Scion Not Coming to Canada
While down in L.A. last week I noticed a vehicle so boxy it was almost stylish. I quickly recognized it as a Scion xB, a value-priced utilitarian runabout from Toyota's new youth oriented brand.
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| So boxy it's stylish, the Scion xB has hit a nerve with the youth market in California. (Photo: Toyota) |
A what? You heard it right. Toyota has started a new brand for the up and coming generation dubbed Scion. It seems that the same rules that made your father's Oldsmobile about as cool as a washing machine for your generation has done in the Toyota brand for the newest set of drivers.
Why is there no Scion in Canada? That's a good question. Most likely it has more to do with the cost of launching an entirely new brand in a market larger than the entire U.S. in land mass but smaller than California in population, than it does with Canadian's prospective acceptance of the quirky xA and xB. Of course we shouldn't feel too badly, as Toyota has only started selling them exclusively in the Golden State for the time being.
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| Opposite of expectations, it's not the more traditionally styled xA that is experiencing immediate success. (Photo: Toyota) |
Jurisdiction boundaries hardly seem to matter though. After only Scion's first two months of sales approximately 50 new owners are from out of state, and I'm not talking about Nevada and Oregon here. The out of state shoppers registered their new cars in 24 separate states. According to Scion Vice President Jim Farley, "If you tell Americans they can't buy something, they go crazy to get it."
After seeing the Scion display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last January I immediately nicknamed them Thing 1 and Thing 2 - yes I still read Dr. Seuss - but felt that Thing 1 would experience more immediate success mostly because it is a nice looking little hatchback.