Who else thinks Scion will be dead within 2 years?

While I think the Scion cars will continue to be sold but the extravagant sales method is destined to flop and I dont think too many Toyotas dealers across the country have signed up for the project. I assume most of them are waiting to see how the Californian test market goes first (California will have Scions a year before the rest of the country) before they jump in with both feet. I assume the Scion brand will end-up like the failed GM GEO brand that was sold at Chevy dealers for around 10 years. Toyota dealers will continue sell Scions but they will not spend the money for the exclusive Scion dealership within their existing Toyota franchise like Mini's are sold within BMW dealerships.

Scion= GEO

Toyota is trying make Scion as friendly as Saturn but as cool and trendy as the Mini, but in the end it will be Toyota's version of GEO which is ironic since the Toyota/GM (Nummi plant) made the Toyota Corolla/Geo Prism combo (now Matrix/Vibe).

 

If you would have asked me that earlier this year, I would have said Scion will be dead in 2 months. But the deeper I dig into Scion...the more I realize that Toyata has done some pretty sophisticated market research and forecasting on this.

Personally, Scion doesn't appeal to me whatsoever....but I guess I'm not their target audience. I will be fascinated to see how Scion does.

Geo, on the other hand, was a completely different animal. As far as I could tell, Geo was nothing more than a cheap way to sell foreign made cars at the Chevy store.

 

Dude... Geo > Scion. Never diss the Geo lol one of my freinds has a first year metro 55 hp a fury

Anyways i think the scion will die soon. Everyone i have asked has totally hated it. Ive generally asked people around my age, + or - a couple years. Im 17, isnt that around the target age for these things? Not the greatest researching if you ask me

 

I think I'm part of their target market, and I can say right now, no way in HYELL would I buy either of their first 2 cars...blah...

 

they are gong to release it in california first, but you know..those people are wierd

 

I know first hand since Iam one of them

Ironically I think the car is dead meat from what I heard on the streets of Socal.

 

I don't think Toyota will give up very easily, but I also think old people will buy most of the Scions that actually sell (because marketing told them Scions were "cool").

 

Unless Scion adds some product that isn't so.... well... horribly clumsy, odd, and nerdy looking, except to a few people who are pretty far out there, then yes... I think it will be gone quickly.

 

Both cars where at the NYC auto show, they look horrible. Geo was the first thing I thought of. THat Van thing is very small and looks like it was made for 13 year olds.

 

No product doesn't "test well" and make it to market anymore. Believe me, they probably had solid market research and focus group data to back up the launch of the Aztek.

But Scion, like the Aztek, requires no market research, no focus groups, no long-and-drawn-out analysis. They're hideous. They're laughable. They're Nerdmobile deluxus. And people will soon realize this when they're on the road.

Stick a fork in them. They're done.

 

What he said.

 

Geo was actually pretty successful for Chevrolet. As was pointed out, it stayed around for 10 years! Chevy decided to put everything under it's own name, and that's when the "Geo" name (not the cars) were retired.

Scion is going to be around more than 2 years. Toyota put alot of thought into this, and the cars are made and sold under the Toyota name in Japan. It's not that they are going to see financial ruin should the cars bomb (and by seemingly every indication, they will). At the same time, like the Aztec, there's going to be a certain amout of commitment & denial before the plug's pulled. If all else fails, these things can be sold to municipalities and to city governments as fleet cars, so there's still ways to sell these in the quanity they are expecting.

Toyota won't loose anything if Scion fails, but I think everyone will learn a valuable lesson. Then again, Scion might surprise us. We wondered what GM was smoking when it introduced the H2, and now it's the best selling luxury SUV in the country.

 

Lets face it, Scion will miss its target audience and they will be sold to 40 year old women who want to feel youthful and cool. Like I said before I think that actual Scion cars will be sold for more then two years but I think they will just be sold along side Toyotas intead of trying to make them a car delaership within a car dealership.

Even Scions website lags since it doesnt even support Native Mac OSX and they should be using Flashmedia instead of the lame software they're using.

The Scion is no where near as cool as the Mini and even GM woke-up and realized there is NO money little bottom-feeder cars and will make Saturn more upscale and bring out more expensive cars in the years to come.

Once the kids start seeing their moms driving around in Scions those cars will become instantly UN-cool.

Even @ the 2003 Los angeles auto show the people all around looking at the Scion cars wre not impressed. It reminded me alot of when the "Oval"-ized Ford Taurus was unveiled and everyone just looked at it in disgust and scratched their heads asking how it could have happened. The same exact thing happened when the Aztek was unveiled in LA as well.

On the flipside the New Mini had so many crawling all over those things it took me 10 minutes just to sit in one for like 30 seconds and the same went for the PT cruiser and the VW bug when they were unveiled.

Its true that there is a sucker born every minute but even Pontiac couldnt get enough of them to buy the Aztek

Im sure one of the reasons why GM kept GEO around for 10 years was related to its contractual obligations to 3rd party manufacturers like Toyota and Suzuki.

 

While the company may exist for awhile, its def. not gonna sell well to its target audience. im also in their age bracket they're aiming Scion at and i hate the look of those boxmobiles. also ALL of my friends that have seen the cars think they're ugly and wouldnt buy one. i agree that they probably will sell to mostly the 40s and up crowd looking for a cheap commuter car.

dammit if these car companies want to cater to the younger crowd, first off, DONT TELL US WHATS COOL because we dont like that (apparently anyway). wanna sell cars to the younger crowd toyota? design a small rwd turbo 4 with some supra styling cues and price the base model around 15-20 grand. then have a hopped up model coming in for a little more expensive than that to give some flash to the model. I believe GM will hit the target hardcore if the Solstice comes in around the projected 20 grand mark. i can see alot of early 20's students and/or college grads gobbling these cars up at that kind of price.

 

Ugly....Nothing else to add to that.