Scout's Direct-Sales Plans Are Making Volkswagen Dealers Sad

We’ve known for a while that Volkswagen had plans to revive the Scout name, and this week, we finally got to see the first two vehicles planned for the new electric automaker — an SUV and pickup truck. It still remains to be seen whether or not Scout will be a success once production begins in 2027, but aside from looking cool, they also come with the distinct advantage of being sold directly to the customer, no third-party dealer required. As you can imagine, the dealers are not happy about this. Not one bit.

Automotive News reports the National Automobile Dealers Association CEO Mike Stanton is convinced Scout’s decision to cut out the middlemen is a mistake that “will be challenged.” Meanwhile, Volkswagen National Dealer Advisory Council chairman Charlie Hall told AutoNews that Volkswagen didn’t clue them in ahead of the Scout announcement.

“Assuming they take this other path, let’s face it, there’s going to be challenges and problems for them virtually everywhere across the country,” Automotive Trade Association Executives’ 2024 chairman John Devlin told Auto News. “My counterparts around the country are not just going to roll over.”

Whether their legal challenges will succeed or not is still completely up in the air, but it’s worth pointing out that Scout has been set up as its own independent company, and that dealers knew as early as May 13, 2022 that they would have no automatic claim to the vehicles that Scout produced. So while it’s understandable that they’d be disappointed they won’t get the pickup truck they’ve wanted for years, it isn’t like Volkswagen changed its mind after promising they’d all be able to sell Scouts as soon as they went into production. Still, the dealers don’t plan to take this laying down.

“Why would the best, most effective value proposition to distribute vehicles to customers not be your first choice?” Devlin asked Auto News. “And why would you reject an existing distribution and sales system that already exists?”