You think so? I think Toyota did great with the Scion brand when you consider it was
only a marketing strategy which required far less capital investment than a new product range as it was all already existing product or a modification of an existing product (FR-S notwithstanding and see Subaru collaboration to mitigate costs!).
The last gen Celica sold 49,600 units over four years. And that was an excellent car in my opinion, hatchback practicality, very sporty looks, attractive price point, sporty handling without being stiff or unsettling, pandered to both casual daily drivers (1.8 matched to a 5 spd auto getting 36 mpg) and driving enthusiasts (1.8 Yamaha built 9k rpm screamer matched to a 6 mt) with the typical Toyota reliability and storied Celica namesake. The tC sold over 245,000 units in its first fours years and that's
just a Camry coupe. And they were the same price new. You can see where the success was and where the Youth voted (5x over for the 'inferior' product!).
Looking at the Scion brand sales were 11k, 99k, 156k, 173k, 130k, 114k, 58k, 46k, 49k, 74k, 68k in its first decade (2003 - 2012) which included the market turn down in 2008 that saw major decline in consumer spending across the board, and they still maintained above 50k units per year until their termination. That's nearly 40% of all Subaru brand sales in the United States over the same period. Not bad for a sub-brand in my opinion.
Now, culturally speaking, I think there is less of a case for any Youth brand with the shifting market desire for automobiles, the type of product (hybrid, ev, 'smart', etc.) stricter regulations and fewer drivers. Consider the five years between 1999 to 2004 saw an increased in licensed active drivers go up 11,719,000 where as from 2009 to 2014 saw only a positive change of 4,474,000 active licensed drivers. Of course, we'd have to look at median age/birth/death/immigration rates over the same periods and trailing 16 years to get a better picture but just on face value it shows a significant drop in licensed drivers gained to begin with.
Either way, I really like the 7th gen Celica
