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Andrew Gilleland is new VP of Scion, Murtha moves to Toyota

Scion is getting some fresh blood at the top as Andrew Gilleland (pictured above) becomes the new vice president to take over for Doug Murtha. Gilleland is no stranger to the division, and served as the national field operations manager early in the brand's launch. Murtha moves to take leadership of corporate strategy and planning for Toyota in North America. "Now it's Andrew's charge to spread the message of the style and value of the iM and iA, as well as a third new vehicle that will be added to the lineup," Toyota division group vice president Bill Fay said in the announcement. Gilleland moves up from being general manager of Toyota's central Atlantic regional office. He takes the reins at Scion at a potential turning point for the division. Sales volume for the year through August is down 22.1 percent to 32,691 vehicles, but some big changes are afoot. The long-lived xB is likely about to bow out, and the brand is launching two new products with the iM and iA. They're getting some celebrity advertising, too. Spy shots also suggest the FR-S might get a refresh soon. Plus, the third model Fay teases is expected to be a compact crossover, possibly with styling inspiration from the Toyota C-HR concept. Scion could get a big boost by having an entry in that booming segment. New Products, Previous Player - Scion Introduces New Vice President Andrew Gilleland Returns to Youth Brand September 24, 2015 TORRANCE, Calif. (Sept. 24, 2015) – In the early days of Scion, when xAs and xBs were flying out of dealers' showrooms, Andrew Gilleland was the National Field Operations Manager for the youth brand. He was responsible for working with dealers to ensure they embraced the new products and processes Scion offered. Now, Scion is entering its teen years, and Gilleland is back as Vice President of Scion, once again encouraging dealers to sell its new models and investigate new methods to attract young buyers. "Scion has sold nearly a million vehicles since I left in 2005 and I'm excited to be back leading this team," said Gilleland. "The iM 5-door hatchback and iA sports sedan arrived at dealerships earlier this month and the response has been great.

Here's the 2017 Toyota 86: Don't call it a Scion

After we heard the bells toll for Scion yesterday, we told you that the Scion FR-S will transform into a Toyota. That's right: just a rebadging. The practical question is, which badge? The philosophical question, which we can't answer yet, is where it'll sit in the pantheon of front-engined, rear-drive Toyota sports cars, of which the Supra was the last one to visit our shores, from 1992 until 1998 in its fourth generation. And as if summoned by this conversation, this camouflaged prototype appeared. Our best guess is that this is going to be the US-bound, Toyota-badged version of the Subaru BRZ and all the other 86-badged variants: the Toyota 86 (in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa), Toyota GT86 (in Europe and New Zealand again), and Toyota FT86 (in Nicaragua and Jamaica). For simplicity's sake, let's call it a Toyota 86. Peer into the 86's swirly camo, and it looks like the car is going in for a light refresh. The lower intake in the front fascia, if it's representative of a production part, adopts a different shape and is considerably wider and narrower than either the BRZ or FR-S units. It also appears that the turn signal and its surround are reshaped, different than any of the current variants. Changes out back appear mild. The area around the license plate seems to be smoother, and there is likely a predictable light restyle of the bumper skin and defuser under the camo. We don't expect a significant power increase, and certainly not a turbocharger (sorry!), but crossing fingers wouldn't do any harm. Related Video:

Race Recap: 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans defines 'endurance'

Commenting on the rush of events that rocked beginning and end of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Paul Truswell of Radio Le Mans said "the race is about the ability to endure, not just the ability of drivers to do what they do for a long time." The entire race machine, all the way down to the pit boards and radios, has to survive the stress and abuse of the entire day. This was the race to prove those words.
There were two Toyotas, two Porsches and three Audis, five of the seven led the race at some point, six of the seven ran in the top three. Toyota will be hugely disappointed that it didn't win when its car and drivers were so, so strong, but they gave Audi the kind of scare we haven't seen since the best of Peugeot's days, and Toyota did a better job of it even in the loss. Porsche blew away everyone's expectations, falling 3.5 hours short of a fairy tale ending that would have made Disney cry.
But Le Mans doesn't really do fairy tales. Well, not that fairy tale. Audi's Twitter handle during the event was #welcomechallenges. As usual, Le Mans answered for the entire field.