This is actually a pretty interesting story, from a career perspective:<p>The CEO of VW North America is on vacation with his family, sees a restored classic Scout, and falls in love with it. He finds out that coincidentally VW now owns the rights to the Scout brand, so he steps down from his post to start a new Scout subsidiary.
I hope this ends up being smaller than the F150.<p>I get the popularity of that form factor, but I simply don't believe that many people are hauling yards of soil or towing boats.<p>2 Seats + 6 Foot bed seems like a winning combination in practicality, but is quite rare in the US.
I'm pretty psyched about the "Buzz", an electric reboot of the famous T1 bus [1]. Not sure how I would actually use this but it seems they're finally getting to grips with what made people love VW's in the past, and translating that to electric vehicles. I've also driven their electric ID.3 and it's just not nearly as exciting.<p>1: <a href="https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-buzz.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-buzz.html</a>
If they made an affordable, electric truck about the size of the original SR-5/Tacoma with a simple interior I could easily clean I'd buy one. This will end up being another over-sized, over-priced American mess that no one actually takes off-road.
I've owned an International Harvester 73 Scout II 4x4 345/torqueflite since 1999.<p>We've had Ford, the company that managed to kill off the lightline range in 1979 by colluding with their big three partners to crush IH, bringing out their flimsy '60's "Bronco' scout copy which they recently resurrected as a blatant Scout 800 body styling clone.<p>My point - why are the big auto makers so terrible at innovation and naming conventions? Why do we have to endure these irritating stories about execs 'resurrecting' past era vehicles and trying to get some of the mystique to rub off on their lame new models?<p>I also own a 1967 IH Travelall 4 x4. IH were absolutely awesome at building vehicles that were very beefy and mechanically built to last but horrifically rust prone. They helped kill themselves by ludicrously over optioning their lightline vehicles with what seemed like 100's of trim options, variants and levels that were very hard to organize on the assembly line. The golden era of US automobile manufacturing being culturally strip mined by VW.<p>1968 International Scout TV Commercial featuring a beagle puppy cute
<a href="https://youtu.be/nKj3sjmRm5U" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/nKj3sjmRm5U</a>
My family bought a diesel IH Scout in the 70s. Its probably the worst car I've ever ridden in. 0-60 in an afternoon with a tailwind, horrible suspension, noisy, etc. It was replaced by an early 80s Jeep Cherokee, which was a huge upgrade. So Scout isn't something I'm super nostalgic about..
In the mid-80s I had a Scout from the mid 60s. It was the most basic vehicle you could imagine. Everything was operated manually. The roof would come off, if you unfastened about 6 bolts. I think it had about 4 instruments, including the gas gauge, which did not work. (I'd check the gas level by opening up the gas cap and rocking the vehicle to listen to the sloshing sounds.) Still, you could fix most anything with very basic tools.<p>I wish VW good luck. They currently have a reputation for complicated, fragile vehicles so sort of the opposite of my old Scout. Maybe the change to an electric drivetrain will let them move closer to their spiritual ancestor.
Good. America's midsize truck options are not super great at the moment. Electrification of the midsize segment has even worse prospects. Toyota & GM are way way way behind the curve
>> Now, amid a historic shift to electric vehicles (EVs), VW sees an opportunity to reconnect with U.S. consumers by offering EVs in the segments they care most about: pickup trucks and large SUVs.<p>>> Scott Keogh, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, will become president and CEO of Scout on Sept. 1<p>>> He will be succeeded by Pablo Di Si, currently the executive chairman of Volkswagen's South American Region. Di Si will oversee the entire North American region, as did Keogh.
> Despite its global standing as the world's second-largest carmaker, Volkswagen is a chronic underachiever in the United States.<p>There is a large community of VW enthusiasts in the US, and yet that market is never treated as anything other than an afterthought by VW.<p>Despite being 2nd generation VW owner (my dad drove an original beetle, and my first and second vehicles were both Golfs), my next vehicle will be a Ford.
I would absolutely <i>love</i> a pickup truck that I can use in SF. All the modern ones are absolutely humongous. I had a Titan and that thing was <i>enormous</i>. Cost me absolute bags of money to offset the carbon.<p>Ultimately, I just want something with a bed that I can strap my bike down and take somewhere to ride. You can't really do that with the Forester I have now.
With the popularity of similar looking vehicles, like the new Ford Bronco or the Suzuki Jimny, I'd bet they wouldn't struggle selling a Scout inspired one.
That's pretty interesting, and TBH I would probably watch a tie-in post apoc movie featuring Tom Hanks driving around a heavily-kitbashed version of whatever the new Scout is.