The Scion xB (chassis code NCP31) was one of two models introduced to the North American market under the Scion brand name. It is essentially an Americanized version of the Japanese Toyota bB which was introduced to Japan in July of 1999 as a new-for-2000 model. The Japanese bB was a success, and after a few years was refreshed for the Japanese 2003 model year. The xB was largely unmodified from this new bB for our market, converted to left-hand-drive and equipment changes made to conform to USDOT safety and emissions standards. Base pricing for the xB was $13,880 for the manual and $14,680 for the auto.
The xB was first introduced to America as the Scion bbX concept at the 2003 New York Auto Show. The bbX a nearly-production version of the Scion xB that was released to the California market in June of 2003, sharing a 108hp 1.5L VVT-i engine (1NZ-FE) with the Scion xA and Toyota Echo. It was sold exclusively in California for several months so that dealership quality control could be carefully fine-tuned and to spark demand in the rest of the country. In September of 2003 the Scion brand hit the east coast and the south. States along the Atlantic and the southern border states from Florida to Texas saw Scion dealerships pop up. Then in June of 2004 the rest of the country finally saw the Scion become available. Scion dealerships were integrated into Toyota dealerships, but had seperate showrooms featuring high-tech flatscreen displays.
The beginning of the 2006 calendar year saw some small changes for the last year of production. The interior seat fabric was changes and a new steering wheel with integrated audio controls was added. Two new colors appear: Salsa Red replaces Black Cherry Pearl and Shadow Mica replaces Camouflage Metallic. Base pricing roses $150 to $14,030 for the manual and $14,830 for the auto.
The Release Series line of Scion vehicles was a limited-release option package that began with the Scion xB RS1 in March 2004, continued with the Scion xB RS2 in March of 2005, the Scion xB RS3 in February 2006 and the Scion xB RS4 in November of 2006. Only 2100 RS1s, 2500 RS2s, 2200 RS3s and 2500 RS4s were produced, each with a plaque mounted inside the vehicle stating the edition number. Each release got it's own exclusive special color not found on any other xB: the RS1 was dipped in Hot Lava, the RS2 was layered with Solar Yellow, the RS3 is a unique Envy Green and the RS4 paint is a color-shifting Maziora Torched Penny. Interesting Note: The last seven RS1 xBs had the number plates lost, so they new plates were manufactured with the numbers 2101A-2107A. RS1 Hot Lava Information RS2 Solar Yellow Information RS3 Envy Green Information RS4 Mazora Information
The blurb above will be a general history that I don't want to get TOO long.... but in this forum we can talk about every change that happened. If you have specifics then please post them here.
In July 2005 Scion announced a price increase of $150 on the xB: MSRP rose to $13,880 with a manual transmission and $14,680 with an automatic transmission, reflecting a 1.1 and 1.0 percent increase, respectively. At the same time, they announced changes in the standard audio system (replacing volume buttons with a knob and adding an Aux port), and the availability of an optional head unit with iPod integration for $260 extra.
I'm going to let a lot of this infomation accumulate in this thread so that in the future others will be able to check it all out... I did change the summary from Shadow Pearl to Shadow Mica, though. I think I was spacing out!
In 1998, Tetsuya Tada, a chief engineer at Toyota, did the unthinkable. When presenting his new-car design proposal to Toyota's executive-committee members, Tada skipped the numbers. Instead of offering reams of data that showed how profitable his car would be, Tada simply played a seven-minute music video. Its contents: thumping techno, gritty urban scenes, and images of a boxy, low-slung vehicle that resembled a baby Astro van. Its message: If Toyota hoped to win the "millennials" -- the 8-to-23-year-olds worldwide who will dominate global car sales by 2020 -- it had to revamp both its product and its thinking.
After the music faded, Toyota chairman Hiroshi Okuda was the only one to speak. "I can't offer any relevant input," Tada remembers Okuda saying. "This is a vehicle design and concept that is clearly not for anyone in this room." Whether he knew it or not, Okuda was making a startling admission: What Toyota needed wasn't just a new design for a car; it also needed a deeper, more radical approach to innovation. During the next five years, Tada's video and the cars it inspired would drive Toyota down a new path, one with important business and cultural lessons.
In the end, Toyota's dogged pursuit of what would click with millennials led it not only to build cars that looked nothing like its sedate sedans, but also to launch Scion, its first new brand in the United States since the debut of its luxury mark, Lexus, more than a decade ago.
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wow, production ended? I went to the milwaukee auto show and was talking to a woman at the scion desk. I telling her that the dealership that i got my car at was telling me that the car would only be produced for 3 years. She told me that that was untrue and that dealerships would not know that. So she was wrong, by the way i got my car in Nov of 04
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wat about the passenger seatbelt thing in the middle of the lower part of the center console? I saw some threads that said it was only in the early xB and in the later ones there was only the oval shape
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Camo Metallic '04, the "Green Monster"
History of the Scion xB
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