- Ah, yes, I remember way back in the day,
Scion was one of the first websites that was
trying to cater to the automotive enthusiast in all of us,
yeah, building custom Scion boxes
that you could modify on their website.
You remember it, I remember it.
Maybe you didn't, but I do.
What was it, they had the chipmunks, chicken, no.
Was it like, the hairy bean ones with the cute eyes?
Gerbils?
♪ You could do with that ♪
♪ If you could do with this ♪
- Gerbils, either way, Scion has been a brand
that has always tried to be like the hip, fun, cool brand,
under the granddaddy of Toyota
and for the most part, it's kinda sorta worked, maybe.
But when Scion released this model, it did surprisingly well
and for the most part, gave it's best chance
as catering to younger automotive enthusiasts
that not many have done before.
I'm Alex, @ALEXFI on Instagram
and today, we're gonna be talking about
the unsuspecting, the modest,
oh yeah, I forgot about that car,
the car of the mid 2000s, the Scion tC.
(pounding music)
(engine roars)
(imitates beat box)
All right, and if you're just
jumping into the channel, welcome.
Click, type, or lightly press the red button to subscribe
so we can keep making banging videos like this.
We don't need you to smash it, we don't need you to slam it,
I'm not gonna scream at you about it,
but if you just wanna press, that'd be pretty neat
and if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires,
or suspension, be sure to check out fitmentindustries.com
for your newly acquired Scion tC
and you're just watching the video,
or you're thinking about picking on up or otherwise.
We have it all, ladies and gentlemen.
That's not a threat, that's promise.
To chat about the Scion tC
is to chat about Scion as a whole,
which was the hip, young testbed of Toyota
that was launched way back in 2002,
the days of Samurai Jack and Cookie Crisp
and all of those lovely cartoon show days.
Miss those ones quite a bit.
All right, Scion was meant to be
a counter-culture image from Toyota,
to appeal to the younger audience
that wanted Toyota's reliability
without Toyota's old person persona,
which was a thing back then, if you don't remember.
A lot of people were trying
to get into the millennials and be--
That was weird when you say it like that,
like they wanted to--
That was weird, too.
Anyway, the brand would launch in nightclubs and arcades
and youth-centric locations to grow the brand.
- Art lovers, you an see the art studio.
(electronic music)
Customize your own shirt.
(electronic music)
12th Planet of Scion Radio 17 mixing it up.
(house music)
Get a photo.
Get a haircut.
- Versus conventional television promotion
because they wanted to be hip and cool.
When it launched, it launched with the xA and the xB
and things were pretty dandy,
the toaster and then the other one.
2004 entered and finally they entered the Scion tC.
Now, it entered the game at an incredible price range,
which was exactly what Toyota wanted to do,
below $20,000 which is exactly where
teenagers needed it to be, essentially cheap as (beep).
It was meant to replace the Toyota Celica
in order to appeal to the millennial market.
Okay, boomer.
And Toyota set it up to practically be
an a la carte style car,
so instead of having to get your aftermarket parts
from some random third party eBay reseller,
Scion just hosted a plethora of upgrades for your car
right on the site or from your dealership,
which is why, a lot of times,
if you've seen multiple Scion tCs in the same place before,
they almost all look different
and have different stuff going on with them
because that's just what they wanted to do.
This allowed the car to be sold with practically nothing,
which exploded its sales initially
and got the good old automotive enthusiasts
stoked about the car.
It doesn't come with anything.
You put stuff on, it's pretty fun.
It had a 2.4 liter, dual overhead cam, 161 horsepower
and 162 foot pounds of torque,
different transmission options, 7.5 second quarter mile,
and it wasn't quick, okay,
but the fact that you could modify it
is what made it sell so well.
And the first generation even had a supercharger,
if you wanted that. (engine whines)
It did well and in 2011,
Scion tC entered the second generation,
essentially trying to curb the recession.
The new generation had quite a few updates.
It got angry, added more parallelogram lines
to its body style.
The rear window featured a classic ZX style rear window
and a Lexus-esque front nose
and an upgraded engine with a bit more power to boot.
It essentially tried to feature everything
that made other cars pretty fancy
and put it in to the Scion.
Even without the supercharger,
the improvements made the second generation tC a viable car
that more people could hop into
and not have to buy an upsold steering wheel
to actually get it down the road.
Unfortunately, its life wasn't lived very long
because the sales of the good ole tC dwindled,
due to the lack of resources that Toyota gave it.
They were just choking it at the throat, the Scion.
Just didn't want to go on anymore.
Toyota didn't want it to go on anymore, either.
It was just rough.
The recession, if you remember that,
if we were alive back then,
recession wasn't doing very well for Toyota either
and it was the last attempt to garner additional interest.
Scion would revamp the design of the tC
one more time in 2014 to match the launch of the Scion FR-S.
It would receive new headlights, grille, taillights,
body kit, sport tuned suspension, and some more goodies
and as the years progressed,
the good ole cliff got closer to Scion
until they inevitably decided to hop on off
and ended production on the car
and the entire Scion brand in August of 2016.
Now, Toyota says it has to do with the fact
that the sellers that they were targeting back in the 2000s,
no longer exists today, which could be true.
A lot of times, people like us
just wanna buy a Toyota instead of a Scion,
but fun fact, the Scion did accomplish
what it was looking to do,
as it had the lowest average-aged buyer
in the industry, of 29 years old.
But you wanna know what?
We're done talking about the history of Scion tCs.
History, all right, it ended,
like Leonidas at the end of 300
and we'll always remember it
as a true defender of the sport--
Nope, like, I'm not, I can't do that.
Okay, but either way,
you're not here to learn about the history,
you're here to learn about what to expect
when you go to own one of these bad boys, okay.
Well, set down the protein shake
and grab your favorite dubstep CD mix
and let's jump into this early 2000s bad boy, okay.
The Scion tC was always marketed in a weird way.
- Art lovers, get a photo, get a haircut.
- Similar to an older dad convincing his kids
that he, too, was hip and cool.
- The puzzle game.
- Because he can do the floss.
Doesn't matter if you can do the floss, Greg,
you're still old as (beep) and it's really weird, okay.
You don't do it at a family dinner.
It's just not something that happens.
Toyota's marketing was pretty similar to that
and although it did well initially,
it did well from a standpoint of a cost perspective
and not necessarily from a younger generation
marketing just loving it perspective.
The car, the aftermarket car community,
was quick to jump onto the
how many times do we need to tell you old man,
get the hell outta Dodge,
and that's pretty much what happened for quite a long time.
And it didn't really ever get fully accepted
into the modifying world, however, it is still a Toyota.
It's a tC, it's reliable.
It's got everything you need to be a proper daily
and although it's nothing crazy,
it can get the job done without much fuss or issue,
which is why you always see so many of them
just kinda floating around town.
Most of its parts are borrowed
from other cars within the family,
which keeps costs down and maintenance relatively easy.
They can look good and they do look good,
if you're looking for a simple daily driver
and you wanna throw just a little bit of money at it.
You can't get much better than this car
in the bang for bucks category,
which is exactly what it was trying to do.
You'll see most of the Scion tCs these days,
running up on JNCs or XXR 527s
because they do have some weird wheel fitment option.
8.25 inch fit better than 8.5.
Federal 595 tires are all you run on these
and if you want coilovers,
most of them end up running BC racing coilovers.
The Scion tC has a little bit of an interesting
and relatively short history,
which is why this video is actually shorter than usual
because they don't have a lot of history
in the automotive culture.
They were raced but there's nothing substantial.
They were modified
but didn't feature a massive footprint in the seat.
They never really have.
They're reliable but not a car
that people actively recommended in the forums.
They look properly good with modifications,
but not many choose to modify them anymore.
The car may be one of the past
and it's just not something
that a lot of people are talking about these days,
especially in current day,
but I'd be pretty hard-pressed to pass up on one.
If you're looking to jump into a car
that's efficient, low cost and can get you out of debt
because you're not gonna have to take out a loan on it
and you can go to college and back
and still have a dandy of a car that looks good
and feels good and just is good, you know.
It's kinda like a Neon,
but not the SRT, you know what I'm saying.
It's kinda just like it's there, you can do stuff to it,
but not too much.
So, if you got aftermarket Scion tC
or have thoughts on this one,
let us know in the comment section
and let us know what you think about it.
Of course, if you're looking for
aftermarket wheels, tires or suspension,
be sure to check us out over at fitmentindustries.com
where we have everything from JNCs to Rotiform
to even Volks if you want to flex on some kids, all right.
B series and coilovers and every tire imaginable.
Also, let us know what you want to see us talk about next.
What car platform?
Scion tC, you guys asked for it, there it is.
And if you're that one guy that keeps saying E46,
keep it up, champ, all right.
I'm with you, I'm just waiting for the green light.
I'm Alex, Alex from Fitment Industries
and we will see you later.
Peace.