The 2008 xB will cost $15,650 for a manual transmission version and $16,600 with an automatic transmission. The model has a new 2.4-liter engine that produces 158 horsepower, compared with the xB's 103-horsepower, 1.5-liter engine. New standard features include anti-lock brakes, vehicle stability and traction control, and front-seat, side-mounted air bags.

Toyota, of Toyota City, Japan, has its U.S. sales unit in Torrance, California. The company's American depositary receipts fell 58 cents to $122.35 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4:30 p.m. They've declined 11 percent since peaking at $138 on Feb. 27.