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This is sort of sad. We bought the first XB in the Central PA region, as in, really, the FIRST one! It was fun. Ours had a zillion miles on it. Went up and down the coast a few times. Beat up in the city, wrung out on the highway and the hills of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It left parts behind it the whole way. But--It NEVER left us stranded. Never. The poor benighted little car was tortured and came back for more. I miss that car and am sort of sad that the Scion name is going away.
I wish our Hi-$$ Subaru was as problem free and reliable!
Still driving our 2006 xB. Looks like it just came off the showroom floor. No problems, great gas mileage, and I can fit 4' by 8' sheets of plywood in the back.
My two cents? Toyota enlarged the Scion at the expense of MPG. And made it plug ugly. And their sales demographic turned out to be old farts like me instead of younger drivers. We tend to keep cars rather than lusting after the newest rocket ship with a TV set on the dashboard.
Our little box resembles the love child of a Mini-Cooper and a Honda Element. We love it.
Still driving our 2006 xB. Looks like it just came off the showroom floor. No problems, great gas mileage, and I can fit 4' by 8' sheets of plywood in the back.
My two cents? Toyota enlarged the Scion at the expense of MPG. And made it plug ugly. And their sales demographic turned out to be old farts like me instead of younger drivers. We tend to keep cars rather than lusting after the newest rocket ship with a TV set on the dashboard.
Our little box resembles the love child of a Mini-Cooper and a Honda Element. We love it.
I agree. The later iterations really insured we would not be a repeat buyer. Our gens body styles are like one of those drooling bulldog puppies. So ugly it was endearing. We got the very first one sold in central PA. Going through the Amish country side, people were spraining thier necks doing double takes. Yelling stuff from sidewalks, etc . . . Very funny reactions they got at first. Then, similar ones flipping their headlights at each other and so on. Sort of like a nu-age Trabant
I rented a Nissan Cube and found it to be a similar weirdo mobile. I liked it!
The FR-S is known as the Toyota AE86 in Japan, the legendary lightweight RWD hatchback of the 80s. Celicas came out as a fastback then hatchback. So the FR-S was never meant to replace the Celica which was a slightly larger GT. AE86s are much more popular and more well known in Japan and the import car scenes than the Celica which eventually became a FWD platform which the Scion TC took it's place.
Originally the BRZ was supposed to be AWD but Toyota changed it to RWD in order to fit the AE86 moniker.
As much as some fondly remember that RWD Corolla, it wasn't really fast. It was a fun to drive compact for its time. Today's coupe is fun to drive and is RWD but that's where the similarities end. It has more in common with the original Celica.
Around here, the xB was very popular with the 18-25 guys for customizing as a boxy "ricer" back in the early '90s. Sales dropped off in 2010, probably as that group got older and chose something more practical.
I actually just bought a 2014 XB. I am nearly 40 and got it because I needed something "more practical" now that I have a kid. I am very happy with it. It's much bigger than the original XB. It has 122 cu feet of interior space. Rear seats and passenger seat all fold completely flat so it's possible to haul a lot of stuff. More importantly I can fit our huge stroller in the back without having to fold seats and keep car seat in back. I am 5'11 and I can also sit in the back and fully extend my legs...it's like riding in a friggin limo! Blue tooth works great, sound system is great for stock, has touch screen stereo. Paid about $14k used with 6K miles. MPG could be a little better. It gets 22/28 where some close competitors small suv are getting 30 or 32 on highway but also cost a lot more. It also has great acceleration for boxy station wagon with a 4 cylinder.
I agree. The later iterations really insured we would not be a repeat buyer. Our gens body styles are like one of those drooling bulldog puppies. So ugly it was endearing. We got the very first one sold in central PA. Going through the Amish country side, people were spraining thier necks doing double takes. Yelling stuff from sidewalks, etc . . . Very funny reactions they got at first. Then, similar ones flipping their headlights at each other and so on. Sort of like a nu-age Trabant
I rented a Nissan Cube and found it to be a similar weirdo mobile. I liked it!
I especially like the Cube's asymmetrical rear window. A definite nod to those of us in the ranks of budget-minded nonconformity.
Oh I stand corrected. Malloric was educating me that 30 yo Gen Xers purchase Scions because people wait until 30 to buy their first car and would naturally gravitate toward a Scion.
He did say first new car at 30.
Anecdotally I'd agree, I knew zero kids in high school who got new cars at 16.
Whether kids had new cars in high school is just a factor of how well off your neighborhood was. There were a few at mine but most had 10+ year old cars if they had one at all.
I'm a Gen Xer and my first new car was at 23, a 2002 Acura RSX. Which I promptly went out and got as soon as I got myself into my first full time salaried position.
Which that is something Acura gave up...an affordable entry level sporty coupe that appealed to younger folk in order to make them brand loyal as they grew up.
It's why you are wrong. Most people receive their first cars between the ages of 16-18 when they first get their driver's license. In 2004 when Scion was first released, those between the ages of 16-24 were part of the Millenial generation and it was that demographic who were purchasing Scions. In addition, they were priced low to make it affordable for this young demographic. You are mistaken about 30 year old buyers. By the time people are in their 30's, they have already owned multiple cars and are well established in their careers. They are buying their first luxury cars in their 30's so they were not targeting Scion to say the least. Again, when scion was first released many Gen Xer's were over the age of 40. No market analyst in the automative industry would argue Scion was targeting 30 and 40 year olds in 2004.
No, not really. Most high school students don't drive new cars.
Millenials don't even get their licenses at 16 (less than a quarter do, versus less than half for Gen X). By 20-24, nearly a quarter of Millenials today don't have a license compared with about 8% for Gen X. In 2011, 18-24 demographic bought... drum roll ... 1% of all new cars. Huge market that 1% Millenials don't buy new cars straight out of college. Under 30 has for a long time been around 10% of all new car sales. It's not a big market. It wasn't a big market for Gen X and it's an even smaller market for Millenials. Maybe the Boomers graduated from college and ran to the auto dealerships, but neither Gen X nor Millenials did nor do. What is a big market, however, is the 25-34 demographic. Specifically, it's the 30-34 part of that group. The 30-34 age range makes up well over half of all car sales going to those under 35.
Scion was released because Toyota's sales to Gen X were lower. It was a reactive measure to Gen X not buying Toyotas, especially younger Gen X. By the time they're old and 40, sure, they're buying Toyotas. That critical 30-34 age group, however, when most people buy their first new car was not buying Toyota. Thus Scion. And it worked. Gen X bough a lot of Scions. And then it was 2007. 2007-2016 saw aging out of that key 30-34 demographic for Gen X to be replaced by Millenials, earliest Millenials hitting the peak first new car buying age in 2010 although certainly some (like myself) do buy their first new car before then. 30-34 is merely the most important demographic for first-time new car purchases. It doesn't mean the 25-29 group doesn't buy cars. Even the 18-24 group buys some, just not very many at all. Gen X aged out, Millenials aged in. Scion was so much more popular with Gen X than Millenials that their total sales dropped during that period despite each year bringing more Millenials into those key years (firstly 30-34, secondly 25-29) than Gen Xers aging out of them. Toyota doesn't have a problem selling Toyotas to Millenials like it did to Gen X, so the reason for it to exist is gone on both fronts. Gen X grew up and now is willing to buy a Toyota branded as a Toyota. Millenials never cared. Kill it, fold it in with the Toyota brand. Done and done.
Target or not, what Scion sells to now is 35-75+ year-olds far more than young car buyers.
Today, less than 15 percent of Scion customers are under 35, while almost 14 percent are 65 or older. In 2008, more than 20 percent were under 35 and less than 8 percent were 65 or older.
The numbers look worse the deeper you delve into them. Just over 1.5 percent of Scion customers are between the ages of 18 and 24, while nearly 4 percent are 75 or older. In 2008, more than 2.5 percent were in the 18-to-24 sweet spot and less than 1.9 percent were 75 or older.
It'd be interesting to see the numbers back in 2004-2006. But clearly Scion doesn't resonate with Millennials. Even by 2008 they were clearly far more successful selling cars to those 25+ (mostly over 35, 80% of the sales going to those 35 and over) than they were Millenials. The absolute oldest Millenials in 2008 were around 28. Even as Toyota itself says, Scion was never really successful in getting new buyers in a Scion so they'd buy a Toyota. Instead what happened was the younger buys they got mostly went elsewhere. Interesting the perhaps unintended older buyers are far more loyal, although again more likely to buy another Scion than go to a Toyota or Lexus.
Last edited by Malloric; 02-05-2016 at 07:48 PM..
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