Scion Tries To Restore Dealer Interest After Years Of Neglect

Scion wants to reignite enthusiasm for the brand at its dealerships and is asking that each of its stores appoint what it is calling an ambassador.

It’s a modification of an existing scheme that debuted with the brand 11 years ago. As Scion stores are inside higher-profile Toyota dealerships, Scion wanted to make sure it had an advocate within each building. But the prior program, dubbed Scion Champion, lately had fallen by the wayside.

“When we launched the brand we had a request with dealers for something we call a champion, and that person was supposed to be a dedicated individual who did nothing but (represent and sell) Scion in the store,” Doug Murtha, Scion vice president, tells WardsAuto in an interview during a ’16 iA and iM media preview here.

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Dexter1 - 7/15/2015 2:31:05 PM

+1 Boost

An in-store advocate? That notion shows just how out of touch Scion is with reality. How about getting some product in that buyers might be interested in? What a concept. The pics of new Scion concepts are so awkwardly hideous that nobody is going to be flocking to the showrooms . . . ambassador or not. Other than the BRZ/FR-S, Scion has nothing to offer.

MDarringer - 7/15/2015 3:39:39 PM

0 Boost

Their business plan is just plain laughable.

They sell a badge-engineered Subaru, a badge-engineered Mazda, and a badge-engineered Toyota that is nearing mid-cycle refresh time elsewhere where it has been on sale for several years.

Moreover, these products are Toyota priced in Toyota dealers.

Now factor in the take-it-or-leave-it pricing--which is a detriment--because of I don't like the price on the iA, I can dicker on a Yaris. Not happy with the iM pricing, go dicker on a Corolla.

A much better plan would have been us leverage the FR-S as the new direction:

FR-S / the familiar coupe
MR-S / new MR2 think affordable boxster
FF-S / GTI competitor
FT-S / new Supra

Recasting Scion as an accessible performance division would have allowed it to be repositioned between Toyota and Lexus as a near-premium brand without any appreciable overlap to either brand.

Similarly, spinning Prius off as a near-premium hybrid brand would have allowed Scion and Prius to "co-brand" and leave their spaces at Toyota dealers for stand alone stores.

Where a stand alone store would not be feasible, I'd put Scion with Lexus and Prius with Toyota until such time a stand-alone store became feasible.

Scion--as it stands--is Toyota's Saturn and is as equally pointless.

skytop - 7/16/2015 3:57:21 AM

-1 Boost

Scion? Who or what is that?