CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

I am so happy I jumped ship. I've never been happier with a car than I have with my Subaru. I seriously regret not buying that bugeye back in 2003.

Big_Bird

You're getting rid of Vanilla?

Tomas

I may be. Wanna talk about a car in perfect condition, with only 27K miles, she's the one.

Heck, I'd even clip the stock grill back into her nose so she would look like she did new.

Big_Bird

Dang, keep her! She's definitely not old. Get new tail lights and call her a different ride.

Big_Bird

Same here Tomas.

I was following the whole Japanese van scene for a long while when I was younger. I was bored and didn't want to study. I can't remember when I first found out that Toyota was bringing over the bB and ist under a sub brand, but I was stoked. I followed the brand release in CA in '03 then waited anxiously for the '04 East Coast release. I knew I had to have one, I just knew that it was the PERFECT car for me. May 24, 2004 my family bought a BSP xB. April 8, 2005 I got my RS2 and will never look back. She's my perfect car. All I want are more xB's.

George

Umm, used cars whose original owners tended to be teens and twentysomethings...

OTOH, If I could find a 2005 xB with 20K miles owned by someone in Leisure World...

Sciond

I was where you were at Tomas...mine had 127k miles though... i went I drove the new Scions was thinking I was gonna buy the new XB Rs 7.0...but the fact they could not guarantee when the car would arrive made me pause so I looked around.. and decided that if you removed the color I did not really love the car...now I have 10k plus on my new Jetta TDI....and I will buy a used Scion for a project fairly soon

jamesfg49

As a 2 car Scion family, I wouldn't buy a new Scion or Toyota product. I have owned 8 Toyota trucks that I purchased new. To me (which is huge) Toyota Corp doesn't stand behind their warranty, their customers and they have inept service departments here in Arizona. One dealership forgot to tighten an oil filter on a XB after an oil change and he threw a rod. Dealership didn't want to cover the repairs. Couple that with this thread............https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=188162

If I had to, I'd consider Nissan and Honda over Scion/Toy.

Vlad1024

I don't see how thats a problem with toyota, those dealerships suck but in my mind all car dealers suck regardless of brand.

1vicissitude

Scions sales are down because now the market is alot more competitive compared to when they first launched. The xb was totally unique back then and the tc offered more in terms of style and features then any car in its price range. The tcs redesign is like 2-3 years late and the xd just isnt really cool. They ditched the xa and then replaced it with a boxier version the xd. There is a reason the first one didnt sell well. I have no idea why they'd go the same route. Scion is going to need to start offering more features and gadgets to make their cars shine again to the general public.

Also their "viral" marketing is starting to bother me as a car enthusiast. Their commercials make the cars out to be sports cars yet they get less and less sporty and appear to not care. When the tc first launched it was a slick looking decently sporty ride. They need to recapture that flare or the whole line up might as well disapear and mix in under the toyota marquee. RWD, FI, a sporty hybrid, or drop a 6cyl in it and they'd regain sales.

I loved my xb2 but once i got over the coolness of buying a new car I found myself trying to make up for its short comings.

djct_watt

I may be misinterpreting your statement, but you can't blame the market for becoming more competitive; it is something that should be assumed. You have to blame Scion for not staying competitive.

Tomas

True. Markets get increasingly competitive, and any company wanting to stay in the game needs to at least keep up with the pack.

Actually, Scion (Toyota) seems to have forgotten what it was they said they were going to do, not just once, but many times. We remember even if they don't, and we are disappointed.

Bottom line, though, is Scion sales are down more than the average, and some other companies are eating Scion's lunch... We know it, Scion knows it, the other companies know it. Scion needs to pay attention and figure out where they went wrong. Until they do, they will miss those sales and lose customer commitment. When even I am looking outside the family for my next vehicle, something is wrong.

1vicissitude

Yeah it is in no way the markets fault. Kudos for the rest of the pact catching up. Scion should get Toyota's "gsports" treatment. I find it scary that I have actually thought to myself "man that Kia or hyundai looks nice." The industry is on their toes and scions claim of being hip and edgy is quickly getting lost. I also don't think it would be aweful to ditch their pure pricing. With all the crazy lease deals and incentives other makes can offer that flat price doesn't seem so appealing. Yeah it was hassle free but I don't know about you guys but I wanted to negotiate on everything haha.

Ace83

iTrader: (6)

yup other makes are stepping up, offering so much better, improving quality.. well toyota didnt do anything or something that would make them standout.. same old typical toyota

Chicken442

Im still waiting for scion to bring out the scion xp. they said it would be out in 2010..WHERE IS IT ? I have 20,000 dollars saved up for this model and if they won't bring it out a least make the first gen xb agian but ad all the good stuff the secound gen has with a sun roof op. .thats my 0.2 cents
2010scionxp.jpg

MoScion

It is late and I can’t sleep no offense to anyone but I had nothing better to do.
The above stats are not stats at all. They are statements and guesses and claims. Even with a standard deviation the range fluctuates from no number “youngest buyer”, to 25, to 36. This could be easily measured and provided by Toyota/Scion if they wanted. The youngest buyer is a fact, no need to guess here. As of now it is a claim. And the age will vary from year to year and could/may be averaged together.

Other factors also need to be considered such as scion was basically giving their cars away to people who really should not have had new cars. Again no offense to anyone but the credit terms used to obtain a Scion was ridiculous in my experience, opinion and from speaking with others. This was similar to the housing crisis if you could fog a mirror, had a pulse, and some money coming in you were approved. Other manufacturers could not compete. The nice thing with Scions is they do hold their value so if the cars came back to the dealer even a few months later they could resell them at close to the same price as a new one and many were on the lot at higher price points. So young shoppers who were looking around would get denied other places and approved at the Toyota/Scion dealer. No surprise on what make car they would take home.

For what you get I agree the prices are too high. I would rather pay a little more and get a Toyota, the fit and finish is of a higher quality or better yet a used Lexus.

Vlad1024

I remember 3 or four years back when i spent most of my sophomore year and all of my junior year in high school researching cars and the scion tC was a level above all other similarly priced cars. The only car that even came close was the vw jetta but it doesn't come with alloy wheels in the cheap version and reliability is questionable at best. And when it came out such an upscale car(auto up down windows, power locks, mirrors, cruise control, and alloy wheels) for 17,000 was unheard of. Let alone the roof which could only be found on a few luxury cars and the digital hvac control was just plain cool. When the '08 refresh came out and had the iPod compatible radio and side airbags standard I was sold. Now other companies have caught up and the tC is still the same tC, the 2011 tC doesn't change enough to bring back the magic.

I also have a feeling that the new civic will destroy the tC and the mazda3 is already a better choice as a "chick car".

engifineer

I dont really care honestly. I bought the car because I wanted the car, not because I cared about their sales numbers. It has proven to be a great car, I have zero issues, it can autox well with a small spend on mods, gets the mileage on the sticker, etc. Lots of kiddies didnt pay attention and didnt do their research, so they got all in a wad becuase it wasnt and sti, evo, etc(which .. other than performance.. I could care less.. wasnt shopping for a 4 door that looked so-so to me), so that hurt the image a little. Other than that, the new has worn off, so there is less attention on it which will affect sales to some degree. There are still only a few cars in the same price range that offer the same features, performance and reliability of it (the tC), so I would say they did ok designing it 6+ years ago

But in the end, I still like it, and will keep it when I buy the next cool thing most likely, so that is all that matters.

And I have heard more good than bad (besides the slew of ricer babies who get mad when the dealer wont replace their blown engine after seeing that it has lived on the rev limiter most of its life.. and some of the crappy dealerships out there) about Toyota taking care of customers that I know. Nissan????? Hardest problems in the world to fix when they occur and talk about impossible to get reliable info from Nissan themselves. My dad cringes when he sees them coming due to the fact he can rarely get reliable diagrams and schematics from Nissan. I have witnessed some of the worst laid out electronics on their cars as well as schematics that dont match anything under the hood. Not terrible cars, but their issues suck to fix.. and nissan isnt always so great at fixing them either.

The larger issue is that more and more of the dealerships are crap these days. They hire techs based mostly off of that ASE patch (they passed the test anyways...) rather than true skill, then train them to throw parts at the issue rather than fix it. Then lay on a layer of crookedness here and there and you have issues getting cars fixed of any make/model.

djct_watt

Statistics: "The mathematics of the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data, especially the analysis of population characteristics by inference from sampling." or "numerical data."
from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/statistics

Yes, they are statistics. Scion does it's own market research and data sampling. They ARE allowed to publish the results without publishing ALLLLLL the data that comes with it. . . since nobody would be interested in the data. It's for internal use only, which makes a lot of sense. The variation in age is easy to explain! The dates of the articles do not all coincide. Therefore it's plausible to assume that the data changes all the time. In fact, anytime a car is sold, it would change the dataset. In fact, for such a new car brand, each subsequent day would have a greater effect of statistical data than other car brands, possibly causing greater than normal swings in the data.

I also recommend you re-read the links I posted. Not all of them quote Toyota's claim. Some mention averages, some mention median age. They all are not going to post their source or their data set for you to analyze. . . they are publications, not college thesis's. And it's not like it's some wikipedia page or some kids blog.

djct_watt

And if you guys are happy with your cars, we're happy for you. Nobody is out to get you. We're simply discussing how sales are down and why they are down unproportionally from the rest of the market (which means demand is declining).

For the record I was very happy with my xA and my tC, which is why I bought them. But if I were about to purchase a car right now, I personally would not buy another one, given the offerings on the market. My argument is a bit moot, as I have moved overseas. But given the choice, I would likely opt for a Yaris 5-door 5spd (if available), which is closest to the original xA and xB. Other considerations would be the Fit, Mazda 2, Mazda 3, Fiesta, Focus, Golf, and the usual Korean cars (which everyone freaks out if mentioned).

But yeah, Engifineer, you are a smart guy and I have lots of respect for you, based off your posts. So yes, if you still love the (new) tC, then good for you. And yeah, I am a fan of the original tC too. . . I owned one. But all we are doing is acknowledging the fact that less and less people are buying Scions and the appeal is shrinking fast, and this is confirmed by sales numbers. Of course nobody buys a car based on sales numbers. But me? I believe that if enough people start shouting, they (Scion/Toyota) will listen. The problem is that most people on here are owners and take any negative comment as a criticism of their own purchase decisions, when it has nothing to do with that.

Here's a great link about just that,
http://gizmodo.com/5555953/fanboyism-and-brand-loyalty