The New York International Auto Show passed by me so I won’t be able to do my usual article on it. However, what I can do is pinpoint the most important vehicle to take its first bow on the show. And it’s this: The Scion iA.
…would you put out that torch!? This is a good thing; it means it hasn’t quite given up on Scion yet.

If we’re honest with ourselves Scion is like Toyota’s hyper-accelerated version of Saturn. Sure there aren’t quite as many composite body panels and there’s a bit more Yaris underpinnings but the ideas and the directions they’ve taken in recent years are surprisingly similar. Up to and including botching their most successful product when it came time to replace it. The Saturn Ion never could capture the spirit of the S-Series and the second-generation Scion xB took everything that was good about the xB and focus grouped everything that the people liked about the original right out of it. And if you ask me, it has something to do with the similarities between two demographics when it comes to buying cars: first-time drivers and the elderly.

Toyota’s marketing department, which I was going to call ‘brilliant’ until I remembered the phrase ‘grounded to the ground’ is something they willingly put on an ad, concluded that what Gen Y wanted (The word ‘millennial’ hadn’t been invented in 2002) and needed was economy cars and a streamlined buying process. You know who else enjoys those two things? Here’s a hint, they have an unusual hankering for the early bird breakfast and the main demographic for Mockbuster pictures as they buy them for their grandkids.
Currently the only thing anyone under the age of 50 wants from Scion is the FR-S and, bafflingly, the tC. The vehicle that picks up where the last-gen Celica left off in the same way that the FR-S picks up where the last good Celica left off. The rest of the lineup is composed of cars that haven’t been revamped since before Obama took office, not good for the ‘youth brand’. The secondary demographic surely appreciates it though.

Toyota could just gradually reduce the number of Scions produced, fold the FR-S back into Toyota and act as though the whole thing was a simple corporate brain fart. Instead, they’ve decided to prove they can actually make a car to appeal to the young buyers, even on a shoestring budget. And to that end the Mazda Mazda2 is not a bad place to start. Sure its sales pale in comparison to its bigger 3 brother, but even at 13,615 American sales on 2014 it still outsold the Scion xD and is within 3000 of the ‘bread and butter’ xB. Being a Mazda it should have very decent handling and a lovely little engine. And then the problems begin.
For one, in all their promotional blurb they’ve chosen to use a silver car, the least ‘youthy’ color this side of beige. It can’t be to hide the enormous grille and cheekbones, which are distinctive and serve to differentiate it from the Mazda2. I’m glad they have gone for ‘love it or hate it’. Let’s face it, if they had left it with only the small moustache grille, me and every other writer in the land would just call it boring. If anything it creates a reaction.

And that’s the name of the game to bring Scion back to the arena. Reactions. Not artificial marketing-driven reaction, but actual reactions to the product. This and the iM (which I’m hoping to my superior being that is eventually sold with AWD for great awesomeness and hoonage) are perhaps not the most enthusiast driven ways to come back to relevance among Gen Y, but they will be good for volume.
And if it doesn’t work old people are going to love them.