Scion

I understand what you are saying. I'm not sure what Japanise company spawned a premium line first. Lexus, Acura, or Infinity. They are Toyota, Honda, and Nissan wraped in lexury and hopefully performance.

Scion however is the first factory rice car ready to mod from Toyota. Back when gas prices where really high, I acually looked at a Xa cause the Echo wasn't made anymore and I wanted something cheap. At first I just looked on scion.com. The web sight was a little anoying, but the Xa starts at $13,270 MSRP. I figured a nice stereo, a 5sp, it would work. Looking in to it some more, I learn that the 103HP 1.5L is only good for a 32/37MPG fuel economy for a 5sp.. The same car that is basicly a Echo has some pretty lousy fuel economy. Did the stereo add all that weight or what?!?!?! Well, I thought I would go to the dealer on Sunday just to see one in person. The online pics looked acceptable. The Toyota dealer only had one, but they had added so much worthless crap to it (they riced it out), that the sticker was acually close to 19K. I was so pissed. It's a good think it was Sunday cause I think I would have laughed out loud at any sales people. Now, I'm just so turned off by Scion, I'm acually just a little turned off at Toyota now.

Toyota might have wanted to spawn off a new car name and sell cars to young people, but Scion is the black sheep of the family. I only know one person who acually owned one and he had the Tc. I pretty decent looking car. I'll give it that. Anyway, he traded it in on a 06 Honda cause he said the Tc had too many strange noises in it. He wasn't happy with quality. I'm sure glad I didn't buy one. I think I would have regreted it.

As far as sales goes, I really havn't seen that many on the road. Toyota is selling them, but they didn't come up with a great car(s) that is selling really well. Only time will tell if it was worth it. It could still be a bust.

Honda's Acura line was first, debuting in 1986. Lexus and Infiniti both came along in 1989.

The interesting thing about the Scion is, young people don't seem to be buying them -- at least not around here. Whenever I see a Scion, it's always an XB (the Box, I call it) and it's usually being driven by a mid-40's to mid-50's female. If I've seen 100 xB's on the road, probably 2 were being driven by some 20-something kid covered in tatoos and piercings. The rest of 'em are in Civics, Neons, and Focuses (Focii?). It seems like middle-aged women like the xB because it can carry a lot of stuff. There's even a couple in town with company logos on the sides, being used as compact delivery wagons. Toyota seems to have missed the mark with the xB the same way Chrysler did with the PT Cruiser.

Larry- same in my corner of the world. There are numerous xBs on the roads, and all driven by middle aged women. There also lots of tCs, and those seem to be driven by women (tho younger), just like the Celica was. I've only seen a couple xAs, but only in parking lots, so I don't know who is driving those.

Yeaah, I've notice Scion sells well to middle aged people. Just like the "Youth Market" Element from Honda. Fact is, the youth market is automatically not going to respond to anything that is marketed to them.

I love Scions. The xA has great demensions for such a small vehicle. I think a turbo is needed to give the box cars a chance performance -wise though.

CP- The xB does come in a hopped-up version called "Release." Can't remember if it's turbo or not. I agree re: "youth market." Tell e'm it's FOR them, and they won't buy it.

CP- The xB does come in a hopped-up version called "Release." Can't remember if it's turbo or not. I agree re: "youth market." Tell e'm it's FOR them, and they won't buy it.

I certainly enjoy my Scion tC. Also, I'm not the target demographic.

A "base" Scion tC with 5 speed and the Side Air Bag package was under $17,600 delivered, IIRC. It comes with a great set of features, the 2.4L Camry engine, keyless entry, the all glass top/sliding moonroof, ABS and 17" wheels. Oh, a decent sound system with controls on the wheel, tilt and cruise control.

I didn't buy an dealer accessories, so no wings, shift knobs, bigger wheels or lowering kits for me.

But if you do go for that sort of thing, having the factory warranty on all the dealer installed accessories is attractive to some.

I was tempted to get the TRD supercharger, installed by the dealer, knowing it would be covered by Scion/Toyota

CP- The xB does come in a hopped-up version called "Release." Can't remember if it's turbo or not. I agree re: "youth market." Tell e'm it's FOR them, and they won't buy it.

Did some googling upon reading about this right here. Seems like it has the same Echo engine after all - no extra performance. The soup-ups are mostly cosmetic, the main attraction being an Alpine DVD entertainment system with two 7" LCDs standard, one behind each headrest.

CP- The xB does come in a hopped-up version called "Release." Can't remember if it's turbo or not. I agree re: "youth market." Tell e'm it's FOR them, and they won't buy it.

Did some googling upon reading about this right here. Seems like it has the same Echo engine after all - no extra performance. The soup-ups are mostly cosmetic, the main attraction being an Alpine DVD entertainment system with two 7" LCDs standard, one behind each headrest.