It's been a long time since Scion as a whole has been considered a success. Its initial debut lineup was solid as was the general public response. But after only a few years things began to flounder and the so-called Toyota youth division was losing its spark. To help and hopefully reignite it, Toyota rebadged its GT86 rear-wheel-drive sports coupe as the Scion FR-S. It's a great and fun-to-drive coupe and all, but even its overall sales have disappointed (to be fair, Subaru BRZ sales have also been less than stellar).

But Wards Auto is reporting that Toyota CEO Jim Lentz still believes in Scion. "I still personally believe small-premium is the direction we should be going," Lentz explained to Wards. "I think that (the) Toyota channel, itself, with vehicles like Yaris and other small, B-platform cars, can handle the lower end of the market. I think that C-platform premium small cars are probably the best place for Scion to be." Basically, Lentz wants Scion to be sort of an entry-level luxury brand that would offer competition to the likes of the Mercedes CLA and Audi A3. Remember, Lexus has repeatedly stated that it will never build a sub-$30,000 model. Scion could fill that void for up and coming millennials.

Beginning this April at New York, Scion will launch the first of three new models, the iM. Two other new models will arrive in the subsequent two years following. Scion will also unveil something else at New York, but that's still unknown at the moment. But we're still not convinced Scion has the ability to rebuild itself into an entry-level premium brand. The competition is currently just too far ahead and well-established. Can anyone really picture Scion mentioned in the same category as Mercedes or Audi? Let's just say we're skeptical.