Scion’s SEMA-Ready iA Lowrider Is Trying Very Hard to Fit In

So earnest, it’s almost charming.

byBen Keeshin|
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Lowriders are cool. They’re not built to race, or even to speed. They’re the products of an automotive subculture whose motto is “low and slow.” These ground clearance-free cars are content to cruise in languid splendor while other customs whiz past with coffee-can exhausts and superchargers. Every single lowrider is a labor of love: chopped, painted and outfitted to individual taste. The whole point is to make a car that rolls in total refusal of factory specifications.

That in mind, it might be hard for Scion’s lowrider to fit in. This is the Scion iA Lowrider, a one-off SEMA special, and it certainly has all the trimmings. Gold-dipped wire wheels, two-tone paint and an airbag system with individual wheel control give the economy car some strut. Inside, heavy ruching on the seats, a chain-link steering wheel and rear middle-seat entirely upholstered in subwoofers check the standard boxes. The car’s 1.5-liter, 106-horsepower engine is unmodified, but was already great at going slow.

So, the goods are all there, but they’re part of a Japanese subcompact. All that kit was applied not by a 19-year-old scrimping and saving to embellish his Cutlass, but by the world’s largest automaker. At least in the realm of custom rides with a counter-culture bent, corporate ain’t cool. Let’s strip the Scion and get those goodies to a high-schooler with a beat ‘71 Impala.

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