Scion (automobile)
This article is about the car division of Toyota.
Scion is a marque of vehicles produced by Toyota Motor Corporation for the North American market. Founded in 2002, Scion's long-term goal is to appeal to Generation Y consumers. The first Scion models, the xA hatchback and xB wagon, went on sale in California in 2003, followed by a sports coupe, the tC, and a nationwide U.S. launch in 2004. A successor to the xA, the xD, premiered in 2008, and the Scion marque expanded to Canada in 2010. The Scion lineup uses a one-trim, simplified purchase process, and the marque has relied upon guerrilla and viral marketing techniques. The Scion name, meaning the descendant of a family or heir, refers both to the marque's cars and their owners.
In 1999, Toyota launched Project Genesis, an effort to bring younger buyers to the Toyota marque in the United States. This project aimed to create a "marque within a marque" in sales and advertising strategy for compact and coupe models sold by Toyota. The effort, which included the introduction of the Toyota Echo economy car, along with late generation Toyota MR-2 and Toyota Celica models, was judged unsuccessful and cancelled in 2001. In response, Toyota chose to launch a separate marque, an effort called Project Exodus. This project became known as Scion.
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