Scout
“A tractor company's answer to the Jeep that accidentally invented the American SUV. Rusts like it's paid to, and owners forgive it every single time.”
International Harvester had been building trucks since 1907, but in the late 1950s it set out to build a rival for the Jeep CJ. Chief designer Ted Ornas later recalled his brief from the engineering manager: 'design something to replace the horse.' The result, the Scout 80, went on sale in late 1960 as a 1961 model and was built in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The original Scout 80 and 800 grew from a fold-down-windshield utility into something you could take on holiday, adding six-cylinder and V8 engines along the way. In 1971 the Scout II took over, and in its decade it added the long-wheelbase Traveler and Terra, Dana 44 axles at both ends, a Nissan diesel and the stripped-out SSII that went desert racing. Production ended on October 21, 1980, after 532,674 Scouts.
For off-roaders the Scout II is the one to have: a ladder frame, leaf springs, solid axles and an IH V8, with a parts and club scene that never went away. Volkswagen Group now owns the name, and its Scout Motors revealed a new Traveler SUV and Terra pickup in October 2024.