Are you OK with Scout vehicles starting under $60K?

[J Alynn]

All entirely fair. I definitely don't begrudge anyone who buys a car more emotionally than I do (or for really any reason; it's their money). There will always be emotion in a purchase of that size, even for people like me and your wife, I just try my best to minimize it.

Part of the issue with comparisons among EVs is just the size of the market. R2, iX3, and Traveler are certainly not equal in all aspects, but there are very limited midsize SUVs in the EV market. The new Jeep Recon is the closest thing to the Traveler, but I'd never buy anything Stellantis except maybe a used Wrangler (plus the range on it is a nonstarter for me). Hopefully over the next decade we'll see a lot more options to where there aren't these niches that only have one car in them.

And as you noted, but I do want to emphasize.. I certainly understand Scout charging more than the R2 is supposed to cost. Every company has to find the balance between features and cost. They might have just found a balance that's a little too rich for my blood. We'll see, though. I love the car and pretty much everything about it. I wish I was uber rich and didn't have to make these choices lol.

Can’t argue with that-my wife really likes the Rivians and I have her looking at the R2. Won’t be a rush but she likes the look. Shes also intrigued with the Audi version of the Scout. She’s always wanted an Audi but we’ve never had a good experience at our local dealerships so she’s never pulled the trigger. She works hard and is our bread winner so kinda hoping she likes them and treats herself

 

[cyure]

Can’t argue with my wife really likes the Rivians and I have her looking at the R2. Won’t be a rush but she likes the look. Shes also intrigued with the Audi version of the Scout. She’s always wanted an Audi but we’ve never had a good experience at our local dealerships so she’s never pulled the trigger. She works hard and is our bread winner so kinda hoping she likes them and treats herself

As she should. How close is a Rivian Spaces? They let you take them for 45 minute test drives.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I evaluate total cost of ownership (TCO) rather than purchase price.

If the value proposition of the Scout Traveler BEV is such that it will provide better value in 5-15 years than any other similar vehicle, then it will make it to the top of the short list. If it’s going to be expensive just to be expensive, then I will likely place it lower in the short list or it may drop off.

A lot of people on here see value in things like appearance and styling. I don’t put a lot of weight into those things. I understand that people have those preferences and don’t begrudge them. But if the interior won’t survive me, it doesn’t matter how good it looks on the showroom floor. I don’t care if it’s ugly; I care if it’s functional. If it’s some expensive material that can’t handle me sitting down with a mutlitool in my back pocket, or my pants seat covered in mud, then it isn’t for me.

Since I’ll be comparing an already-owned BEV with the Scout, Scout will have a lot of work to do to convince me that it’s worth the upfront cost. If, for example, its efficiency is much lower than the BEV we already own, or it requires the purchase of a new L2 charger (because they make the mistake of not ensuring backward compatibility with existing chargers), or some other thing comes up that means I’ll be spending even more for the Scout, then we may chose not to purchase.

So, the question for me isn’t the out-the-door price. It’s the total cost to own the vehicle for 5-15 years.

 

[oldgeeksguide]

As one of only two current "yes" votes, I would like to offer some countervailing thoughts. And this ended up much longer than I planned..

I understand everyone here is inherently enthusiastic about the car, and I am too, but when it comes time to spend $60k on a car, I will be putting my emotions out of the picture. I will be evaluating this car on its merits at the time of my purchase. And there are a couple hard realities.

One, $60k is a lot of money. I can afford it, sure, but that doesn't change the fact it's a lot of money that could be better spent. I've never spent that much on a car and really don't plan on it unless it offers some crazy value for my money or has some sort of set of features that I need. I don't do any offroading except for the occasional dirt road at a campsite. I, like many Americans, am someone who likes the idea of having offroad capabilities but don't really need them if I'm being honest with myself. The kind of roads I've gone down my Explorer has handled just fine. I don't really need locking differentials or a solid axle, as cool as I think they are.

Two, there could be competitors that will do similar things for less or similar money. Namely, the R2 and the iX3. And those are just the two I know about that will be out before the Traveler. That means availability for those will likely be far greater when I go to make my next car purchase. BEVs have horrible depreciation schedules, so buying a year or two used is the superior value proposition. I could buy a formerly-$65k iX3 in 2028 for maybe $40k or even a formerly-$50k R2 for something like $30k. That means a brand new (if I can even get one) Scout in 2028 for $60k would have to offer me better value, which I don't think is happening. And even if I wanted to buy new, discounts on readily-available R2s and iX3s may be more readily available.

Three, there are other compounding factors having to do with buying a brand-new vehicle from a brand-new company. While I don’t expect Scout, with VW’s backing, to have the same issues that, say, Rivian had when they first launched, I do expect there to be growing pains. The old adage of never buying the first model year of a car would hold especially true when that was the first car the company ever made. Not to mention, service centers are going to be an issue right off the bat. I live in a major city, but not a city that’s so big that it’ll certainly be in the first wave of service centers. Maybe I’d overlook all that at a lower price, but not at $60k.

You'll notice that some of this reasoning isn't wholly about the price. I can't look at a vehicle purchase and say that there's one deciding factor I use to determine what I get. But at the end of the day, if the Scouts were cheaper, I'd be much more likely to buy one when they first arrive. Since that's the crux of the question presented, I voted "yes."

I would be very tempted by the r2 if it weren’t for their anti-button aesthetic. Wassym leans heavily toward the minimalist Tesla style, which I don’t care for. But the r2 is a more appropriate size for my needs. I’m hoping that a similar scout model will come along before I’m too old to drive it.

Plus if I did a factory pick up I could get a gondola at Avantis and meet @cyure