Toyota is scared. Of course, it's the biggest manufacturer in Japan, with the widest range of cars and trucks, but it still feels like it may be on a steady, scary path of Oldsmobilization and Buickocrity. It is, ultimately, scared that its customers are too old, getting older and may not be replaced with fresher, younger buyers. Before the demographic of the typical becomes that of a Depends-wearing AARPer, Toyota has decided to fight back by introducing a separate, youthful brand of cars within Toyota dealership showrooms. The name of that brand is Scion.
"For some time, Toyota's genesis group has been carefully listening to and studying ways to connect with the Net-generation which is reaching driving age and entering the car-buying market," said Jim Press, Toyota Motor Sales executive vice president and COO. "It's an important emerging consumer group that will total over 60-million potential customers by 2010. With Scion, Toyota is taking a major pro-active step to reach out and connect with them."
The idea is that Scions will be ordered mostly over the Internet so that dealers can maintain relatively low inventories, while the buying experience itself will be so hip, so trendy, so fundamentally cool that the cars may as well be delivered with a sneer and ironic comment. Scion launches in June of next year with two vehicles shown in concept form at the New York Auto Show: the bbX and ccX. The bbX is based on a extra-small SUV sold in Japan as the Black Box, while the ccX was originally shown as a Toyota concept at the Detroit Auto Show and is sort of a cross between a coupe, SUV and old Nike basketball shoe.
The bbX looks like, well, a box with rounded edges. Power comes from a 1.5-liter four and we expect the production Scion version to not be lowered quite so radically, but to otherwise look much like the concept. The front-drive ccX's long roof has two sunroofs, while power comes from a 2.4-liter dohc four feeding a four-speed automatic.
Is Scion really necessary? Or would Toyota do just as well by selling more cars that appeal to younger people under the Toyota name?
Golly, we just don't know.