Report: Toyota CEO Lentz still envisions Scion as a small premium brand Are you an aspiring New or Used Car Buyer looking for your dream car? Visit Cars4sa.co.za Filed under: Budget, Hatchback, Scion Wards Auto has published a piece on Scion that further confirms that we really have no idea what to expect from the brand. In speaking with Toyota USA CEO Jim Lentz about what was once firmly intended to be a hip, experimental youth brand, Lentz said, I still personally believe small-premium is the direction we should be going. Well walk right on by Lentzs use of the word still and focus on small-premium with the question: How? As much as we dig the FR-S, nothing in the brands lineup can get within a whiff of the word premium. Its even further away from being able to sniff the lifestyle-powered exhaust of a Mini or Fiat 500, and the production version of the forthcoming IM Concept (inset) will only draw it closer to its plain vanilla parent. Of course, Scion could head the premium way, but the amount of time and money needed to make it work would seem to go against everything the brand currently stands for. The murk stays just as murky when Lentzs words are placed next to those of Scion brand VP Doug Murtha, who spoke to Wards at a different time. Murthas response to the small-premium note was, He may be having discussions at levels Im not, and that such intent is probably a longer-term proposition than were looking at right now, with planning under way out to 2025. Were already being prepared for the iM to come in under $20,000, which will ensure the attainability factor of the younger audience that Murtha still views as Scions base. And at the moment, Murtha is probably focused on adding desirability to the current lineup, halting the 14-percent year-over-year sales slide to a point thats just over half the annual volume necessary for profitability, and making sure he and his dealers have the support necessary to make the required splash with new product. Aside from all that, what might we expect? We know therell be another product shown along with the production IM at the 2015 New York Auto Show, and Murtha isnt against a small crossover if they can come up with something appropriately Scion-esque. So... theres that. Toyota CEO Lentz still envisions Scion as a small premium brand originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Dec 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 00:20:26 +0000
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