By MARK RECHTIN | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
AutoWeek | Published 08/04/06, 8:25 am et

LOS ANGELES - The Scion youth brand is keeping customers in the Toyota family.

More than half of Scion owners trading in their cars for new vehicles stay under the Toyota umbrella. That's nearly double the rate of any other feeder brand's loyalty to an automaker, according to recent data from the Power Information Network.

But Scion's under-30 owners are not as loyal to the Toyota family as older Scion owners, taking some shine off Scion's success as a youth-oriented brand.

During the April-June period, 50.3 percent of Scion trade-ins went for a Scion, Toyota or Lexus vehicle. The loyalty rate for Scion's under-30 owners was 42.7 percent.

"Whether it's Chevy owners going to Buick or Dodge owners going to Chrysler, nowhere do you see a feeder brand of Scion's magnitude," said Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis at the Power Information Network.

Granted, Scion defies categorization; its small, low-cost lineup feeds a large, mass-market brand, Toyota. The closest comparison is with Saturn, which had only 24.5 percent of its owners trade in for another Saturn or another GM product.
"Toyota has created a rung lower than anybody else," Libby said. However, Scion loses some of its loyalty advantage if you compare the high loyalty rates for under-30 owners of competing entry-level models, such as the Chevrolet Cobalt, Honda Civic and Ford Focus.

For instance, 61.7 percent of Cobalt owners traded in their cars for GM cars. And 48.8 percent of Civic buyers traded in their cars for Hondas or Acuras.

Mark Templin, a Scion vice president, suggested that many Civic trade-ins were for the redesigned 2006 Civic.

Templin says Power data show that many Cobalt trade-ins have high negative equity, meaning that the owners owe more on their car loans than the cars are worth. GM offers financing deals to solve the problem, which is why Cobalt owners have high GM loyalty rates, he says.

Loyalty is a tricky concept. Certainly, it can demonstrate a customer's love for a current car. But it also can involve a risk-averse consumer who is content to stick with a brand rather than look elsewhere. Most automakers prize loyalty, though, because it's cheaper to keep a customer than to lure one from another brand.

Scion was launched in the California market three years ago and went national in the summer of 2004. Many initial Scion customers fell into the fickle "early adopter" category. That makes Scion's retention numbers surprising, Templin said.

More impressive, he said, is that 80 percent of Scion buyers are new to the Toyota family.

Source: http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...1/TOC01ARCHIVE

 

Usually buying an entry-level car from one company would lead the family/individual to purchase another vehicle in the same company. Of course, depending on the first impression that vehicle made on the customer.

Coming from a Toyota family, there are a ton of other quality family cars to choose from. Scions are targeted at younger individuals which may lead to believe the family would purchase a camry / avalon / truck at a later stage for the next batch of kids

And if they want upscale, well they have the LS430 to look foward to, can't really go wrong with either of the Toyota brands.

 

very goood.

See, reliability may not be on the top of a teen's list when looking for a car but when they decide to buy a car on their own, they're gonna think back and realise that their first car never broke down and never had any problems and that experience will bring them back to purchase a Toyota in the future.

 

Well, my parent's first car was a 1983 Cressida. And now we have a 1991 LS400 that is my car and a 2005 Sienna they drive. We've tried MB and Nissan, and I think now we will stay Toyota for life.

 

This is sensational news for Toytoa, EXACTLY what they wanted. Wow, wow, wow.
And my family has turned to Lexus, as tons of my friends. Literally 4 of my close friends now have a GS400. Hell Two-times and Lt.Lex are on the forum

Funny thing is, I have flirted with the Xb for awhile, I like it, its quirky, great gas mielage.

 

Yeah I remember they told us that in a meeting when Scion was first introduced. It's part of Toyota's "master plan". Scion in high school/college, Toyota for young professional, and Lexus later on so they got you for your whole lifetime of car ownership. Smart marketing.

 

Lexus in teh afterlife for the win!!!