2016 SCION iM and iA First Look and Drive by Steve Purdy +VIDEO
By Steve Purdy
Senior Editor
The Auto Channel
Michigan Bureau
Toyota added the Scion brand to its portfolio about a dozen years ago to sate the appetite for an affordable line of entry level cars appealing to young, often first-time, buyers. The goal was to please them enough that they would graduate to the myriad of Toyota products and ultimately to Lexus. That’s not unlike Billy Durant’s philosophy of building General Motors progression of brands from inexpensive Chevrolet's to pricey Cadillac's.
Well, that seems to have worked reasonably well in that the Scion brand is still around, though its line of cars now includes a rear-wheel drive sports car that only peripherally fits the brand philosophy. And, they just dropped the little city car, iQ, so popular in Europe. Folks here just did not take to it. Tastes in most everything change quickly, particularly with the younger set, and that includes automobiles. The Scion lineup began to get a bit stale so most of the original lineup is gone and we now have two new entries that appear at first blush to take another strong run at the youth market.
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First, let’s talk about what they have in common.
The marketing philosophy for both new Scion products is to offer what they call “mono-spec” cars that come reasonably well equipped but without many options or choices. You’ll choose your color and transmission and not much else.
Both cars get lots more high-strength steel to reduce weight and increase chassis rigidity. Both get much improved aerodynamics. And, both get much more standard content. All that happens without much of a bump in price from the models they replace.
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Ride, handling and NVH rank well with everything in the class that we have reviewed. We found good agility and poise during our not-too-demanding first drives. While we experienced only a few miles of rough roads on our west Michigan drive we’ve not given them a thorough challenge yet. That will come with a full review.
2016 SCION iA
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Accent, Fiesta, Versa and Sonic are direct competitors, they say, and the iA stacks up well in that category. For such a small sedan it feels roomy inside, I thought, though interior volume is about the same. It gets a 60/40 folding rear seat backs for extra load versatility and trunk space is good for this small car class.
2016 SCION iM
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As we mentioned earlier options are nearly non-existent but the iM will offer a few dealer accessories and a line of TRD (Toyota Racing Development) accessories – no turbo kit though.
Scion’s warranty covers the cars for 3 years or 36,000 miles and the powertrain for 5 years or 60,000 miles.
The iA sedan starts at just $15,700 with manual transmission and $16,800 for the automatic. The iM hatchback starts at $18,460 with manual and $19,200 for the automatic. Scion firmly believes in a “no haggle, no hassle” pricing strategy so don’t expect to dicker and deal much with these prices. You can even make a purchase entirely on-line if you like. (These prices do not include the $750 destination charge.)
Neither car offers integrated navigation (but you can use your smart phone as a source) CD drive. Both get standard low-speed pre-collision safety system, tire pressure monitors, back-up camera, USB ports and AUX audio jack, apps capability, Bluetooth, 7-inch display and all the other stuff we expect.
We’ll have more to say about these two once we’ve had more time with them. Judging from our sneak peek it looks like Scion is back in the game – but the competition is mighty stiff.
©Steve Purdy, Shunpiker Productions, All Rights Reserved
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