This Is The Secret Shame The Scion TC And The Chevy Vega Shared

If you’ve spent as much time hanging around in taillight bars as I have, I’m pretty sure you’ve encountered these two phrases: “vega’d” and “teecee’d.” They both mean pretty much the same thing, though the former term is more popular among older taillight enthusiasts, and the latter by the youths. The reason they both mean the same thing is because they reference the same deadly sin, a callous victory of perfidy over performance, of cheapness over quality, as expressed in two very different taillights. The common meaning for both terms is something like being lied to, perhaps “gaslit,” or sometimes just a lie in general. The terms come from the Chevy Vega and Scion tC, respectively. Let’s dig into why this is the case.

The reason these cars have lent their names to terms about lies or lying in the Taillight Community is pretty straightforward: both had taillights that, well, lied. Perhaps “lied” isn’t exactly the right word; these taillights were deceptive, let’s say. They both appeared to be things they actually weren’t, and in the case of one, the reason was pretty simple: cheapness. In the case of the other, it’s kind of a mystery.

Let’s start with the older car, the Chevy Vega. I’ve actually written about this before, how the Vega’s 1976 taillight redesign, which had such promise and hope with its amber rear indicators, proved to be a miserable fraud. Yes, the taillight lenses had amber sections that one would reasonably think were for the indicators, when in reality they were just inert dummy sections, without even a provision for a bulb:

Dear lord, that is just shameful. GM’s bean counters couldn’t even spring for two extra bulbs and sockets for the car, a decision they seem to have made well after the taillights were designed. There’s a reason these taillights became synonymous with lies!

Of course, it didn’t take long for most of the remaining Vegas to rust themselves off of the roads and highways, so for younger members of the taillight community, the reference to Vegas when talking about being “vega’d” just didn’t really click, with most of them never having even seen a Vega, let alone its lying rear indicators. The concept of the term was good, but it really needed a new point of reference.

Enter the Scion tC.

Yes, Scion stepped up here, with their attractive little sporty coupé. Built from 2004 to 2016, these appealing little cars were certainly well-known in the Taillight Community, and they had a trait similar to the Vega: a lying taillight.

Now, in the case of the tC, it was just one, not both lights, but that was enough to make the term work. The tC’s lie was in its right-side reverse lamp:

Yes, even though it looked from the outside just like the left side, for some reason Scion decided to cheap out and not include a bulb or socket in the right side reverse light housing. If you don’t believe me or the various confused owners on forums wondering where the hell their other back-up light is, perhaps you’ll believe Scion’s own owner’s manual:

Look at that: note the pointedly singular use of “light” in the upper diagram, then the full-on (if parenthetical) admission of “(left side only)” gives away the whole game. Just one back-up light. Now, this is actually perfectly legal under US law, as the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards No. 108 only requires one white-light reverse/backup lamp:

…and Scion had availed themselves to this mono-lamp requirement before, on the second-gen xB, though they did it then with a great deal more honesty:

See, at least with the xB, there’s no attempt at obfuscation; it’s very clearly just one functional reverse lamp, and there are no confusing other clear sections of taillight that look like they should be reverse lamps, but aren’t, as is the case with the tC.

So the tC’s left taillight is absolutely a liar. I just can’t figure out why.

Was this all just cost-savings? If so, even that doesn’t make sense. There were cheaper Toyotas of the era that somehow managed to have two reverse lights; even the cheapest Scion at the time, the xD, managed to be generous enough to allow for a lavish two bulbs when reversing. So why did the tC only get one? Especially when the taillights looked like they were designed to have one per side?

I thought maybe in European markets, that right side section was used for a rear fog lamp, fitted with a high-intensity red bulb? Maybe, though I’ve yet to confirm that. And, later updates of the tC did include what looked to be a central rear foglamp lens:

…but, from what I have seen online, at least in America this was just a lens and plastic housing (not even a retroreflector) that could have had a bulb socket and bulb, but didn’t. There are instructions on how to actually make it functional, though, if you’re interested.

I guess this will just have to remain one of the great taillight mysteries, but I do think that the Scion tC’s fate as having lying taillights is well-established, and we’ll be hearing about how untrustworthy people have been teeceeing people for years to come.

That’s what you get for being so cheap with your taillights, Toyota.