Toyota’s boutique brand of small cars celebrates its third anniversary this June, and besides building a brand that resonates with the psyche of a younger generation, Scion has also fulfilled the literal meaning of the badge, meaning "descendant" or "heir to."
Despite their compact size, the three Scion vehicles currently on the market represent the distillation of Toyota’s experience in building vehicles that deliver style and quality to consumers – in packages that are considerable more affordable than the average $25,000 transaction price of new automobiles.
Even with a global powerhouse like Toyota behind the project, ensuring the success of an expensive investment with just three models that all retail for less than $20,000 was anything but assured. In the United States, Scion started small, and deliberately on the West Coast, with the introduction of their first two models, the xA and xB, in June of 2003, selling them as 2004 models. Besides the marketing strategy of building a buzz, Toyota was also requiring dealers to install a special Scion area inside their footprints, and the rollout was carefully planned.
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