Local Day 1 Reservation Holder Also Interested in Product Testing

[Scout948]

I’m a lifelong North Carolinian living just minutes from Scout’s new Charlotte headquarters and about an hour from the Blythewood production plant. As an early reservation holder for the SUV, locked in within the first hour of the October 24 reveal, I’m incredibly excited about what Scout is building.

Early adoption has been a big part of my automotive journey. Back when the 1st‑gen Chevy Volt launched, I waited over a year and ended up with one of the first 2,500 ever built and worked directly with GM engineers on public charging‑related challenges (for Charlotte's first public charging stations). I also reserved the new Ford Bronco early where I waited for over a year for that first year model, which I still enjoy today while also owning the Mach E GT. For me, the upcoming Scout combines the innovation of the Volt with the capability and spirit of the Bronco and maybe some of the EV performance of the Mach E GT — a truly ideal blend that I am excited to get behind.

Because of that, I’d love to serve as an early adopter or tester if Scout sees value in it. I’d gladly take early delivery (which I likely will anyway based on my early number) in exchange for providing regular feedback. I am close enough to both facilities to participate in regular check‑ins so can support the team however needed.

I’m sharing this here in hopes it reaches the right people at Scout, and I’d appreciate any guidance from the community on the best way to get this offer in front of the appropriate contacts.

 

[J Alynn]

I’m a lifelong North Carolinian living just minutes from Scout’s new Charlotte headquarters and about an hour from the Blythewood production plant. As an early reservation holder for the SUV, locked in within the first hour of the October 24 reveal, I’m incredibly excited about what Scout is building.

Early adoption has been a big part of my automotive journey. Back when the 1st‑gen Chevy Volt launched, I waited over a year and ended up with one of the first 2,500 ever built and worked directly with GM engineers on public charging‑related challenges (for Charlotte's first public charging stations). I also reserved the new Ford Bronco early where I waited for over a year for that first year model, which I still enjoy today while also owning the Mach E GT. For me, the upcoming Scout combines the innovation of the Volt with the capability and spirit of the Bronco and maybe some of the EV performance of the Mach E GT — a truly ideal blend that I am excited to get behind.

Because of that, I’d love to serve as an early adopter or tester if Scout sees value in it. I’d gladly take early delivery (which I likely will anyway based on my early number) in exchange for providing regular feedback. I am close enough to both facilities to participate in regular check‑ins so can support the team however needed.

I’m sharing this here in hopes it reaches the right people at Scout, and I’d appreciate any guidance from the community on the best way to get this offer in front of the appropriate contacts.

As a nearly day one member of this forum with hours of time spent on it, primarily because my first vehicle was a Scout and have longed for another for 35 years since mid 1990 when our scout II was put out to pasture. As for community input and suggestions (and I’m being polite, in case it doesn’t sound like it), is to be WAY more engaged with worthwhile commentary-I’m not in any way saying your posts aren’t-wasn’t implying that but there are easily 50+ members on this forum who engage multiple times both daily and weekly. I’d also like to think Scout realizes we would ALL like to be testers and ambassadors and active in future event opportunities. It’s great that you started this thread and asked but many of us have been on here for multiple years, are also day one reservation holders and have engaged in hours of commentary helping to grow the forum. So I would recommend offering more feedback so that Scout recognizes what you may bring to the table. So yeah-engage more and share your thoughts on things. That’s how Scout knows who is committed and willing to offer feedback and commentary. Good luck!

 

[Scout948]

As a nearly day one member of this forum with hours of time spent on it, primarily because my first vehicle was a Scout and have longed for another for 35 years since mid 1990 when our scout II was put out to pasture. As for community input and suggestions (and I’m being polite, in case it doesn’t sound like it), is to be WAY more engaged with worthwhile commentary-I’m not in any way saying your posts aren’t-wasn’t implying that but there are easily 50+ members on this forum who engage multiple times both daily and weekly. I’d also like to think Scout realizes we would ALL like to be testers and ambassadors and active in future event opportunities. It’s great that you started this thread and asked but many of us have been on here for multiple years, are also day one reservation holders and have engaged in hours of commentary helping to grow the forum. So I would recommend offering more feedback so that Scout recognizes what you may bring to the table. So yeah-engage more and share your thoughts on things. That’s how Scout knows who is committed and willing to offer feedback and commentary. Good luck!

Appreciate the perspective. You’re right — I haven’t been super active here since the early reveal. A big part of that is simply because I’ve been deeply involved in the Bronco and Mach‑E communities (and before that, the Volt crowd), so a lot of my energy has been tied up in following and testing other platforms as they evolved. From my perspective, that experience is actually part of what I hope to bring to Scout. I’ve seen how different manufacturers handle early feedback. I’d like to think Scout might see value in someone who’s lived through that firsthand.

Now that the plant is nearly finished and the vehicle is getting closer to reality, it feels like the right time to shift my attention here. Earlier on, there was so much speculation, especially around things like the range‑extender concept, that it was hard to separate signal from noise. I spent a lot of time in other forums and on YouTube trying to make sense of it, even arguing that a Volt‑style configuration would’ve been a huge win if it were feasible.

So you’re absolutely right: I haven’t been as active as some long‑time members, but that’s mostly because we were still in the “wait and see” phase. Now that things are taking shape, I’m excited to contribute more consistently. And yes, living close to HQ and the plant definitely makes me eager to get involved however I can. I was always jealous of the Detroit folks getting early access (if even spotting them) at my previous vehicles, so maybe this time it’s my turn to try.

All good on my end — and thanks for the nudge. Looking forward to contributing more as things ramp up. Good luck to you as well.

 

[Scout948]

By the way, I ended up switching my reservation on the Scout site from the range‑extender to the full EV. I’ve gone back and forth on this for the past year, but our Mach‑E GT, and even our earlier Volt experience, pushed me toward the EV. The Mach‑E has needed basically no maintenance in 60K miles, which has been a huge plus. The Volt, on the other hand, still required the usual gas‑car maintenance.

The Mach‑E’s performance has been great, but the 270‑mile range is the one drawback. If the Scout EV comes in around 350 miles, that’s pretty much perfect for us as it covers our regular family round‑trips without needing public charging, and we’d only need to charge publicly on the occasional long getaway. So at this point, we’d rather have the performance, simplicity, and low maintenance of a full EV instead of the handful of times we might use a 500‑mile range. Just putting that out there since I already filled out the survey — I should probably go back and update that too. I know EVs are only 15% of the reservations, so here will be one more as long as final specs dont drastically change for either platform...

 

[J Alynn]

Appreciate the perspective. You’re right — I haven’t been super active here since the early reveal. A big part of that is simply because I’ve been deeply involved in the Bronco and Mach‑E communities (and before that, the Volt crowd), so a lot of my energy has been tied up in following and testing other platforms as they evolved. From my perspective, that experience is actually part of what I hope to bring to Scout. I’ve seen how different manufacturers handle early feedback. I’d like to think Scout might see value in someone who’s lived through that firsthand.

Now that the plant is nearly finished and the vehicle is getting closer to reality, it feels like the right time to shift my attention here. Earlier on, there was so much speculation, especially around things like the range‑extender concept, that it was hard to separate signal from noise. I spent a lot of time in other forums and on YouTube trying to make sense of it, even arguing that a Volt‑style configuration would’ve been a huge win if it were feasible.

So you’re absolutely right: I haven’t been as active as some long‑time members, but that’s mostly because we were still in the “wait and see” phase. Now that things are taking shape, I’m excited to contribute more consistently. And yes, living close to HQ and the plant definitely makes me eager to get involved however I can. I was always jealous of the Detroit folks getting early access (if even spotting them) at my previous vehicles, so maybe this time it’s my turn to try.

All good on my end — and thanks for the nudge. Looking forward to contributing more as things ramp up. Good luck to you as well.

Would encourage. As you may have seen on here-SM staff looks at our conversations nearly daily so the past three years was a time of providing a lot of that knowledge which could have helped inform them and lead them to other processes and results that would be valuable in shaping the new scouts. I genuinely wish you would have focused more of your time here so they had more opportunity to see your perspective. We have a number of EV owners with years of experience and some of them are very educated and have offered a lot of info not just to other members like myself but also as secondary insight for the SM team. As an early member I can say there are a lot of items in the Scout prototypes that I’d like to believe were included or further improved be ause of the early feedback. I spent a lot of time on the Bronco6G site as I was an early res holder but ended up waiting 3 years then after just shy of two years owning we got rid of it so to continued issues. I’ve used a lot of what I learned personally as well as the poor delivery experiences and release of the Bronco and shared a lot of that. While in sure the SM team has staff that also saw it first hand it still helps them to hear from the buyers. There are a ton of threads here with even more “tons” of info so it’s worth it to find threads you are into and understand and further the conversations. sM and the members like learning. Hence the reason so many members have committed to BEV over EREV. Again-good luck

 

[Scout948]

Would encourage. As you may have seen on here-SM staff looks at our conversations nearly daily so the past three years was a time of providing a lot of that knowledge which could have helped inform them and lead them to other processes and results that would be valuable in shaping the new scouts. I genuinely wish you would have focused more of your time here so they had more opportunity to see your perspective. We have a number of EV owners with years of experience and some of them are very educated and have offered a lot of info not just to other members like myself but also as secondary insight for the SM team. As an early member I can say there are a lot of items in the Scout prototypes that I’d like to believe were included or further improved be ause of the early feedback. I spent a lot of time on the Bronco6G site as I was an early res holder but ended up waiting 3 years then after just shy of two years owning we got rid of it so to continued issues. I’ve used a lot of what I learned personally as well as the poor delivery experiences and release of the Bronco and shared a lot of that. While in sure the SM team has staff that also saw it first hand it still helps them to hear from the buyers. There are a ton of threads here with even more “tons” of info so it’s worth it to find threads you are into and understand and further the conversations. sM and the members like learning. Hence the reason so many members have committed to BEV over EREV. Again-good luck

Sorry to hear your Bronco delivery experience went sour. Mine ended up being the opposite, but I also went with a smaller local dealership that wasn’t juggling hundreds of reservations. I briefly tried one of those online volume dealers (that one in Iowa...), but bailed after a couple of days after doing some research and even chatting with Ford about how they could handle that volume. My changing to another dealership did cost me a few more days on the reservation date, which likely cost me a few months on receiving my ‘21. Anyway, I know a lot of people had rough experiences with those high‑volume dealers that overpromised and couldn’t deliver. Sounds like Ford eventually cracked down, but unfortunately the reservation holders were still stuck in the middle. Did you end up going through one of those?

Overall, my Bronco experience has been really positive, and it’s been solid even with all the mods — 37s, coilovers, bumpers, winch, the whole deal. I’m not a Ford fanboy either; the Bronco and Mach‑E were my first Fords. I went with the Mach‑E because I liked Ford's fresh design over Tesla, and honestly the Tesla styling (inside and out) just wasn’t for me, along with the whole Elon factor. At the time (2022–2023), GM felt behind on EV tech, though they’ve definitely caught up since.

And yeah — I’ve got plenty of EV experience to share and I’m happy to contribute more, just like I did in those first few months. You may have seen my post above about switching to the full EV platform; that might’ve crossed paths with your last message. Also, I use a different username on the other forums. I updated this one to “Scoutxxx” today to keep things consistent with the Scout community.

 

[J Alynn]

Sorry to hear your Bronco delivery experience went sour. Mine ended up being the opposite, but I also went with a smaller local dealership that wasn’t juggling hundreds of reservations. I briefly tried one of those online volume dealers (that one in Iowa...), but bailed after a couple of days after doing some research and even chatting with Ford about how they could handle that volume. My changing to another dealership did cost me a few more days on the reservation date, which likely cost me a few months on receiving my ‘21. Anyway, I know a lot of people had rough experiences with those high‑volume dealers that overpromised and couldn’t deliver. Sounds like Ford eventually cracked down, but unfortunately the reservation holders were still stuck in the middle. Did you end up going through one of those?

Overall, my Bronco experience has been really positive, and it’s been solid even with all the mods — 37s, coilovers, bumpers, winch, the whole deal. I’m not a Ford fanboy either; the Bronco and Mach‑E were my first Fords. I went with the Mach‑E because I liked Ford's fresh design over Tesla, and honestly the Tesla styling (inside and out) just wasn’t for me, along with the whole Elon factor. At the time (2022–2023), GM felt behind on EV tech, though they’ve definitely caught up since.

And yeah — I’ve got plenty of EV experience to share and I’m happy to contribute more, just like I did in those first few months. You may have seen my post above about switching to the full EV platform; that might’ve crossed paths with your last message. Also, I use a different username on the other forums. I updated this one to “Scoutxxx” today to keep things consistent with the Scout community.

To be fair, my delivery experience was pretty good but the GM was my old neighbor and our girls went to school together. It was a smaller local dealer. I gave up my first res so he could get the allocation and he promised when I was ready he’d take care of me and he did. Just had one problem after the next as a ‘23 model. Finally decided to cut bait. Still miss it but I don’t know if I could ever consider another after that.

 

[Jamie@ScoutMotors]

Welcome to the Scout Community!

Truthfully the list of people offering to test vehicles has been so large we couldn’t even track them all.

Being close to the factory could be a benefit to you in the future as we plan to have a customer experience center with an off-road course. In fact, I heard this week that work has started on “Scout Mountain” as part of the off-road course. 5 stories tall…

Since this is the official Scout Community forum, this is the best place to get accurate info directly from the source (when I have answers I can share!). Lots of discussions here over the last three years and lots of great suggestions. Welcome!

 

[cyure]

Welcome to the Scout Community!

Truthfully the list of people offering to test vehicles has been so large we couldn’t even track them all.

Being close to the factory could be a benefit to you in the future as we plan to have a customer experience center with an off-road course. In fact, I heard this week that work has started on “Scout Mountain” as part of the off-road course. 5 stories tall…

Since this is the official Scout Community forum, this is the best place to get accurate info directly from the source (when I have answers I can share!). Lots of discussions here over the last three years and lots of great suggestions. Welcome!

A 5-story Scout Mountain!! Oh I have to do factory pick up now! No ifs ands or buts about it! Jamie when can we see a picture?? I would love to see that!

 

[Scout948]

Welcome to the Scout Community!

Truthfully the list of people offering to test vehicles has been so large we couldn’t even track them all.

Being close to the factory could be a benefit to you in the future as we plan to have a customer experience center with an off-road course. In fact, I heard this week that work has started on “Scout Mountain” as part of the off-road course. 5 stories tall…

Since this is the official Scout Community forum, this is the best place to get accurate info directly from the source (when I have answers I can share!). Lots of discussions here over the last three years and lots of great suggestions. Welcome!

Great info, and thanks for the quick reply. Your right, I understand better now how a ton of folks are wanting to be early testers. I mean after all its rare for an iconic vehicle to come back with both a nostalgic look with cutting‑edge tech. That’s a big part of what makes this whole thing so exciting. I was fired up when the Bronco returned too, but Scout is on another level with the new powertrain approach, especially since it’s a tech path I already know works. Yeah, its going to be some effort to win over those old fashioned naysayers, but I am ready for the challenge and have been doing so now for 15 years (2011 Volt days). Anyway, hopefully having some proximity to all this action will help some in the end.

As for the factory — I’m all in for that off‑road course. I drive by the site often and have been watching each phase of the plant itself with a lot of anticipation, so I can’t wait to see the finished facility in person. And hearing about “Scout Mountain” is awesome. That’s exactly the kind of thing that can rival what BMW built in Spartanburg. I’ve done BMW's off‑road course, as well as some time at their road/race track with a couple of their driving schools (plus one delivery). It was/is a great setup, but I think Scout has a real chance to top their off‑road experience with a "5 story" course. The race track might be tougher competition, but hey, competition is a good thing.

If you ever need early testers for the course or the experience center, I’m definitely interested. Either way, I’ll be there for any grand opening events. Worst case, I’ll bring the Bronco if my Scout isn’t in the driveway yet.