Scion News, Updates & Info

Carmaker hopes consumer crests will gain traction

NEW YORK Scion is getting into the crest business.As part of a campaign by independent StrawberryFrog, New York, the carmaker last week launched an online effort centered on scionspeaks.com.

Users can create crests on the site by combining pre-selected icons like Scion’s logo and a bat holding a video game controller. The resulting images can then be used in everything from their AIM icons to their Facebook pages.

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Mason Doherty and Brent Winkelman spent part of an afternoon crawling around a 2008 Scion TC last week.

They were getting to know the car and where things are as they prepare for a national automotive repair competition in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The boys will compete against automotive repair students from other states with hopes of winning a car or scholarship.

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TOYOTA likes to think of its quirky, boxy Scion as a 21st-century chariot of the soul — not just an affordable car, but also a unique expression of the young, hip person who Toyota hopes is driving it.

Now Toyota’s Scion enthusiasts will have even more “me time”: a marketing campaign with an underground vibe that is intended to show just how much their chosen transportation reflects their personality.

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By MARK RECHTIN, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

Toyota is considering an expansion of Scion’s product lineup over the next five years in an effort to build sales volume.

The youth-oriented brand could go from its current three vehicles–the boxy xB, the xD hatchback and sporty tC coupe–to as many as six vehicles.

“We will be bigger than we are today,” said Jack Hollis, Scion vice president. “We are studying two or three models in conceptual form right now.”

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To say the Scion Hako Concept went over poorly with the Jalopnik staff would be something of an understatement. Every time we checked the front page we’d recoil in horror as the Hako scrolled past on the screen. It became the generic stake by which other cars were measured. “At least it’s not the Hako” was heard more than once. Now, considering the depth of photochopping skill we see from Chrysler here on a daily basis, we’re betting you guys can do better than the awkward and boxy “American vintage style” Scion touted at the New York Auto Show.

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LONG BEACH, Calif., March 21 /PRNewswire/ — Drew Lachey, the smooth- stepping second-season winner of Dancing With the Stars, and NASCAR pit reporter Jamie Little are among Las Vegas gaming expert Anthony Curtis’ celebrity picks to give the pros some heat in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race on Saturday, April 19, part of the 34th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

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By Karey Wutkowski

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Co’s (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) youthful urban brand Scion is considering adding a new model with a “polarizing” design to its line-up and surveying current Scion drivers about the kind of vehicle they would like to see, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Dawn Ahmed, corporate manager of Scion, also told Reuters that the Toyota-owned brand expected little change in 2008 sales compared with last year, at about 130,000 vehicles.

“Overall the light vehicle industry is pretty challenging right now,” Ahmed said. “It’s fortunate we’re not necessarily trying to sell to everybody.”

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NEW YORK — The head of Toyota’s youth-oriented Scion division said today the company may double its product lineup, adding as many as three new vehicles in the next few years.

The six-year-old brand, launched at the New York International Auto Show in 2002, showed off its Hako coupe concept — a boxy vehicle that’s reminiscent of classic American coupes, said Jack Hollis, vice president for Scion.

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Introduced on Wednesday: Scion Hako.

Is it real? Yes, but only conceptually. The Hako is a purely a design study from Toyota Tokyo Design.

What they said: Hako is a Japanese word for box, though the exterior designer on the concept, Thomas Bergeron, who is 28, said the vehicle was not inspired by the Scion xB. “American vintage has been very popular in Japan,” Mr. Bergeron added, referring to classic clothing and antique products, in addition to lowriders and rat rods.

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Scion is known for trying to be hip with the kids, but I have a feeling its latest concept, the Hako, is a couple steps too far, even for the spikey haired, angsty kids of America. Hako means box and this is very boxy, even more boxy than the xB. If you remember, Scion originally teased the Hako Coupe concept two weeks ago, but here she is in all of her ugly glory. Original speculation suggested that this could take the place of the xA, but something tells me that wouldn’t fly too well.

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