Feb. 4, 2016—Toyota announced on Wednesday that it will be dropping its Scion brand, according to a report by USA Today.
The Scion vehicles will be re-badged as Toyota models beginning with the 2017 model-year.
"Clearly we don’t take the discontinuation of a brand lightly—something that we’ve invested enormous amount of personal resources in for 13 years," Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales, told reporters in a conference call, according to the report.
Scion was meant to be Toyota’s brand for younger buyers. This approach worked to some degree, however the design choices made by the automaker made the brand a tough sell and lower gas prices crushed the sales of small cars.
The brand’s struggles have been evident for some time but Toyota continued to invest design energy and marketing power into Scion until the very end.
The 1,004 dealerships that sell Scion vehicles will continue to provide service to Scion owners, USA Today reports.
