-
Monterey 2008: The Toyota Race of Legends
Filed under: Motorsports, Time Warp, Scion 
Click image above for high-res gallery from Laguna Seca
This year's edition of The Toyota Race of Legends looked to be another exciting race, giving fans a chance to see former racing greats mix it up in identically prepared Scion tCs. Basically they are the same cars that are used in Long Beach for the Pro/Celebrity Race. The lineup of drivers included last year's winner, Derek Bell, along with other former F1 and sports car racers like Eddie Cheever, Danny Sullivan, Johnny Herbert, Alan Jones, John Watson, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Patrick Tambay, and Alain de Cadenet, as well as current Toyota F1...
-
Scion sales are down, brand image in flux
Filed under: Economy, Scion, Toyota 
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2008 Scion xB.
My older brother Brian drives a Scion xD. He's 39 years old, and probably considered anything but cool by 18-24 year-old standards. He bought his little xD because he was tired of filling up his AWD 2001 Chevy Astro conversion van, and he's gone from getting 12 mpg to about 30. While that's a big-time win for Scion sales, the brand's marketing arm has to cringe. Scion was built to be Toyota's youth-oriented brand, with cars that would finally bring younger buyers into the Toyota showroom. The early days of Scion were a...
-
Scion's newest ad campaign puts reader's rides on billboards
Filed under: Aftermarket, Economy, Contests, Hatchbacks, Scion 
Scion owners recently submitted pics of their personalized vehicles, including tC, xA, xB, and xD models, to the company for evaluation. The loyal owners were participating in Scion's "United by Individuality" brand campaign, designed to put individuals' modified vehicles in magazines, on billboards, even projected onto movie screens. More than 300 cars made the cut, and they soon found themselves in the Nevada desert for a photo shoot that included racing, tuning events, and even music performances. Shown above is a stunning aerial shot of more than 200 cars parked - very well we might add - at...
-
Scion celebrates its 5th anniversary
Filed under: Trends, Scion  With so many automakers celebrating big landmark anniversaries, Scion's fifth could easily be passed over as insignificant. But in five years of business, as The Car Connection's Paul Eisenstein notes, Scion has managed to do what few others could, both capturing the young demographic (the average age of a Scion buyer is 31) and attract customers new to the brand (72% of Scion buyers are new to Toyota altogether).
That's no mean feat for a brand that started in June 2003 with just two models and a handful of dealerships in California. Since then, the Scion line-up has expanded, as has its dealer base, with the vast majority (982 out of 1231)...
-
Scion to go road racing in KONI Challenge
Filed under: Motorsports, Scion 
Hit the image above for a high-res view
Four years after it first hit showrooms, the Scion tC will finally make a showing in a professional road racing series. And no, factory optioned and equipped vehicles being tossed around Long Beach by B-list celebrities cannot be considered professional. A tC has already been heavily modified to compete in the Formula Drift series, but the peppy compact's road race profile, outside the annual celebrity race of course, has been relatively low. This weekend though, Toyota's sporty little coupe will be moving up from amateur abuse to make its big time debut in Grand-Am's KONI Challenge Series....
-
Scion xD Limited Edition Release Series 1.0 starting at $16,549
Filed under: Car Buying, Hatchbacks, Scion 
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Scion xD Release Series 1.0.
Scion seems to release more limited-edition models than we have fingers and toes to count, and it's continuing that tradition this June with the xD Release Series 1.0.
Scion's attempt to differentiate the xD RS 1.0 from its staid siblings includes a Hot Lava paint job, a DAMD four-piece body kit and a rear spoiler. The magma-themed exterior works its way inside with color-matching trim and seat inserts, while a RAZO shift knob, TRD lowering springs and model-specific wheel covers (wheel covers, really?) round out the poser package.
-
Trouble at the top? Toyota vehicles sitting longer on dealer lots
Filed under: Car Buying, SUVs, Trucks/Pickups, Plants/Manufacturing, Scion, Toyota  Although Toyota has recently claimed the title of the World's Largest Automaker in terms of global sales, the Japanese-giant is finding out that life at the top isn't all it's cracked-up to be. While the Camry, Corolla, Yaris and Prius sedans are reportedly brisk movers, the same thing cannot be said about Toyota's line of trucks and sport utility vehicles. Toyota has cut Tundra and Sequoia production already, but dealers are still declining to purchase them, pushing the number of unclaimed units to an all-time high. Automotive News quotes an unnamed Toyota dealer...
-
Scion picks a partner for HD Radio
Filed under: Gadgets, Tech, Scion, Toyota Scion has selected iBiquity Digital to provide HD Radio technology in some of its audio systems. Scion hasn't said how it plans to integrate iBiquity into Scions, or which cars will get the systems first, but the partnership marks another incursion of HD Radio into the mass market -- BMW, Ford and Jaguar already offer it, with Volvo opening the HD spigot next year. HD Radio offers stations the ability to transmit multiple programs over a single FM frequency with crystal clear reception -- and there are more than 1,600 stations across the nation, available to 83-percent of...
-
VIDEO: Scion's interacitve advertisement causes passers-by to flail
Filed under: Coupes, Marketing/Advertising, Tech, Scion 
Click above to view video after jump
While the Scion tC Release Series 4.0 is little more than a body-kit and a paint job for a sporty two-door in need of a redesign, we imagine that a few more of them could move off the lots with cool advertising like you see in the video pasted after the break. This type of interactive advertising is pretty cool, in a Minority Report sort-of-way. If we are going to be continually bombarded with billboards, they may as well be cool to look at and interactive. From the looks of...
-
Scion prices the 2009 xB and tC. Tacks another $100 onto the box.
Filed under: Car Buying, Coupes, Crossovers/CUVs, Scion 
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2009 Scion xB.
Scion announced pricing for the 2009 xB and tC today, and if you want to get your hands on the love-it-or-hate-it toaster on wheels, you'll have to pony up an extra $100 this year. The xB's base price is now $16,370 (including shipping), and comes equipped with a five-speed manual as standard equipment. If you can't stand swapping your own cogs, you can shell out another $950 for a four-speed automatic. The tC's price remains the same as the 2008 model, starting at $17,620 with a five-speed manual and...
|
