Toyota Discontinuing Scion Brand After Nearly 13 Years in Existence

I was originally intending to center this post on the CH-R Concept displayed at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, but Toyota made an announcement recently that I felt was much more important to discuss. Toyota is giving its youth-oriented Scion brand the axe after almost 13 years since it launched. This is due to customers' demands and the fact that Generation Y finds Toyota's newest models more appealing than Scion's current lineup. All of Scion's current lineup except for the tC will be folded into the Toyota brand, with each of the model names unchanged. Last year, the Scion brand sold 56,167 vehicles; on the other hand, just over 60,000 Toyota Avalons were sold within the past year, and the Avalon is considered a modest seller. I find this a bit surprising because there are a lot of Scions on the streets where I live. 2006 was the best sales year for Scion, moving around 123,000 units, and they haven't recovered since. When the iA, iM, and FR-S integrate into the Toyota brand, sales of these models are expected to increase. Even though Scion was targeted at millenials, the average Scion buyer's age is 49 years old. Production of Scion-branded vehicles will officially wrap up in August. Overall, Toyota made a step in the right direction by killing off Scion; the latter was pointless to me, especially since it was marketed only in North America, and its only appealing vehicle was the FR-S, a.k.a. Toyota GT86 overseas. Displayed below are the CH-R concept, which will slot below the RAV4 in Toyota's lineup for the 2017 model year, FR-S, iM (based on the Euro-spec Toyota Auris), and iA (based on the Mazda 2/Demio).