Toyota, Lexus, and SCION!

[My2ktoy]

Well, looks like toyota is coming out with a THIRD company, Scion. Have any of you checked www.scion.com and seen pics of the new cars? They're going to be sold in Toyota dealerships, they won't have their own. I guess the entire company is geared towards younger buyers, with prices from 20K-25K. Personally i think they're ugly, but what do you all think? I was hoping they'd release the RSC as a Scion, but no luck. Think Scion will realize the potential of the aftermarket scene?

[M SPEC]

More interesting information about it here (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000022271mar28.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusines s) .

Couple of interesing comments....

The cars will be sold only in California for the first eight months, starting in June 2003.

Three vehicles--the Echo, Celica and MR2--were marketed aggressively to the youth market by the Genesis group but failed to gain momentum. Celica sales were down 32% last year, and Echo and MR2 sales declined 13% each.

the only Toyota vehicle that has an average buyer age of under 40 is the Celica, at 38, according to J.D. Power & Associates.

Jason

[DevlynSyde]

That bbX might look like crap, but does it come with all those LCD Screens and the system? I still say the problem with companies putting a system into a car is, no matter how good they make it, the people who really want a system will still take it out and put something new in.
The ccX in my opinion looks better than the Matrix... plus a retractable top? Sounds like more competition in the car/minivan category...

[LoCore]

Average age of a Celica buyer is 38?!! (Guess I'm just average then :-) That's certainly not the average driver age of the Celica's around here. "Aggressively marketed"? Hardly. How many time a day do you see those Mitsubishi commercials? I see more of them each week than I've seen Celica commercials in two years.

The Scion web site reads like the "big change" between Scion and Toyota is that of customizability--something Toyota USA has never been known for. Buy a US vehicle (esp a truck) and pick from a gazillion options; buy a Japanese vehicle and pick from two or three different trim lines.

Why do "young buyers" flock more to Honda than Toyota? Why is there such a better aftermarket for Honda than Toyota? Its customizability, supply meeting a demand... one that Toyota--at least in the US--hasn't had success in targetting.

I like the looks of the prototypes; I've seen pictures of versions of the coupe before; sort looks like a cross of the Matrix and Focus?

[HilfigerCelica]

The Celica was aggressively marketed for young people at first, but lately how many Celica commercial have you seen? Not too many. You're right Locore, Mitsubishi is marketing their cars way more aggresive than the Celica.

WTF is wrong with the Scion company? Look at those ugly @ss concept cars. I would rather get an Evo VII.

And when is TRD really gonna support their sport cars? They have more stuff for their trucks than the MR2 and Celica. The avg Toyota truck buyer isn't going to S/C their trucks. Most of those people keep their trucks stock and keep them as workhorses.

[redtuna]

If they sell em for a bit cheaper then maybe more younger people will buy em, I mean $30k(canadian) for a base model GTS is quite expensive for someone in their early 20s. And the GTs come with rear drum brakes, wtf?? Anyways, my point is people would much rather go buy an RSX or VW GTI or the new Tiburons for about the same price or even less then the GTS and get alot more out of it. They need to rethink that, a $24k car with rear drum brakes, thats the only thing I hate about my car. Speaking of rear drums, do any of you guys paint the rear drums??


Ohhh, and those Scions are ugly as hell, I don't know what Toyota is thinking selling those cars, I know I woudn't buy one if I had a choice.

[Da Kine Guy]

I dunno, the BBX looks like a whole lotta european cars, which sell by the truckloads, and the ccx kinda reminds me or the new Z.

[t2000gts]

i never expected celica sales to stay up. 32% down and i bet they're still outselling the old celicas. they did pretty well the first year.

[nick450hp]

Originally posted by t2000gts
i never expected celica sales to stay up. 32% down and i bet they're still outselling the old celicas. they did pretty well the first year.

True, but Toyota's profits as a whole are up 27% from last year, with a $8.3billion!!!!!!!! total profit!!!!!!!! Toyota must be sellin' a whole lotta somethin'

[KSilver2000]

Originally posted by nick450hp


True, but Toyota's profits as a whole are up 27% from last year, with a $8.3billion!!!!!!!! total profit!!!!!!!! Toyota must be sellin' a whole lotta somethin'

That would be the Camry's.

[FriedRice]

camrys (camries?) and corolla S :gap: ........ (cries) i own a glorified corolla S.

celica sales are down? but there are more and more celicas on the street... kinda bugs now..... especially cuz i have a silver one, and everyone's got silver...... usually unmodded gt's, with middle aged white women drivers..... another pointless post, im going to bed

[MilinGTS]

psh. those cars are JDMtastic


i can see some CRAZY stuff coming out for them.


imagine getting smoke by a little minicar.


imagine a GTS motor in there

its like back in the day, with gremlins powered by super/turbocharged 350 ci v8's :)

[gts24]

"If you've got a well-respected brand, why not take advantage of it?" said **** Szamborski, vice president of national sales at American Honda. "I look at Scion and say, why do it? We don't need to spend marketing money on a new line--we have Honda."


I agree with this statement. Toyota is being stupid at this point. They have a name surrounded by things like reliability. Just do a better job of supporting the people that already own your cars. and you'll get repeat buyers... and new buyers to become repeat buyers...

[My2ktoy]

I think that Toyota likes to market their cars to a more specific audience. whereas Hondas are marketed to a more generic audience, thats why their styling isn't as "radical" as Toyotas. By forming Scion, Toyota can have an entire division working on the youth market. and keep Toyota for the older gen. I mean, Honda has Acura, and Toyota has Lexus. Toyota just took it one step further. Everyone knows that Lexus's are Toyotas, and have Toyota's reliability. I think the same will be true for Scion. People will trust them because its a toyota, And maybe Honda SHOULD form another company to focus on the youth market, i mean look at the styling of the new civic, they're FUGLY. And beyond the civic, i don't think Honda really has any cars that are geared towards the younger generation buyers. Nothing to the extreme of the celica, or matrix. And besides, maybe Scion will release the RSC. Everyone i've shown a pic of that car to has been like "DAMN, thats so sick!" Maybe we should all email someone at toyota and b*tch and moan about some of their marketing strategies. (aka, no FI for celica, marketing/pricing on matrix/celica, etc).