This nameplate was introduced for the 2016 model year as Scion’s first sedan and one of the final additions to the brand’s lineup. Positioned as an affordable subcompact four-door, it was designed to bring a more conventional body style to Scion’s youth-oriented mix of small, value-focused vehicles. The car arrived for 2016 and quickly became the brand’s sedan offering, emphasizing practicality, compact dimensions, and an entry-level price point rather than sporty performance credentials.
The nameplate had a very short life under the Scion badge. In February 2016, Toyota announced that Scion would be folded back into the Toyota brand, and that the iA would continue as a Toyota for the following model year. As a result, the Scion-branded version existed only for the 2016 model year, after which the same basic vehicle was rebadged for Toyota as the Yaris iA. That makes the Scion iA a one-year nameplate rather than a long-running model line.
Because of that brief run, the car is often remembered as a transitional product: it marked Scion’s move into the sedan segment, then immediately became part of Toyota’s mainstream small-car lineup when the separate Scion brand was discontinued. For collectors and enthusiasts of Toyota’s U.S. brand history, it represents the final chapter of Scion’s evolution rather than a standalone long-term series.