Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz continues to advocate for Scion becoming a brand of small-premium cars.“I still personally believe small-premium is the direction we should be going,” he tells WardsAuto in a recent interview here during a Toyota press event. “I think that (the) Toyota channel, itself, with vehicles like Yaris and other small, B-platform cars, can handle the lower end of the market. I think that C-platform premium small cars are probably the best place for Scion to be.”
The positioning also makes sense as Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand has said it won’t sell a model below $30,000, bucking the trend of other premium automakers offering models below that price point (Mercedes-Benz CLA, Audi A3).
However, Scion has said the upcoming production version of the iM concept displayed at the recent 2014 Los Angeles auto show will begin under $20,000.
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