This seems strange, because VW has yet to offer any pick-up model in the USA, even its capable Amarok. Although it naturally already sells a number of different high-end SUV passenger car models through its Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini and Bentley franchised dealer network, some as EV’s only.
IH built its very last Scout model on 21st October 1980, just as the ‘civilian’ SUV market was beginning to take off, and also after presenting an attractive future Scout concept for the following 1981 Model Year at various late-Autumn American auto shows. By the mid-1980s, IH was concentrating solely on producing diesel engines, heavy trucks, buses and agricultural vehicles. The company had fallen on hard times, caused largely by damaging union relationships, but also not helped by the loss of the Scout.
In 1991, the previous IH business divisions were broken up and sold off, its main lorry-making arm being acquired by rival American truck maker Navistar in 1995. Following a factory move from Chicago to Warrenville, Illinois, Navistar took a tentative step into the large SUV market with its International MTX. The giant SUV pick-up truck flopped, not helped by being much too large and unsuitable for export roads and tastes (especially here in Europe). Given the huge size and importance of the ever-expanding SUV segment in the USA, there were rumours in the early 21st Century of a revival of the IH Scout model, but this never materialised.