Toyota Wants To Speed Up Scion Purchasing Process

Automotive dealerships are increasing aware of the need to adapt their customer service processes to meet the demands of consumers who prefer to spend less time on buying a car now than they have in the past. To satisfy this growing expectation, Toyota is expanding a pilot program for its youth-targeted Scion brand to provide a car purchasing experience that is as quick and easy as buying an iPad.

“There aren’t too many things out there anymore that you can’t buy in an online way, and it’s really automotive that’s lagging pretty much every other industry out there,” said Doug Murtha, Scion’s brand chief. “That’s what we’re trying to solve.”

The simplified car-buying option is called the Pure Process Plus program and was initially launched last year. Consumers can sign up on the Scion website, where they can build the specifics of their car, find the vehicle at their dealer of choice, apply for credit and secure a price, all before visiting a dealership. Murtha explains that while more than half of Pure Process Plus users spend less than two hours buying a car, Scion plans to refine the process to reduce that time to less than an hour.

The program appears to be targeted specifically to Millennials, although there is a high likelihood a wide variety of consumers would consider utilizing the online capabilities of the program to save time. Scion plans to offer the program across its roughly 1,000 U.S. dealers by the time that its new models, the iA sedan and iM five-door hatchback, go on sale in September.

Scion has experienced declining sales in the U.S. market over the past couple of years, but the expansion of the company’s Pure Process Plus program indicates Toyota’s commitment to continue with the struggling brand. Murtha explained Toyota’s dealers are more comfortable trying this new sales approach first with lower-volume models in Scion’s line-up than with its top sellers such as the Camry sedan.

In the first two months of 2015, deliveries of Scion’s five existing models fell 12 percent to only 7,554 vehicles, which is approximately the equivalent of one week’s worth of Camry sales in the United States. Murtha said that in order to sustain the brand, Toyota must sell in excess of 100,000 Scions per year. His prediction is that Scion will sell 30,000 to 40,000 of its new iA model and more than 20,000 of the new iM. He also said that the brand will be introducing a third new model in early 2017.

The iA sedan will become Scion’s new entry model with a starting price of about $16,000, while the iM will start at less than $20,000. The company will be eliminating its xD hatchback and iQ small car.

Will the expansion of Scion’s Pure Process Plus program across 1,000 dealerships, combined with the release of its two new models, allow the company to increase its sales enough to sustain the brand?