OldIHC

Article from hemmings about some Scout based vehicles IH was working on:

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2020/1 ... 2020-10-12

way ahead of its time, little like the photo type bronco
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/92/78/bb ... 546fa3.jpg

It is my conjecture that what killed the lightline was EPA and Cafe reg's. Unlike other mfg that had a broad product line in cars, IHC only had a a few pick-ups and Scout II. It is very hard to justify the cost to certify an engine to meet those std for such a small segment of their sales.
It is why AMC engines showed up in the late 60's and 70's in the IHC line-up. They could buy a complete engine with EPA cert cheaper than they could build themselves.
With diesels taking over even the medium truck market, gasoline engines days were numbered at IHC. Mis Management played a roll, but IHC had always been strongest in the medium and heavy market, and that is where they chose to stay. Remember the light line was the last segment added to IHC's vehicle line-up it made sense it would be the 1st to be axed when things got lean.
When was the last time you saw a Petebult car? It was the 30's when Mack had Mack Jr. and only recently that Freightliner has ventured into the medium market.
Like White, IHC tried to venture out into every market, it may have been a good strategy in the 50's but by the 70's it had nearly killed IHC and White.
I think the Scout II was destine to fail. Like the Loadstar it suffered badly from rust, and the engine options made it an expensive car to drive.

conjecture: an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information
IH died for more than a few reasons. the coup de grâce was the poorly prepared management picking a fight with the UAW. IH died from years of bad decisions. Some call this willful stupid.
The big 100 years of IHC book, from Crismon, details many of the fail points.

Since I am not privy to the internal workings of IHC at that time, I think the word was appropriate.

So do I. My mentioning this was not for you, this time.

Found this on that website, Did read something similar.

Michael 11 years ago

I'm sure everyone knows this already but to respond to the original post by Robert Walter and just to be clear about why the Scout disappeared after 1980; the management team at International were sick of dealing with the unions, so they filed chapter 13 and sold off all the various pieces. The buyers (2) of the lite line division never produced vehicles, just parts.
Those of us that love Scouts live in hope the International/Navistar will bring back the Scout. It was looking good with the MXT but that too has met the chopping block.