America has made peace with the 1970s and wants some of its charms back.
High-waisted, wide-leg pants are cool again. Greta Van Fleet is touring with a Zeppelin-esque sound. Inflation dominates the news (OK, we could have lived without that one). And you can buy boxy SUVs with names like Wagoneer and Bronco that look like the melted-lozenge SUVs of the 1990s never happened.
The time is right for a rebirth of the classic Scout brand.
If you look closely, of course, the analogies don’t hold. Those pants, mostly, aren’t polyester. Greta probably gets echo effects with Pro Tools, not recording the drums in a concrete stairwell. And the Scouts? Those will be electric.
The first Scout-branded vehicles since 1980 will make their formal appearance on Oct. 24, the reborn company has announced.
The Original Scout
From 1961 to 1980, the International Harvester company sold rugged SUVs and pickups under the Scout nameplate. They were boxy, 4-wheel drive (4WD), and even the SUVs were built on truck frames (normal at the time, but the mark of an off-roader today).
Some came, Jeep-Wrangler-style, with removable roofs and doors.
The company shuttered its car operations around the time Reagan took the White House, though the name lasted longer on commercial trucks and buses. Its assets passed through several hands in sale after sale before landing with the Volkswagen Group in 2016.
The Future Scout
VW probably didn’t intend to resurrect Scout as a car company when it bought the rights to the name. They came in a package with some diesel truck technology the company wanted.
But, as Americans started watching Wonder Woman on screen again and Ford had a hit with a retro Bronco, someone at Volkswagen found the rights to the Scout name in the bottom of a filing cabinet and started thinking.
In 2022, the company announced plans to relaunch Scout as its own brand. They asked an American auto industry veteran to pilot the project and started engaging with the thriving community of Scout restorers and fans.
The company plans an electric pickup and an electric SUV. It has said they’ll be built on an all-new platform, not the one that underlies Volkswagen’s ID.4 and ID. Buzz electric vehicles (EVs). The company has promised to build the cars in South Carolina.
So, as long as prices stay reasonable, they’ll probably qualify for the federal government’s $7,500 EV tax credit.
What We Expect
To date, the company’s advertising has leaned heavily into off-road motifs. So, we expect a genuine attempt to take on the Bronco and its ilk.
In an email to fans, the company promises “an iconic design featuring multifunctional spaces for gathering and connection. Built for work and play, our new Scout SUV and truck will be rugged, capable, and versatile.”
Volkswagen recently made a $5 billion investment in EV builder Rivian, which also builds rugged, off-road-capable trucks and SUVs. That happened too recently for Scout to have developed designs using much Rivian technology. Scout’s designs were likely well underway before any VW/Rivian talks started. But a little technology sharing wouldn’t be out of the question.
Scout’s website now features an image of a bubble-shaped compass embedded in a car’s headliner. That would be a cool signature touch. We’ll know more next month.
