Antidotal observation

Plenty of Scions still on the road in my area. Not too many xB thou. xD and tC are most common, and they blend in much better.

We still have our 06 "Box".

200K miles. Transmission is getting cranky, have not started to diagnose. Nobody drives it much.

Structurally sound, but the interior is on the cheap/flimsy side. Better than cheap American, but not the full T quality.

They built the right car for the target, but IMO, the target audience was a bit poorly-chosen. This happened right around the time that cars started costing about 1/3 of a small brick ranch home. That audience STILL couldn't afford a car, but Mr. T tried...

I like the Box as a micro-van. Surprisingly fun in its own way when the suspension is not shot. Ours is really rather neglected. The Frog kinda siphoned off the maintenance fund, along with the xB becoming a family secondary. Its been very inexpensive to own, would buy again in the same circumstances.

  Scion was a failure.  Initially it did great and ushered in a large community of people into car forum culture so in some ways it was successful. Toyota was trying to capitalize on the Civic appeal and to get new drivers in the fold so they would graduate to Toyota and Lexus. Unfortunately their build quality wasn't all that great compared to a Toyota and people realized this. They were fairly reliable but the build quality just wasn't there.

 What eventually has taken them out is social media like Facebook and the generation below them that were not interested in cars. The people that bought Scions graduated out of them to other luxury brands not necessarily Toyota/Lexus.  I do continue to do well with them as far as my products go as that is where most of my sales come from. They tend to be a good group of folks across multiple platforms that are understanding as I receive the least amount of complaints from them and they give me free advertising recommendations so I don have to pay vendor fees.

Just bought a 06 xb a couple months ago for my winter vehicle . It's nice to have some space to haul car parts for a change . It's a fun little buggy . There's a couple in the area that are taxi cabs .

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 I haven't watched for Scions to really notice a decline in them verses other vehicles on the road from those same years.  That said, I'm pretty sure I still see them, but will now (on the rare occasions when I leave the house) will see if I can take more note of Scions on the road.  It would be interesting to know if there is a disproportionate difference between Scions and other vehicles on the road for the same years.  I really only tend to watch for MR2 Spyders and Prius Vs since those are vehicles I own and thoroughly enjoy.  The Corolla and Tacoma I own -- not so much.  🙂

@uncle-mush,

Put the smallest wheels and tires you can fit on that Corolla and come back and tell us what you think.

It will still be a Corolla, but you might see it a bit differently.

I swear my 05 Corolla automatic would beat The Frog in the 1/4 mile, even with rare perfect shifting by Frog Dad. Maybe that's subjective and not actually true (no hard data), but it sure seems like it, and it's pretty disappointing. Also rather hard to believe, I know... but you might be able to understand why I haven't tested it. I suppose I could use DashCommand, but I dont think I want to know!

The xB, on the other hand, can be outrun by an opossum. HP is somewhere like 96, IIRC. Mine has oversize wheels too; 16" vs the stock 15". Ouch. But then, I do have some 15" rims, but they need a little work. Dont care enough, and those might go on The Frog for a cheap torque upgrade. That will be what, about 4500 RPMs at 70 mph? LOL, I don't think so, as much as I want the extra in the low gears, I can't go there. Yet.

Posted by: @nottamiata

@uncle-mush,

Put the smallest wheels and tires you can fit on that Corolla and come back and tell us what you think.

It will still be a Corolla, but you might see it a bit differently.

I appreciate the suggestion, but for me, the Corolla is just my commuter car.  When I bought it, I didn't want to invest the extra money for another Prius to get better gas mileage, I just needed something to get me to and from work and wanted a back-up camera to make parking/un-parking an easier/safer task for me (neck and back stiffness of old age).  The Corolla has a cadre of special features -- most of which I don't know about and the ones that I sort of know about, I haven't taken the time to read-up and educate myself about.  It's got plenty of zip to it, is comfortable and is pleasantly fulfilling its role.  There are thousands of them in my community, I just don't pay attention to them the way I do the Spyder or Prius V. 

Posted by: @dev

  Scion was a failure.  Initially it did great and ushered in a large community of people into car forum culture so in some ways it was successful. Toyota was trying to capitalize on the Civic appeal and to get new drivers in the fold so they would graduate to Toyota and Lexus. Unfortunately their build quality wasn't all that great compared to a Toyota and people realized this. They were fairly reliable but the build quality just wasn't there.

 What eventually has taken them out is social media like Facebook and the generation below them that were not interested in cars. The people that bought Scions graduated out of them to other luxury brands not necessarily Toyota/Lexus.  I do continue to do well with them as far as my products go as that is where most of my sales come from. They tend to be a good group of folks across multiple platforms that are understanding as I receive the least amount of complaints from them and they give me free advertising recommendations so I don have to pay vendor fees.

Another thing is that although their initial models were targeted toward the younger generation at the time, many older people flocked to the xB, it was easy to get in and out of, ample cargo room for its size, and easy to drive. 

I see a decent amount of xBs and tCs in my area and there's a couple of FRS. 

Posted by: @nocoolname

Posted by: @dev

  Scion was a failure.  Initially it did great and ushered in a large community of people into car forum culture so in some ways it was successful. Toyota was trying to capitalize on the Civic appeal and to get new drivers in the fold so they would graduate to Toyota and Lexus. Unfortunately their build quality wasn't all that great compared to a Toyota and people realized this. They were fairly reliable but the build quality just wasn't there.

 What eventually has taken them out is social media like Facebook and the generation below them that were not interested in cars. The people that bought Scions graduated out of them to other luxury brands not necessarily Toyota/Lexus.  I do continue to do well with them as far as my products go as that is where most of my sales come from. They tend to be a good group of folks across multiple platforms that are understanding as I receive the least amount of complaints from them and they give me free advertising recommendations so I don have to pay vendor fees.

Another thing is that although their initial models were targeted toward the younger generation at the time, many older people flocked to the xB, it was easy to get in and out of, ample cargo room for its size, and easy to drive. 

 

I see a decent amount of xBs and tCs in my area and there's a couple of FRS. 

  You are right. There were many older men that owned xBs and I had the pleasure of working with a few when I was making products for them.  The TCs were an interesting bunch.  There were  a lot of Father Daughter owners which was an interesting dynamic.  Someone should do a study on the demographics with that group because it was not what Toyota probably had in mind.  One thing I couldn’t stand was the internet companies that purchased all of the forums and then they decided I should pay a ridiculous amount over what I was originally charged for fees but since my name was popular they kept recommending me though the forum. 

Posted by: @uncle-mush

Posted by: @nottamiata

@uncle-mush,

Put the smallest wheels and tires you can fit on that Corolla and come back and tell us what you think.

It will still be a Corolla, but you might see it a bit differently.

I appreciate the suggestion, but for me, the Corolla is just my commuter car.  When I bought it, I didn't want to invest the extra money for another Prius to get better gas mileage, I just needed something to get me to and from work and wanted a back-up camera to make parking/un-parking an easier/safer task for me (neck and back stiffness of old age).  The Corolla has a cadre of special features -- most of which I don't know about and the ones that I sort of know about, I haven't taken the time to read-up and educate myself about.  It's got plenty of zip to it, is comfortable and is pleasantly fulfilling its role.  There are thousands of them in my community, I just don't pay attention to them the way I do the Spyder or Prius V. 

UM, it wasn't a serious suggestion.

I put 185/55 on mine, to use up two of those firestone A/S mistakes from last spring. It handles really well (for what it is), but the speedo is off by about 8%.

Also, it looks a bit ridiculous, since no lowering was done. So you really would "see it differently", ha, generally while shaking your head like I do. But my kids only needed to buy two tires, so they don't care that much.

In my neck of the woods, there are about 8 xBs running around. Have seen all of them for years. There is even another Release Series 4.0, with the Burnt Penny (brown/green/yellow) finish. Nice color, if you take care of it. You have to see it in person. But fairly rare, so its really disorienting to walk out of a store and find that your key does not open "your" car. You get very used to having a nearly unique color.

So yeah, I still a few xBs around here. And a few FRSs, but not many tC. They do just sort of blend in, compared to the xB or FRS.

I see them all the time around here.

In the LA area the xB is becoming rare to see.  The xA and the tC is even more rare.

But you know what I almost never see anymore?  Acura Integras and RSXs.

Maybe the people that can afford an XB can’t afford to live in SoCal