Here's hoping for a tiny, extremely bare bones, affordable, electric truck I can use to haul bikes around!
Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
71–80 of 143 posts
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would wager it is only the retail market where the non-crew-cab is nearly extinct. A two seat pickup is a niche vehicle, about as useful for carrying a family around as a two seat sports car.
Pickup trucks aren't for carrying a family around. The whole point is to have a large open cargo space for building materials, equipment, etc... If you want to haul a family use a sedan or minivan. Those back seats in crew cabs are always cramped and uncomfortable anyway. They are a terrible tradeoff, and yet the entire automotive industry has gone all in on them.
What if you need to haul things while simultaneously carrying a family around? I don't find them to be a terrible tradeoff at all, and I expect that the reason the entire automotive industry has gone all in on them is because I'm not an outlier in that regard.
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#73Here's hoping for a tiny, extremely bare bones, affordable, electric truck I can use to haul bikes around!
You'll be able to import one from China. American / European OEMs will not do this. Ever. You don't make money on "no-options" vehicles.
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A two seat pickup is a niche vehicle, about as useful for carrying a family around as a two seat sports car. Not to country folk—kids ride in the bed. Or crammed in the middle if there aren't too many of them and they're still fairly small and you're lucky enough to still have a bench seat.
Hasn't been my experience. Rural or not, everyone I know has a crew cab now. Supercabs are not uncommon, but the minority for sure, and single cabs are so rare that they catch your eye. Mostly because the fundamental design of modern trucks was clearly not intended for a single cab, so it looks chopped.
Damn, that changed fast.
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#75Here's hoping for a tiny, extremely bare bones, affordable, electric truck I can use to haul bikes around!
For real - an electric rabbit would be so so so cool
Edit: it actually just looks like a Rivian.. oh well
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#76I've owned an International Harvester 73 Scout II 4x4 345/torqueflite since 1999. 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. My point - why are the big auto makers so terrible at innovation and namin…
The first vehicle I ever drove was a Travelall back in the late 70s when I was 8 or 9. My great uncle had one on the family farm and it was a beast. Driving that thing up a hill by myself (with my uncle in the passenger seat) on gravel farm road was both scary and exciting.
I understand that the big automakers make a lot of money on the fancy trim packages but I would love a stripped down truck and even more a stripped down light truck. I still miss my '87 Nissan Frontier I had in grad school.
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never). Even once is not never, because nothing else will do that job. Note too that there people who use their bed but never tow, the fact that a truck could serve either purpose but for some only does one doesn't mean that those people don't use a truck.
Or you could just drive a much smaller cheaper and easier to park car most of the year and rent a truck once a year when you need it
As mentioned in another subthread, rental contracts for pickup trucks often prohibit towing, and the trucks aren't even fitted with a tow hitch. If you want to tow with a rented truck, you'll need to rent from a "commercial" rental company and you'll be paying a lot more.
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Ranger have tail gates that will partially lower to the same level as the tops of the wheel wells, providing a perfect platform for 4x8 sheets of plywood. I have a friend with a Ranger and we have hauled plywood and other larger objects with no issues. Would I want to do it routinely? Probably not - but for casual hauling they work well enough. I would expect the Scout to be desig…
The other problem with the short beds is that they are "compensated" for by raising the belt line to make the bed deeper. This compromises rear visibility. Then the long beds suffer because they also get a deep bed to integrate with the cab. On old Rangers you used to be able to walk up and just reach into the bed to get stuff. That isn't possible on any current midsize and up pickups.
[deleted]
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick are two recent models moving in the right direction for those of us who would like to see true mini-pickups return to the US.
They are still huge compared to the original SR-5/Tacoma.
You know that is never coming back right? Safety standards do not allow vehicles of that size and profile.
There are multiple references to the 1st gen Tacomas in this thread and I'm having a hard time understanding why it keeps being brought up. It's a 20-25 year old vehicle
Re: Volkswagen bringing back Scout brand truck as electric vehicle made in America
#80I've owned an International Harvester 73 Scout II 4x4 345/torqueflite since 1999. 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. My point - why are the big auto makers so terrible at innovation and namin…
Whoah you mentioned some interesting background into the history of IH. Seeing VW pair with IH was also very surprising to see in the article - especially in regards to EVs (as IH has predominately been a diesel manufacturer in my lifetime). Why did Ford want to “crush” IH if they put their Diesel engines into Ford trucks for like 3 decades? There was a HN post recently about the stagnation of music and movie/video/f…
The IH lightline range were pretty well all gasoline powered consumer level vehicles with an agricultural/offroad pedigree. The 345 v8 in a scout is the same engine as IH put in the big yellow school buses, tons of low end torque, if it wasn't for gravity they could climb just about anything. Very easy to work on with a few foibles. The IH full size truck division became Navistar and are a very different breed.
Those early beetles are basically a scirroco floorpan, watch out for the plastic waterpump blade...we had one where that failed with little noise or evidence until steam. Great cars though!