The End Of The Road

Toyota is cancelling Scion. In case you didn't understand all the words in that sentence, I'll explain that Scion is a brand that Toyota created to sell some of its cars in North America. That's not really unusual - many companies create brands to sell to a new audience. But that's usually to sell to a different tax bracket. For instance, Toyota created the Lexus brand back in the 80's, knowing rich people wouldn't feel right buying from a cheap brand like Toyota, but might buy cars built by Toyota if they were sold under a new name.

But Scion was a little different. Toyota was successful, but concerned that its customers' average age was rather high. So they decided to create a new brand aimed at young people. And for that, we should ask be grateful, since the alternative would be endless commercials trying to convince us Toyotas aren't just for old people, like Buick has been doing.

That seems like a good idea. I've always thought it would work if a company split its brands based on style rather than class. instead of cheap and luxury brands, you'd have conservative and funky brands. The trouble is, you'd have to work hard to keep the funky brand stylish and fresh. Scion, however, always seemed to get little of Toyota's attention. Their small, boxy cars seemed cool at first, but got dull over their decade on the market. It's a shame, because it could have worked: essentially the Kia Soul (that's right, Mom, the hamster car) was what they were aiming for, and it's been successful.

The other big automotive cancellation of the week is that Chrysler (oh, I'm sorry, "Fiat-Chrysler") has canceled its main compact and midsized cars, the Dodge Dart and the Chrysler 200. Losing the Dart is an embarrassment, since it was only recently introduced, a highly-touted modification of an Alfa Romeo design.

The 200, however, seems more to have been put out of its misery. Its predecessor, the Sebring, was a low, curvaceous design at a time when tall, boxy cars were the style. they tried to rectify this by grafting a square grille on to it, resulting in an odd-looking beast. They replaced it with a retro restyling of one of their other car designs. Then they wanted to redesign it, but didn't have the money while in bankruptcy, so they just refreshed the styling again, renamed it to "200" and got Eminem to drive out in a Superbowl ad. After the merger with Fiat, they finally redesigned it from the ground up, only to flop on the market.

But what's really notable here is that Chrysler will now concentrate on SUV's and crossovers. So they are essentially the first major manufacturer to give up on cars, other than niche models like the Challenger or Fiat 500. I find it hard to believe that this is a good strategy in the long run. Cars may be less profitable, but they still dominate the roads, and the cleverest manufacturers in the world still find them worthy of time and money.