[Plant Peon]

It all goes back to who owned the German factories in WWII. It is the same old powerful families calling the shots. Time to get their parallel war assembly lines fired up again. In Tennessee likely too. Probably going to build a reconnoissance vehicle there. Plant Peon do you think it will be an amphibious electric Swimmwagen this time?

🤔

 

[PANZERidIV]

Thank you for confirming it while denying it at the same time!

 

[LHNinME]

Thank you for confirming it while denying it at the same time!

Plant Peon is good at that.

 

[Plant Peon]

Plant Peon is good at that.

That was just me being cute.
I, unfortunately, know almost nothing about the Buzz or Scout plans.

And yea, sometimes you have to be good at reading between my lines. 😉
It’s gotta be that way.

 

[Plant Peon]

Screw the dealers. They all deserve to dry up and blow away.

Not a very Goofy-like attitude.

 

[RobertS]

Depending on how VW structures the Scout brand VW dealers might not even get the chance to sell Scouts.

Volkswagen dealers blindsided and worried by Scout announcement - Autoblog

You know how one side in a conflict will write a message on a bomb before dropping the incendiary on the opposite side? Well, we didn't know this at the tim

www.autoblog.com

The roughly 650 Volkswagen dealers in the U.S. are concerned the automaker plans to circumvent the traditional dealer model with the Scout. When announced, the carmaker said the Scout brand would be "a separate, independent company ... established in the U.S," and Keogh told AN "it won't be operated through the Volkswagen brand. In fact, it won't be operated through Volkswagen Group of America. It will be operated independently," with its own management team. The national dealer body and state dealer bodies have blown up Keogh's email inbox and likely his old fashioned mailbox with certified letters alternately asking and demanding to know what the distribution plan is. Beyond the sanctity of dealer franchise laws, their beef is that they endured the dieselgate beating, they've invested in the electrification overhaul needed to sell products like the ID.4 and gotten precious few ID.4s to sell, and they've been asking for products just like the Scout — a properly rugged pickup and SUV. So why wouldn't they be given the chance to sell Scouts?

Everything VW execs have said in the meantime leans in the way of dealer suspicions being correct, that VW's planning standalone Scout franchises or possibly direct sales, and current outlets might not get a look in. AN wrote that U.S. sales honcho Andrew Savvas informed dealers "they will have no claim on [Scout] products." The president of the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association told Keogh, "The widespread belief is that the underlying reason VW is planning to create a parallel dealer network is VW's intention to reduce the VW dealer count."

 

[kenchills]

Depending on how VW structures the Scout brand VW dealers might not even get the chance to sell Scouts.

Volkswagen dealers blindsided and worried by Scout announcement - Autoblog

You know how one side in a conflict will write a message on a bomb before dropping the incendiary on the opposite side? Well, we didn't know this at the tim

www.autoblog.com

The roughly 650 Volkswagen dealers in the U.S. are concerned the automaker plans to circumvent the traditional dealer model with the Scout. When announced, the carmaker said the Scout brand would be "a separate, independent company ... established in the U.S," and Keogh told AN "it won't be operated through the Volkswagen brand. In fact, it won't be operated through Volkswagen Group of America. It will be operated independently," with its own management team. The national dealer body and state dealer bodies have blown up Keogh's email inbox and likely his old fashioned mailbox with certified letters alternately asking and demanding to know what the distribution plan is. Beyond the sanctity of dealer franchise laws, their beef is that they endured the dieselgate beating, they've invested in the electrification overhaul needed to sell products like the ID.4 and gotten precious few ID.4s to sell, and they've been asking for products just like the Scout — a properly rugged pickup and SUV. So why wouldn't they be given the chance to sell Scouts?

Everything VW execs have said in the meantime leans in the way of dealer suspicions being correct, that VW's planning standalone Scout franchises or possibly direct sales, and current outlets might not get a look in. AN wrote that U.S. sales honcho Andrew Savvas informed dealers "they will have no claim on [Scout] products." The president of the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association told Keogh, "The widespread belief is that the underlying reason VW is planning to create a parallel dealer network is VW's intention to reduce the VW dealer count."

I think you are right on target with this one, and it is the whole idea behind the new Scout brand for VW.

 

[Manybees]

This is NADA fighting a long-term existential turf battle in the U.S. against any hint of a move by any automaker to ditch the franchised dealership model. If Volkswagen Group creates a new Scout legal entity in the U.S. as a wholly owned subsidiary of a European parent and that subsidiary has no legal ties to VWoA, there’s not a lot NADA or VW dealers can do to stop them. Scout was never a VW brand in the past anyway.

Maybe the best U.S. VW dealerships can hope to get from this is to become authorized Scout brand service centers — kind of like the Volvo/Polestar relationship with some Volvo dealerships also being authorized Polestar service centers but Polestar having separate showrooms and all online sales. In the past, dealerships have made most of their profits from service anyway rather than sales (used cars making more profit than new cars). But I’m sure NADA doesn‘t want to cede an inch, even though the Polestar/Volvo model feels like the inevitable wave of the future.

 

[fireboy92k]

I agree with @Nai3t and @Manybees that the first thing that came to mind was Polestar. VW doesn’t have big enough pants (yet) to go all Tesla on Scout.

A lot also depends on the demo they market too. From the pictures I’m guess not as cheap as a Ford Maverick, but not as expensive as a Rivan R1-T. That leaves a lot of room….

But if I had to guess this will not be you granddaddy’s Scout. It will be a more young (even at heart), active, singles, couple, or young family. Somewhere as a crossover to the Jeep crowd, that love to go to the beach, the mountains, the lake, or whatever. But don’t want a minivan/SUV/etc., but still a vehicle for hauling their stuff and peeps as needed. A little less hippy and nostalgic than the Buzz.

 

[d287]

My guess is that this is a means of increasing revenue while not raising prices on core VW models; they hopefully learned their lesson from the Phaeton/Touareg days that VW needs to be price attractive (at least in North America). However, they are probably looking enviously at the sale prices of Jeep Wranglers and Ford Broncos and want a piece of that pie. (Broncos may start at $30k, but good luck finding one at that price - they go up to $50k and then there's even more expensive ones coming. The Jeep Wrangler goes up to an incredible $75k!)

I think the pricing we're seeing on the ID.Buzz in European markets is indicative of this desire to raise revenue... The Buzz is a "halo" vehicle (like Chevy's Corvette) that they can get away with charging more for, while they couldn't charge that much for an ID.4, especially given that they need to preserve a price delta up to the Audi Q4 e-tron. A dedicated "Scout" that looks like something from the 60s as well could be similarly expensive. And there's something else here - they seem to have figured out who has the money - the folks who remember the 60s and 70s and are willing to pay for "retro" styling that reminds them of their youth!

 

[CyberWarrior]

Reads like a Volvo / Polestar situation from a few years ago, nearly word for word.