Nathan Bomey

USA TODAY

Toyota has killed its ailing Scion brand after its quirky designs failed to catch on and low gasoline prices made small cars a tougher sell.

The brand's vehicles will be re-badged as Toyota models beginning with the 2017 model-year.

"Clearly we don’t take the discontinuation of a brand lightly — something that we’ve invested enormous amount of personal resources in for 13 years," Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales, told reporters in a conference call.

Toyota envisioned Scion as an entry point for cost-conscious, young buyers. In that respect, the strategy worked. The average age of a Scion buyer was 36 years old, and 70% of the brand's buyer's had never purchased a Toyota before.

But critically panned design choices — such as the cramped iQ mini car — set the brand on a path toward irrelevancy for the average new-vehicle shopper. Carter acknowledged that the company failed to reach Millennial buyers through marketing.

The last straw, you could say, was plunging gasoline prices, which have crushed sales of the type of small cars Scion sells.

"It just never got traction and it has been on life support for at least five years, if not longer," said Peter De Lorenzo, a former auto marketing executive and editor of Autoextremist.com, in an interview. "But kudos to Toyota for admitting that it was superfluous and they were wasting a lot of money trying to make the brand survive."

The company joins other auto brands that have recently gone defunct, such as Chrysler's Plymouth, Ford's Mercury and GM's Hummer, Saturn, Saab, Pontiac and Oldsmobile.

Scion's sales fell 3% in 2015 to 56,187 units. But that was down 24% from 73,507 in 2012 and down 68% from its high point of 173,034 units in 2006.

Though Scion's struggles have been evident for some time, Toyota had invested design energy and marketing power in the brand until its dying breath. The company picked the Los Angeles Auto Show in November to reveal the C-HR concept small crossover.

The FR-S sports car, iA sedan and iM 5-door hatchback will become Toyota models, in addition to the C-HR if it's produced. The company said it will discontinue the tC sports coupe in August.

"I just think the product was never really as compelling as it could have been or should have been," Kelley Blue Book analyst Karl Brauer said in an interview.

The 1,004 dealerships that sell Scion vehicles also sell Toyota vehicles and will continue to provide service to Scion owners.

Carter said the company would not have to pay franchise separation fees because Scion was never a legally separate franchise.

"We’re going to work with them to transition their Scion efforts over to the Toyota brand," Carter said.

The 22 people who worked exclusively for Scion and the brand's regional sales representatives will be offered other jobs in Toyota, the company said.

Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz, who was the founding vice president of Scion, said in a statement: "I was there when we established Scion and our goal was to make Toyota and our dealers stronger by learning how to better attract and engage young customers. I’m very proud because that’s exactly what we have accomplished."

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.