NEW YORK -- Toyota Motor Corp. revealed a refreshed version of its Scion tC coupe and special editions of the brand's other models Thursday at the New York auto show where Scion got its start.
The new face of the tC includes an oversized lower grille that resembles the FR-S.
The tC's reshaped headlights, hood and vertical lower accent lights also produce more dynamic styling for the budget-priced coupe.
It was at this show 11 years ago where the world's largest automaker showed the first concepts of the brand aimed at bringing younger buyers into its showrooms.
In the 10 years that Toyota dealers have sold sometimes-quirky models, such as the original boxy xB, the company has sold about 900,000 of them, about two-thirds to new customers, said Jim Lentz, the U.S. sales chief who revealed those original concepts.
The brand has the youngest buyers in the industry and the two-door tC has the youngest of any model, Lentz said in an interview.
Scion has helped the company stretch beyond its design comfort zone and provided a chance for Toyota to relate to the children of the U.S. baby boom generation that made Camry the country's top-selling car.
"From a generation standpoint, it's still been a great opportunity for us to experiment and still excite young people about cars," Lentz said. "We brought in 600,000 buyers into the brand that we never would have seen before. To me, that's money well spent."
Boosting sales
The refreshed tC will go on sale about June and should increase full-year sales above 2012's 22,666, said Doug Murtha, Scion vice president. It will have a standard 6.1-inch (15.5-centimeter) touch-screen audio system that will be extended to the rest of the line by the end of the year, making it the first non-luxury brand to make such screens standard.
Scion sales may rise almost 9 percent to 80,000 this year from 73,505 in 2012, Murtha said.
The special editions are called 10 Series models, which will be painted a color Toyota calls Silver Ignition and will include an LED Scion badge that lights when the car is unlocked, a solar-powered illuminated shift knob and silver seat belts.
The FR-S sports car will also have special headlamps, LED daytime running lights and dual climate control.
Toyota will make 10,000 in the series, spread among the line's five models. Pricing hasn't been announced.
