Seems many people have spoken highly of the Ioniq 5. Maybe that’s too transformer for you. I really like them. Would have taken that over the Lexus but my wife is drawn to Lexus styling
Shopping for a “new” BEV while waiting for the Scout Traveler BEV.
- Thread starter SpaceEVDriver
- Start date
-
From all of us at Scout Motors, welcome to the Scout Community! We created this community to provide Scout vehicle owners, enthusiasts, and curiosity seekers with a place to engage in discussion, suggestions, stories, and connections. Supportive communities are sometimes hard to find, but we're determined to turn this into one.
Additionally, Scout Motors wants to hear your feedback and speak directly to the rabid community of owners as unique as America. We'll use the Scout Community to deliver news and information on events and launch updates directly to the group. Although the start of production is anticipated in 2026, many new developments and milestones will occur in the interim. We plan to share them with you on this site and look for your feedback and suggestions.
How will the Scout Community be run? Think of it this way: this place is your favorite local hangout. We want you to enjoy the atmosphere, talk to people who share similar interests, request and receive advice, and generally have an enjoyable time. The Scout Community should be a highlight of your day. We want you to tell stories, share photos, spread your knowledge, and tell us how Scout can deliver great products and experiences. Along the way, Scout Motors will share our journey to production with you.
Scout is all about respect. We respect our heritage. We respect the land and outdoors. We respect each other. Every person should feel safe, included, and welcomed in the Scout Community. Being kind and courteous to the other forum members is non-negotiable. Friendly debates are welcomed and often produce great outcomes, but we don't want things to get too rowdy. Please take a moment to consider what you post, especially if you think it may insult others. We'll do our best to encourage friendly discourse and to keep the discussions flowing.
So, welcome to the Scout Community! We encourage you to check back regularly as we plan to engage our members, share teasers, and participate in discussions. The world needs Scouts™. Let's get going.
We are Scout Motors.
Sounds like it’s time to visit some dealerships Scoutsie.
No reason they're ruled out except we're looking for a higher-sitting SUV, and the Ioniq 9 doesn't gain us much more than the Mustang already has.
That makes sense. I’m surprised my wife likes the RZ so much because she always likes the comfort of height-that SUV’s offer and the RZ sits maybe 4-5 inches higher than a typical sedan but not anywhere close to a SUV. Sometimes I think certain cars just call to a person
Last edited:
FWIW, The Ioniq 9 has 6.9 in of ground clearance. More than the Ioniq 5 iirc, but still not really “high clearance”. The EV9 is more, around 8inches iirc. But the interior of the EV9 is a major step down imo. Less comfortable, less intelligent space utilization, and smaller enough to notice.
The Kia/Hyundai EGMP vehicles do have issues with their ICCU. Depending on what you read, it’s somewhere between 1%, and some other single digit percentage of vehicles that have been/could be affected. Hyundai just announced additional warranty for their affected models (beyond their existing 100k mile warranty).
It didn’t prevent me from buying one, but it is a thing. My buddy who bought an Ioniq 9 at the same time as me, already had his ICCU fail before 8k miles. But the dealer said it was the first Ioniq 9 they have seen. YMMV.
Also, what about a Cadillac lyriq? Should be able to find them used, decent battery size and charging, and 7in of ground clearance.
I’m with you on the Rivian situation, despite being squarely in the demographic that should love the tech. I’m fine with tech, but tech for the sake of tech… not my jam. A touchscreen to control the air vents?? That’s not really a useful application of software imo. Also, CarPlay’s voice to text feature is among my most used CarPlay features. And I don’t use any of the other music streaming platform’s they support.
Have you looked at the XRT trim on the Ioniq 5?
Everyone I have talked to that has an Ioniq 5 loves it, and the XRT is supposed to be the more off road version with a higher ground clearance and it comes with A/T tires.
We looked. I like the Ioniq 5 a lot. But, sadly, it’s still fairly low. It only beats our Mustang by about an inch more clearance.
Some how ‘Ionic’ and ‘offroad’ just don’t seem to go together.
As someone that hits the trails and does some mild rock crawling, etc, I find Rivian to be one of the worst 4-wheel vehicles for the environment from a different perspective. Erosion and runoff is a constant battle in the offroad world, and has caused many offroad parks and private-access areas to be shut down. Spinning tires is about the worst thing you can do to a trail, but Rivian relies on that (and momentum) to get over obstacles (at least the quad-motors I've seen). They've managed it about as effectively as possible to their credit, but I cringe every time I see one spinning dust and debris down a trail trying to climb something. I'm really curious to see how Scout does with the lockers as that should really help prevent one wheel from spinning, but ultimately, EVs don't have the proper gearing/torque setup for climbing.
Leave No Trace
While I agree that tire spin is a problem, I disagree with your conclusion that Rivian’s tire spin is anywhere near as problematic as leaking engines, transmissions, radiators, and other issues I regularly saw on the trail back in my off-roading days. And I’ve rarely seen an off-roader take wheel spin seriously enough when it comes to the decision of whether to back away from an obstacle or spin their tires. There was already plenty of “spin and bounce until you make it” attitude out there well before Rivian joined the chat room.
Good point as I'm usually running with a more mature crowd that doesn't subscribe to the full send philosophy.
It’s one of the reasons we stopped running with anyone and we just do it on our own these days. Our leave-no-trace ethics didn’t sit well with them and they weren’t learning from our efforts..
Of course, we were also one of the few in those days who never needed to make trail repairs...
Just got an email from Rivian on their assistant and it looks like sending voice texts is supported, so I have to assume it'll read them as well. If my 10-year old car can, Rivian sure as heck better read them.
So, Rivian's software stack can handle this, but I don't know which of Rivian's software capabilities (especially the premium ones behind the Connect+ paywall) will translate to Scout. At the very least, I don't expect I'll be able to say "Hey Scout" as that's probably too generic and sounds like too many other phrases.
@SpaceEVDriver Curious to know. Do you think Rivian Assistant can be a solution to screen only difficulties? If RA can complete almost any vehicle functions by commands you give it and surely if a phone is connected to the system it will allow you to operate the apps on it via voice commands. Would this make you re-consider Rivian in general?
Probably not. In fact, this ai slop might make us consider dropping Rivian from the list for cross-shopping if it can’t be disabled. We certainly would not consider paying for ai slop.
This sounds more like a nightmare than a solution to the lack of physical controls.
How would one tell the “assistant” to point the vents to the exact right spot?
I can make it happen with a physical control in less time than it takes to think through what words to use to convince badly-written software to even attempt it, much less get it right. And then to try to correct it. And again. And again. Never mind, just turn down the fan. No, turn it off, not to very cold. No, I didn’t mean turn off the vehicle. Screw it, I’m walking. No. No, thanks.
It’s bizarre to me that vehicle software developers will come up with all this nonsense and create long, complex, failure-prone workarounds to physical controls. I don’t need or want to try to explain to a thing that doesn't have any true intelligence where to point the vents. Just put a grip on the vents like we’ve had for 100 years.
This is exactly what’s wrong with the war on buttons. A physical control of a vent doesn’t require any extra wiring, no extra anything. Removing that and replacing it with screen controls makes the experience worse. Far worse. So, instead of having a pleasant drive and being able to adjust the direction of the airflow, we have to go through sixteen screen taps (and now fifty arguments with the machine) to approximate the behavior of grabbing a vent control and adjusting it.
I operate spacecraft for a living, I’m not opposed to technology. But the push for “software defined” vehicles is ruining driving. I’m almost ready to just convert a Scout 80 or a Toyota FJ40 to BEV instead of deal with this nonsense.
How would one tell the “assistant” to point the vents to the exact right spot?
I can make it happen with a physical control in less time than it takes to think through what words to use to convince badly-written software to even attempt it, much less get it right. And then to try to correct it. And again. And again. Never mind, just turn down the fan. No, turn it off, not to very cold. No, I didn’t mean turn off the vehicle. Screw it, I’m walking. No. No, thanks.
It’s bizarre to me that vehicle software developers will come up with all this nonsense and create long, complex, failure-prone workarounds to physical controls. I don’t need or want to try to explain to a thing that doesn't have any true intelligence where to point the vents. Just put a grip on the vents like we’ve had for 100 years.
This is exactly what’s wrong with the war on buttons. A physical control of a vent doesn’t require any extra wiring, no extra anything. Removing that and replacing it with screen controls makes the experience worse. Far worse. So, instead of having a pleasant drive and being able to adjust the direction of the airflow, we have to go through sixteen screen taps (and now fifty arguments with the machine) to approximate the behavior of grabbing a vent control and adjusting it.
I operate spacecraft for a living, I’m not opposed to technology. But the push for “software defined” vehicles is ruining driving. I’m almost ready to just convert a Scout 80 or a Toyota FJ40 to BEV instead of deal with this nonsense.
I will echo @SpaceEVDriver. Rivian is playing catch-up to Tesla's demise and it will not end well for them. In my MXP Tesla removed every physical button that they could legally remove. It is costing them a 16-year customer. They even removed the button for the glove box. So when my kid sneezes and needs a tissue, with snot dripping from their hand towards my interior, my choices are:
1) Take my eyes off the road and press the screen twice to open the glove box
2) Press the voice activation button on the steering wheel, wait for the beep, say, "Open glovebox" in a loud and clear voice. Wait again for the system to parse my voice, convert it into text, and then execute the command.
Both of those options are absolutely stupid. The first one is dangerous and the second one bothers everyone in the car in order to perform a function that should be a simple press of a button. They used to have such a useful button. My wife's 2018 Model S has a dedicated button for the glovebox along with, gasp, a turn signal stalk, drive selector stalk, steering wheel adjustment stalk, etc. She will not upgrade until Tesla changes their philosophy. Since they have killed the S/X, they have most likely lost a 14-year customer as well.
All that to say, adding voice commands as a cover for bad design is a band-aid for a bullet hole. I hope Scout is extremely choosy with what they use from Rivian as it sounds like Rivian is following the rest of the lemmings when it comes to the human-machine interface. I strongly suggest Scout take their cues from the latest GM EVs and not Tesla or Rivian (unless it's part of the "What not to do" area of the design brief).
I cannot say it loud enough: I do not want to talk to my car.
Also.
Voice commands mean... you need to be able to speak. I know this sounds obvious, but, speaking... isn't always easy, or desired.
IE, If a conversation is going on, you have to interrupt it, just to change the temperature setting. If you're road tripping with your little kids in the backseat and you're trying to get them to sleep... you may wake them up (and everyone knows this is a big deal).
I don't want to interrupt my mother in law telling a story to the family to say "switch to defrost", or wake up a sleeping spouse/child on a road trip to switch from "normal" mode to "eco" mode.
And I agree. The vent stuff is the most egregious of the problems. The increased cost, complexity, and potential for failure (and expensive repair) is sooooo not worth it for any perceived benefit from the change. Its only downsides as far as the eye can see for this particular feature IMO.
And like you, I'm not opposed to tech. Its just the application needs to improve my experience, and not just be a showcase for tech itself. Honestly the "control the air vent direction with touch controls and electronics" thing sounds a lot like a concept car thing that somehow made it into production.
100%. I want to adjust my vents or air temperature or turn on the turn signals or just drive my darned vehicle without stopping my audiobook or waking my sleeping passengers or interrupting my family.
Similar threads
