Two sides to a coin…..
As we all know there are two sides to every coin as there are always two sides to a story. On Saturday evening I attended the Central Florida Scion Showoff a very successful venue in Orlando. To my astonishment there was an abismal turn out of Scions due to a boycott of the show. Come to find out that the reason behind this was that it has been billed as the Scion Showoff but the dealership has allowed other makes and models to attend. At the last show there was an overwhelming amount of other makes and models and little room for Scions. The Scion owners that boycotted the show this time around felt the show should be only Scions since it is billed that way.Point taken and understood.
The other side of the coin must be looked at from a business stance and the Dealer Principles interests. First of all, Central Florida Scion, does a great job with the show providing a hot dog cart for free as well as drinks for everyone!,radio publicity,and give aways.The staff also provides pre registration and handle entrance to the show in a safe organized manner. Due to circumstances that had evolved at the last show the Dealer hired police and separated the show into two segmants this time around in an attempt to appease the boycotters….The front lot was for Scions ONLY and the back lot for Other makes and models. A very fair and diplomatic solution. What I think many people in the boycotting crowd have missed is that the Dealer Principle has these shows to intentionally bring in these “other cars” to show them what the Toyota brand and Scion brand have to offer in hopes of stirring their interest. Maybe the guy or girl that owns a tricked out mustang may decide to look at or buy an F.J. or a Camry, or a 4runner to haul that Stang around just to name a few. Additionally it is the responsibility of the Scion owners who have invested their hard earned monies,labor and ideas to impress these “other car” owners and to show up in force!
My side of the coin(making it a three sider?) is that the Scion brand is not going to be stopped…the wave is rolling and will overtake the other brands by force. The solidarity of the Scion owners is the key to success of the brand and these shows. If you want the organized shows to continue you need to show up in force and overwhelm the competition! Not pull back! Eventually there will be enough Scions to push out or convert the other car owners and evolve into Scion ONLY Shows but for now we need all the help we can get. Keep in mind this is not the case in the California markets where Scions do dominate and have Scion Shows Only in numbers by the thousands! There were several new Scions that came to this show. One guy in particular from Chicago asked me where were all the Scions were?” I have been hearing about this show sinced I moved here three months ago.” He was looking for a club to join but guess what? most did not show…and believe me, you would want his car in your club…it was bad bad ass! with rear doors that tilted backwards!
So please understand, I have listened to both sides and understand the validity of both. The saddest part of all this is that an opportunity to meet with friends that you may not have seen in a while, laugh a little,check out all the new mods/ideas and have some fun was missed. All in all we share the same passion for our cars and pride in them. The Dealer shows are key to the continuing success of the brand so that Scion can continue to grow and bring you more great cars. Let us drop the swords and call it a truce. Next time just crush em with sheer numbers of Scions in force!!!!!!!!!!! then we won’t have to go through this boycotting process again.
October 18th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
This is sad!!! Scionists, we need to take it to the next level. We are the best of what is good about customizing our cars, doing the shows, every persons ride is just as important no matter what kind of car they bring to the table. 100% of the time we need to raise the level of how we treat the rest of the customizing world. That way we will start a trend of respect for all rides(whips).
October 19th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
When I hear about things like this it really upsets me. As owners you have no idea what you have been given.
Being in this rat race for over 18 years, for the first time ever, not only are dealerships putting car shows on for us but they are free. Boo hoo friggin hoo, if there are other cars at the event. These dealers go through a great expense to host these events, often against their own better judgement because they know it will not be an immeadiate ROI. Usually one of us has worked really hard just to pull this off. I really do not understand where you think we as a culture or an owners group think we can hold ourselves above others in order to sabotage any given event. Dealers are fickle, and once they pull their support you will be left with nothing but those events where we as Scion owners are not even recognized as a class. So basically we should be grateful that there are dealerships willing to do this for us and should do everything in our means to support it and spread the word.