Wednesday, February 3, 2016

BRZ is safe from Scion's Departure

When Toyota announced that the Scion brand would be going away, many Subaru fans wondered if this would include the departure of the Toyota/Subaru venture: the BRZ.  In North America, the Scion brand carried the FR-S: the twin sister of Subaru's rear-wheel drive coupe.  However, Toyota's plans are merely to rebrand the existing Scion brands into Toyota and continue on as they had before.  This isn't really earth-shattering news for markets outside the US, as the Scion FR-S that we know in North America has already been in production around the world as a Toyota already

“There’s absolutely no change to the consumer. Everything remains the same,” said Toyota's senior vice president of operations Bob Carter. “We’re simply changing the brand and the logos.”


Still, the BRZ and FR-S sales have been somewhat stagnant since the initial release as a 2013 model.  It's understandable that fans of this vehicle would've assumed that Scion's departure would mean the BRZ would be going along with it.  Development and planning for a second generation BRZ are already in the works, according to Subaru.  They wouldn't be building the BRZ without Toyota's involvement in this joint venture.  2017 would mark the BRZ's fifth year and, as with most development cycles for Subaru, would signal a new version is in the pipeline.  So, instead of fearing the worst for this fun sports coupe, fans of the FR-S, BRZ, and 86 are likely in line for a revision in the near future!

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