In a few short months, we'll see the production version of the Scion iM, based on the European Toyota Auris. If only Toyota had sent this instead.
A decade ago, Toyota offered the Caldina, a station wagon that was a fair bit bigger than a Matrix, riding on the same ST2xx platform that was also used by the Celica.
The big highlight was the GT-Four, which, as its name suggests, used the same drivetrain as the Celica GT-Four. The 3S-GTE turbocharged four-cylinder engine was, sadly, mated to a 4-speed automatic, with no provisions for a manual gearbox. All-wheel drive was standard.
Around the time of the Caldina's introduction, there were rumors that it would come to America as the Scion CCX, but that development never transpired. The Caldina's model cycle came to an end in 2007, without ever reaching North America – though the model, and the GT-Four, remains a popular grey import in Asia, the West Indies and South America (despite being RHD only, they are often brought in as affordable performance cars).
Not long ago, I spoke to a source at Scion regarding the iM and the possibility of a performance variant. Before I could even get into the question of the Caldina, and whether was ever slated to arrive here, the source informed me that a sporty iM wasn't in the cards – and not for reasons you'd expect.
"We'd be open to doing it," he said, "but our market research showed that most customers don't even care about performance. They want fuel economy, practicality – really anything but performance."
The post Toyota Caldina GT-Four: The Scion iM That Never Was appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
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