Scion News, Updates & Info

Scion got off to a fast start five years ago, but now Toyota executives are forced to rethink their funky experiment–and do it a lot sooner than they expected.

At issue is Scion’s mission–and whether the idea behind the trendy brand still makes sense.

A year after the second generation of Scion’s youth-oriented vehicles debuted, Toyota faces several problems:

–The number of young people shopping Scion has dropped dramatically since 2006.

–Before $4-a-gallon gasoline gave all small cars a big boost in April and May, Scion was in a slump it couldn’t seem to get out of. And in June, sales were declining again.

–While the brand had attracted fuel-economy-minded buyers, many are much older than Scion’s demographic target: 18- to 24-year-olds. That threatens the hipster image Toyota has carefully cultivated for Scion.

So was launching a youth brand such a hot idea after all?

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Toyota Racing Development has introduced a street-legal, fully warranted supercharger system for the 5.7-liter V8 in the Toyota Sequoia and Toyota Tundra. The hardware boosts output to 504 horsepower at 5,500 rpm, an increase of 25 percent. This unit supplements recently introduced supercharger systems for the Scion tC, Scion xB and Toyota Tacoma.

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If you haven’t been to Scion.com in the past couple days, you haven’t seen the new site design. The background of the site is video from the Scion United event in Nevada and various commercials, including the Scion xB wrecking ball ad, and can be switched from “wild” to “mild.” It’s a very entertaining, multimedia driven site and presumably quite demanding for slow connections, or older computers. The video background is pixelated, due to it being full screen, but is attractive nonetheless. Some are saying that the site is also throwing up errors, so there still may be work to be done, though I haven’t come across any myself. Overall, it’s a fun, flashy, and very different car site.

Scion.com

Child safety event: Roseville Toyota and Roseville Scion host a child safety event featuring digital fingerprinting and photo identification programs for kids, plus face painting, balloons and demonstrations of gymnastics and martial arts. When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (Aug 9th & 10th) Where: 350 Auto Mall Drive, Roseville Cost: Free More information: (916) 782-2163.

The extra super-hip brand Scion celebrated its fifth anniversary in June, and since the automaker was founded as a subbrand to Toyota, the division has spread to 982 dealerships nationwide and sold over 620,000 vehicles. But just like that pair of Ugs gathering dust in your girlfriend’s closet, it looks like Toyota’s experiment at creating a young people’s car line is getting stale — sales and Internet traffic are down this year, but even more important, the brand’s target demographic of 18- to 24-year-old hipsters is beginning to look elsewhere for wheels.

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The tC sports coupe, the best-selling vehicle in the Scion lineup, carries over unchanged for the 2009 model year after receiving minor changes last year. The tC Spec Package is discontinued for 2009. The tC remains one of the best values in its segment and has EPA fuel economy estimates of 20 city/27 highway for the manual transmission and 21/29 for the automatic. In addition, the tC is rated ULEV.

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The Scion xB urban utility vehicle, which received a major model change in 2008, enters the 2009 model year by appealing to young urban trendsetters with its fresh styling and performance. It features a surprising level of refinement and is packaged with an array of standard equipment including a 160-watt maximum output Pioneer audio system with iPod connectivity. The head-turning xB receives one new exterior color, Stringray Metallic, which replaces Nautical Blue Metallic.

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Scion recently launched its “United by Individuality” brand campaign, which reinvents the brand’s distinctiveness by communicating several of its core philosophies - creativity, personalization, authenticity, and community.The campaign also celebrates Scion owners as it demonstrates Scions as blank canvases for customization through unique treatments of actual owner vehicles in cinema, cable, print, online and out of home advertising.

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Coming off of two consecutive wins, Chris Rado and the WORLD Racing team were very excited to be heading to Nashville Motor Speedway for another Redline Time Attack event. The Nashville Motor Speedway track is a much shorter and tighter course than Chris is used to, which meant he would be using second and third gear coming out of the turns; this is difficult for the tC because it is such a high-horsepower car. But even with knowing that he was definitely going to have his work cut out for him this weekend, Chris was ready for the challenge and had his aim set on another 1st place finish.

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Location:
Fort Mason Center
Landmark Buildings A-E
San Francisco, CA 94123 map
district: Marina/Cow Hollow

Date/Time:
Sat Aug 2 (6 pm - 1:30 am) - Flights from 6 pm - 11 pm / Afterparty from 11 pm - 1:30 am
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