Scout Dealers

[Scoutmaster]

Driving up to Oxnard yesterday off on the Highway 101, I saw an Navistar/International truck dealer. It came to mind that these dealers which are on edges of most towns might be the most likely service centers. No fuss no mess, all ready to rock and roll. Here is the link to the dealer locations. Easy to get to and these were probably the same dealers that serviced the Scouts back in the ‘60s. Over 1,000 dealer, that a big start. Tesla, Rivian and Lucid put together pale in comparison. International has about 1/3 the number of Ford’s approximate 2,900 dealer network.

 

[atebit]

I don’t think International has anything to do with Scout Motors. In fact, if you look at the disclaimers in Scout’s emails and other advertising, they explicitly disavow any service/manufacturing affinity to previous generations of International Harvester vehicles.

My guess is that Scout’s basing their SC demographic claims around existing VW dealerships.

 

[Chuckles]

Navistar/International is also owned by VW, but using VW or Audi dealers for the Scout mobile service needs seems more likely.

 

[DaveM]

Navistar/International is also owned by VW, but using VW or Audi dealers for the Scout mobile service needs seems more likely.

Scout has announced that they'll be building all new standalone stores & service centers, so won't be using VW/Audi dealerships.

See: Scout Stores / Service Centers ("Scout Studios") plans revealed: 25 will open in 2027, expanding to 100 by 2032

 

[Chuckles]

Scout has announced that they'll be building all new standalone stores & service centers, so won't be using VW/Audi dealerships.

See: Scout Stores / Service Centers ("Scout Studios") plans revealed: 25 will open in 2027, expanding to 100 by 2032

I was referring to the mobile service trucks for areas that don't have nearby service centers. They could be based/affiliated with VW/Audi dealers. They will have to operate out of somewhere.

 

[colinnwn]

Since Scout is an independent company they'd likely need to come to some kind of financial arrangement to use space at Navistar dealers (which I think are still franchised and not VW company owned) for mobile service centers. They may also align with NADA on hostility towards Scout for not using independent dealers.

My mom tells stories about how unfriendly and obnoxious IH dealers were when she'd take our Scouts in for service. My dad didn't have anything positive to say about them either. They didn't like messing around with toy trucks and were probably annoyed dealing with a woman.

So it may be better for Scout to come up with another solution, like basing mobile service out of an independent repair shop that wants to get into EV services and they could direct work to that was outside the scope of mobile but could reasonably be done outside of a company workshop.