Toyota: Echo Was A Failure

[ragingfish]

Quote »Faint Echo: Faltering Toyota nameplate has year to go; Scion marketing may be impactedMARK RECHTIN | Automotive NewsPosted Date: 12/3/04LOS ANGELES -- It's a rare event when Toyota fumbles a product, but the Echo qualifies.Sales of the Echo, Toyota's effort to reach first-time buyers, are dwindling fast. But the car won't be replaced for another year. The Echo's poor sales could weaken Toyota's marketing of its Scion youth brand.Toyota acknowledged that the Echo was a dud in late 2003 when it stopped pushing the car on its dealers and made it available on order. Sales fell through the floor. Some dealerships stopped offering the Echo.With Scion pitching a low-price message to younger buyers, there is concern within Toyota that dealers might walk mainstream Echo-compatible customers into the Scion showroom to save the sale.Turning Scion into a dumping ground for mainstream first-time buyers would muddy the brand's hip image."The Scion product, design, sales process and dealer experience are focused on attracting trendsetting youth," said Jim Press, COO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.Press said he wants Toyota dealers to push mainstream buyers into an Echo, a base Corolla or a certified used vehicle rather than into the Scion showroom.Faint echoDespite low prices, the Echo is a flop. Here are the starting prices for Toyota's entry-level vehicles.Toyota Echo 2-door $10,895Toyota Echo 4-door $11,425Scion xA $12,995Toyota Corolla CE $14,220Note: Prices include destination chargesToyota introduced the Echo in October 1999. It hoped to sell 50,000 units annually.Although Toyota came close to hitting the mark in 2000, selling 48,876 units, sales fell sharply from there. Last year, only 26,167 units were sold. This year, Toyota sold just 3,425 units through October.The segment, an afterthought to many manufacturers, is suddenly attracting a lot of attention. Until recently, the Echo, Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio were the only players in the low-profit segment.The Scion lineup's splashy arrival has raised eyebrows. Chevrolet has brought in the Aveo from South Korea. Honda is looking to bring the Japan-market Fit to America. Nissan and Ford Motor Co. also are studying the segment.Changing demographics have caught the industry's eye. The so-called echo boom of baby boomers' children is arriving, with 63 million reaching driving age in the next decade. Press said those buyers will mostly be looking at Echos and Corollas, not Scions.Press calls the Echo "a hole in our portfolio." He said the next Echo will do a better job than the current Echo of keeping Toyota's share of mind among budget-conscious consumers. A product planning source said the next generation, due in fall 2005, will come as a three-door hatchback and a sedan and may not retain its name.Errrr....DUHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Kari]

Quote »Press said he wants Toyota dealers to push mainstream buyers into an Echo, a base Corolla or a certified used vehicle rather than into the Scion showroom.Loving the use of the word "push" there, since that's exactly what a lot of car salesmen do...push you into a sale.Wonder why they neglect the base Matrix...it really isn't that far out of price range and is a much nicer vehicle.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Kari »Wonder why they neglect the base Matrix...it really isn't that far out of price range and is a much nicer vehicle.It's a wagon...and many won't be caught dead in a wagon.

[Stang2Vibe]

My thoughts exactly. The Matrix fits a different buying profile.I thought that the Echo was doomed to failure from the moment I first saw it. I'm actually shocked that Toyota hung onto it as long as they did. The thing was just a horrible looking underpowered little pile of junk. Can't imagine that there would be much left of it in an accident, either. And I highly doubt that the next generation Echo will have the same name. How much more "entry level" can you really get than a Corolla CE? Better yet, how much more "entry level" do you really want to get? Wouldn't it be more prudent to just buy a decent used car that's 2-3 years old if you're that cost conscious?

[ToolGuy]

Did not like the car from day one!

[Mr. Poopypants]

I saw one in a wreck. The engine (as small as it may be) ended up in the passenger seat, the impact was diagonal from the front driver side to the rear passenger side. The person was trapped, the dash curled under and trapped her legs. It was a one vehicle crash into a tree. I wish I would have followed up and found out what the police calculated the speed to be, it was on a 25 MPH road, but that doesn't mean much.

[GMJAP]

Never liked it either, but seem to see a fair amount around the Dallas area.

[ToolGuy]

Quote, originally posted by Mr. Poopypants »I saw one in a wreck. The engine (as small as it may be) ended up in the passenger seat, the impact was diagonal from the front driver side to the rear passenger side. The person was trapped, the dash curled under and trapped her legs. It was a one vehicle crash into a tree. I wish I would have followed up and found out what the police calculated the speed to be, it was on a 25 MPH road, but that doesn't mean much.Sounds like what I imagine how the Chevrolet Aveo Daewoo cars reacting. Death trap!

[ragingfish]

Actually, the Aveo fared quite well in frontal collision tests...5 stars for both driver/pasenger frontal collisions.3 stars for side impact collisions, front, rear.

[Kari]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »It's a wagon...and many won't be caught dead in a wagon.I've always looked at the Vibe as an "SUV-car" instead of a wagon...I'm not much of a wagon fan myself but the design of the Vibe really appealed to me. I guess the Matrix comes across as more wagon-ish? LOL

[ToolGuy]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Actually, the Aveo fared quite well in frontal collision tests...5 stars for both driver/pasenger frontal collisions.3 stars for side impact collisions, front, rear.Maybe so for Frontal Crashes but it still LOOKS like a death trap... Side crashes are not that great and labeled a Safety Concern.

[Stang2Vibe]

It's just an inherent problem to micro-cars. Until some sort of mega-ultra-super composite material is made to vastly increase strength without increasing size and weight, this will be a problem for these cars. Also, I'm not sure that even with ultra hi-tech composites that the physics of a crash can be overcome with something so small.

[JohnC]

Guess I will be the lone Echo person here. I went to the local Toyota dealer to buy one they advertised for $8999, of course it was a bait and switch, and they didn't even have one Echo on the lot. I just wanted a cheap, fuel efficient, dependable, disposable commute car. I usually put about 275k highway miles on a car then donate it to a charity. The dealership insisted I pay near 16k for a Corolla instead, when I told them I wanted an Echo they said they didn't know when or if they would ever get any more. Several coworkers drive their Echos on I-10 (80-85mph) every day and are getting great gas mileage. They both love their cars and say they would buy it again.Luckily we found the Vibe on the way home from the Toyota dealership. They had one "weekend special" for 14999, still way more than I wanted to spend on a commute car, but it has proven worth the extra money. Hey the kids didn't really need to go to college anyway.

[Stang2Vibe]

lol--or they could just find a way to pay for it themselves. (Like I do.)

[Mavrik]

Didn't need a research team to discover the Echo was pure crap. Now they can learn from this and replace it with something else.