Quote:
Originally Posted by bkharmony
"Scion" was created because no one thought young Americans would buy a Toyota anymore after they'd mismanaged the brand into low-thrill people movers and grocery-getters. Scion did the marketing* in America, but had nothing to do with product design. Every Scion vehicle was badged as a Toyota somewhere else in the world. IIRC the move happened around the same time Lexus was created to be the upscale badge. The idea was to have three brands in America; a youth brand, a family brand, and a luxury brand.
*And I do mean marketing. While they did some traditional advertising (print/TV), their focus was more boots-on-the-ground guerilla advertising; like events and sponsoring music festivals. You know - for kids. It worked OK for a while in the 90s, but there really never was a valid reason to rebadge the cars.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster
Lexus was created in the late '80s, roughly the same time as Acura because the Japanese manufacturers were putting in enough effort to fight the luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes, but nobody would buy them because of the badge. A ~$20k Honda or a BMW (at the time) wasn't even a choice for most people when 'jap crap' was still the common mentality. That changed after people saw how good '80s Japanese cars were as they decimated everyone else in durability through the '90s.
*insert the million mile Lexus meme*
Scion was founded in 2003.
I agree with everything else you said.
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I would love to go back in time and see the people that worked at corporate Scion back when it started and still had energy and impact. I can imagine it was pretty laid back and "bro" or "dude" could be heard in every sentence.
I have wondered in the past if part of the reason it failed was that they never replaced that original staff. I know they didn't exist a long time but those young "hip" people that made it a success at first may have aged just enough that they lost contact with what would attract the attention of the even younger generation. They continued to push the cars in the manner that worked in 2003 to 2008 but was no longer relevant in 2012 to 2016.