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Toyota is killing its youth-oriented Scion brand after learning an important lesson: Young buyers simply want Toyotas.
Scion was formed in 2003 to court Generation X buyers, who didn't like their parents' brands and didn't trust traditional marketing, says Bob Carter, Toyota Motor Corp.'s senior vice president of U.S. operations. It was known for its funky designs, like the boxy xB, and was the brand Toyota used when it wanted to experiment with new kinds of marketing, like pop-up test or no-haggle pricing.
But as those buyers matured, they started buying Toyotas.
Next came the Millennials. For a while, that generation delayed car buying because they were underemployed and had too much student debt. But when they did buy, they liked their parents' brands and wanted Toyotas, too.
"For those buyers, frankly speaking, Toyota as a brand is more aspirational than Scion was," Carter said. Carter said Millennials made up nearly one-third of the Toyota brand's buyers last year.
There were other issues with Scion. The small, oddball lineup never connected with buyers and cost a bit more, since features like touchscreens that were optional on other cars came standard on Scions. Scion's best-seller, the tC coupe, starts at...