Scion News, Updates & Info

In an ad for the xB called Pendulum, Scion quite startlingly demonstrates it does not give a damn what you think.

Given the car’s sheer ugliness (that pumpkin shade ain’t helping), whoring for mainstream acceptance would have been a depressing uphill fight. Instead of trying to hide its blunt features, Scion made them the draw. And the ad suggests it isn’t afraid of strong feelings, whatever they are.

It certainly helps that agency ATTIK is great at generating emotions not normally associated with car ads. Scion’s work, for example, always feels a little eerie and violent. When that first “He loves me…” drifted out of my speakers, I got chills.

(It was probably the kid’s voice that did it. There’s something endlessly creepy about using innocence to portray deviance.)

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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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Scion, the hip, cool, “youth” brand (the average xD buyer is aged 42) Toyotas marketing execs promised would break the auto industry mold, is looking more and more like Oldsmobile. Automotive News claims sales, year-on-year have dropped for 16 straight months. Current sales are running at half peak levels recorded in 2006.

At the launch of the original Scions - basically recycled, old-tech Japanese market Toyotas — Toyota marketing types hinted they may only last one model cycle before being replaced.  But the new Scion xB is just like the old one — only longer, wider, lower.  And you know where that strategy got Detroit.

We’ll find out more about Scion’s future strategy at the New York show next week when it unveils a vehicle called the Hako coupe concept, which many belive will be the replacement for the tC. Stay tuned to MotorTrend.com for the latest updates on the new Scion concept.

Source: Automotive News (registration only)

We reported on the Scion Hako concept that will make an appearance at the New York Auto Show and the only photo available at the moment is a corner of the car. Here is what a Scion enthusiast has come up with using that photo as either the front or rear corner of the car, basing one possibility on the Scion Fuse concept.

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