Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
Scion's are made by Toyota but they have had a very poor record for longevity and consumption of oil. This list goes on. I'm a big Toyota fan but I wouldn't touch a Scion. Besides that car is butt ugly.
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Scion/
Scions are built just as good, and are just as reliable, as any other car built by Toyota.
The problem with these cars is... who they were marketed to, and who actually drove most of them... teens and twenty-somethings. Also, many of the cars were purchased FOR the drivers (not BY the drivers) and many of those drivers didn't take care of them, abused them, and crashed them. Millennials have grown-up in a disposable society and many of them don't really understand the concept of taking care of something and making it last, especially if they themselves didn't pay for it. It doesn't matter how good a vehicle is, if you abuse and/or neglect a vehicle you WILL destroy it! I have had to beat this concept into my kid's heads. The worst used Scion models that I have seen are the tCs, most of which driven by young girls in their late teens and early twentys (and their boyfriends). It doesn't help that some repair/body shops take advantage of them. For this reason, most used Scions are bad investments IMO. Used Honda Civics (especially the coupes) also suffer from this same problem.
When it comes to the age vs miles argument, vehicles also wear out due to age, not just miles.
My advice when it come to this sort of thing is... when comparing two vehicles selling for the same price, assuming that both vehicles were regularly/properly maintained, IMO a 3 year old vehicle with 90k miles would be a better investment than a 10 year old vehicle with 30k miles (not to mention safer). Warm-up cycles are the key here. 90% of a vehicle's mechanical wear occurs during the first 10 minutes of operation after an engine is started cold. If that 30k vehicle was driven daily, it was driven almost entirely in the city and it was NEVER fully warmed-up! On the other hand, the 3 year old 90k vehicle driven daily has had less than a third of the warm-up cycles, has had a higher percentage of highway miles, and IT will actually be the better vehicle mechanically, and the better investment.