---
title: "Scion’s SEMA-Ready iA Lowrider Is Trying Very Hard to Fit In"
description: "So earnest, it’s almost charming."
date: "2015-11-02"
modified: "2015-11-02"
authors:
  - name: "Ben Keeshin"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/ben-keeshin"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/723/scions-sema-ready-ia-lowrider-is-trying-very-hard-to-fit-in"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Coupe"
---

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

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

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.

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_1.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_1.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_2.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_2.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_3.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_3.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_4.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_4.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_5.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_5.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_6.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_6.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_7.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_7.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_8.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_8.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_9.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_9.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_10.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_10.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_11.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_11.jpg>)

![scionlowridersema\_gal\_12.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/scionlowridersema_gal_12.jpg>)

## Author
Ben Keeshin is a former staff writer for Maxim, and before that, contributed writing to the digital sides of Road & Track and Vanity Fair.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/BnKshn>)