Scion sales on the rise, Toyota struggling to meet demand
Thread Starter
Wannabe yuppie
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 25,918
Likes: 0
From: Madison, WI
Scion sales on the rise, Toyota struggling to meet demand
Toyota Motor Corp.'s Scion brand raised its 2005 U.S. sales forecast to 140,000 vehicles as the two-year-old brand, added to attract younger buyers, accounts for a majority of the automaker's growth.
Sales through May more than doubled from a year earlier to 62,003 and are on pace to reach almost 150,000 for the year. Mark Templin, manager of the brand, said production capacity will hold down the annual growth. Scion in January forecast annual sales of at least 120,000.
"Unless something changes between now and the end of the year we will not have the production to be able to sell 150,000 cars,'' Templin, 44, said in a phone interview today from Toyota's U.S. sales base in Torrance, California. "We think that we have the potential to do around 140,000.''
Scion at that level would rise 41 percent from last year's 99,259. Its growth this year through May accounted for just over half of Toyota's 10 percent increase in U.S. sales. Toyota, Japan's largest automaker and No. 4 in the U.S., added the brand in 2003 in California and expanded it nationally last year.
Scion sells the xA hatchback, xB wagon and tC coupe. Base prices for the three models range from $13,045 to $17,515, thousands of dollars below the current average transaction price for a new vehicle of $24,520, according to Bandon, Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research.
Consumers are buying Scion vehicles with between $700 and $1,000 in accessories, Templin said. Because Toyota offers essentially no cash or financing incentives, Scion is already profitable, he said without elaborating.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...6Pg&refer=asia
Sales through May more than doubled from a year earlier to 62,003 and are on pace to reach almost 150,000 for the year. Mark Templin, manager of the brand, said production capacity will hold down the annual growth. Scion in January forecast annual sales of at least 120,000.
"Unless something changes between now and the end of the year we will not have the production to be able to sell 150,000 cars,'' Templin, 44, said in a phone interview today from Toyota's U.S. sales base in Torrance, California. "We think that we have the potential to do around 140,000.''
Scion at that level would rise 41 percent from last year's 99,259. Its growth this year through May accounted for just over half of Toyota's 10 percent increase in U.S. sales. Toyota, Japan's largest automaker and No. 4 in the U.S., added the brand in 2003 in California and expanded it nationally last year.
Scion sells the xA hatchback, xB wagon and tC coupe. Base prices for the three models range from $13,045 to $17,515, thousands of dollars below the current average transaction price for a new vehicle of $24,520, according to Bandon, Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research.
Consumers are buying Scion vehicles with between $700 and $1,000 in accessories, Templin said. Because Toyota offers essentially no cash or financing incentives, Scion is already profitable, he said without elaborating.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...6Pg&refer=asia
Power of Dreams
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,588
Likes: 0
From: San Jose Ca
yeah people want mew and trendy and those but ugly xAs and xBs are just wut they were looking for
the tC is kinda nice though, my buddy just purchased one and let me test drive it
pretty peppy i gotta admit
the tC is kinda nice though, my buddy just purchased one and let me test drive it
pretty peppy i gotta admit
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 650
Likes: 0
From: NY
Originally Posted by PikkaGTR
yeah people want mew and trendy and those but ugly xAs and xBs are just wut they were looking for
the tC is kinda nice though, my buddy just purchased one and let me test drive it
pretty peppy i gotta admit
the tC is kinda nice though, my buddy just purchased one and let me test drive it
pretty peppy i gotta admit
xb and xa are ugly, but you can't get more functional then xb for the price. I don't see any other car around that price range to have toyota reliability and tons of space, mp3 player, abs, etc, pretty much fully loaded.
A lot of older people (40 and up) are actually buying xas and xbs. It's not because they want trendy stuffs. It's because it's a dang great deal for that price.
I missed Sean
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 11,285
Likes: 1
From: Fairfield/Bridgeport CT
Originally Posted by stickyshifter
xb and xa are ugly, but you can't get more functional then xb for the price. I don't see any other car around that price range to have toyota reliability and tons of space, mp3 player, abs, etc, pretty much fully loaded.
A lot of older people (40 and up) are actually buying xas and xbs. It's not because they want trendy stuffs. It's because it's a dang great deal for that price.
A lot of older people (40 and up) are actually buying xas and xbs. It's not because they want trendy stuffs. It's because it's a dang great deal for that price.