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Scion exec admits brand has too many dealerships, may contract network

Despite being conceived by corporate giant Toyota, Scion painstakingly built its reputation on being something of an offbeat, youth-minded brand, working hard to establish individualist, almost hipster-like credentials. So it comes as something of a surprise to hear WardsAuto report that Scion has a whopping 1,000 dealers across America - just 200 fewer than Toyota itself. This, despite a much smaller product portfolio and a sliver of the sales volume.
All those factors may explain why Bill Fay, US group vice president for Toyota, is admitting to the industry publication that its dealer network "might actually go down a little bit." As it stands, the volume end of the equation is probably an even bigger incentive - Scion's sales are way down from the salad days of the mid-2000s, when the brand had fewer models but sold more of them. With the (then) white-hot xB and tC models, Scion shifted 173,034 units in 2006, while Ward's notes the marque's 2013 sales are only at 41,261 units through July. In the story, AutoPacific analyst Dave Sullivan observes that other low-volume brands have far fewer dealer points, noting that Mini has just 115 dealer points and Infiniti has 200. By Sullivan's estimate, he would expect to see 350-500 Scion stores based on its sales figures.
Dealer question aside, the bigger issue is where the brand goes from here, and Fay admits Toyota is studying a number of different strategies, including possibly going "small-premium." Nothing is finalized, though according to Ward's, Fay discounts the idea that the FR-S - the brand's sales bright spot - will drive the brand to consider a more driver-oriented lineup.

Scion FR-S may be getting supercharger kit from TRD

The Scion FR-S was just named the Hottest Sport Compact at the 2012 SEMA Show, and Toyota Racing Development (TRD) is apparently looking to make this car a little hotter. According to Car and Driver, TRD is close to coming up with a supercharger to fit to the car's 2.0-liter flat-four engine in order to squeeze out a little more performance. Currently, the FR-S produces 200 horsepower, but there's no guessing how much a supercharger could improve this figure.
With Subaru seemingly hard at work on a new turbo engine for the BRZ and even possibly a BRZ STI model, it is only logical for a force-fed FR-S to be in the works as well. Surprisingly, though, the report says that supercharger would be unique to the FR-S, but since the Scion and Subaru BRZ are mechanically identical, it isn't clear how this would be accomplished. TRD already offers plenty of upgrades for the FR-S such as exhaust, brake and suspension kits, and it offers a handful of superchargers for other models including the 5.7-liter V8 used in the Toyota Tundra and the 4.0-liter V6 used in the Tacoma.

Toyota GT86 convertible could debut in March

The dates are lining up, now we wait to see how the badges align. Just before the Toyota GT 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ line-up was introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, there was a report that Subaru was considering a convertible while Toyota wouldn't even comment on it. That got swapped around when earlier this year the chief engineer on Toyota's side said a convertible was coming, and then a Scion FR-S droptop was confirmed for early 2014.
Autocar now reports that the Toyota GT 86 convertible will make its first appearance at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show in March. In a car whose specs like weight, packaging, horsepower and center of gravity were all tightly controlled to get the most from the least, the changes necessitated by chopping the roof could make this a very different car. It's said to employ a fabric roof to keep a "small" weight gain check, and the suspension will be softened to work more harmoniously with the decreased body stiffness. And somewhere in all that the back seat and trunk space will need to take a hit.
In other news, Autocar says the hi-po GT 86 with some kind of capacitor system instead of batteries is being worked on for 2015.