I'm curious what the workaround is for direct-to-consumer sales in states that don't allow it? Can they just open an office like this as their "dealership" and call it good? I'm sure every state is different, but I'm definitely curious to see how NC and SC handle it since neither state allows DTC sales. One state has Scout headquarters while the other has the manufacturing plant, so I'm assuming lots of politics are playing out behind the scenes.
July 2026 Scout Motors Production Center Update
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There must be a way. Tesla and Rivian sell everywhere.
However Rivian doesn’t lease in every state. The latest number looks like it’s 41 states, but it wasn’t near that many when they started.
I looked into it and it says Missouri allows DTC sales so long as not an existing manufacturer/franchise is not already in place. Presuming there will be a court debate there as well by our super useful and necessary NADA members
Has anyone heard anything about what these initial 25 or so facilities will look like? I'm assuming they are going to be service centers, but do we know whether they are going to be "experience centers" too? When Rivian first came to Minneapolis, they had a service center out in a suburb. They still have that service center, but they now have an "experience center" in a mall closer to the cities. That center has an R1S and R2 in it, some samples of colors, minimal gear, and that's where you test drive. I'd prefer Scout to stay out of malls and just have their experience center and service center all in one. I really like the spot Scout has in St. Louis, but I understand they can't service them there.
Whoo boy. Where to start on this?
As a lawyer (yeah, yeah, I know. At least I work in public service for a large County in Minnesota so maybe I have some sort of soul) I've been following this closely. There have been a few lawsuits filed by dealers associations in certain states. Colorado comes to mind. I think (maybe) Washington too. They've been filed by dealers associations claiming that Scout is skirting the states' franchise laws by going DTC and not through VW franchises. Those franchises want a piece of the Scout action. I can't say that I'm familiar with every state's franchise laws, but they're going to have to prove that Scout is essentially VW. I don't know enough about the corporate structure to really know how that will play out. Regardless, those cases are state specific. So if Colorado says Scout is violation franchise laws, that's specific to Colorado and wouldn't apply here in Minnesota, for example. But the problem is that if one of these goes the wrong way, the dealers associations in other states will use that case against Scout in other states and it'll be like a snowball rolling down hill with the "us too" and "same here" arguments (assuming the franchise laws in the states are similar enough. They usually are as they are usually based on a model that most states adopted with very little tweaking). There's also a class action lawsuit somewhere on the East Coast, which would apply to all states, but those end up doing very little other than generating attorneys' fees for the lawyers involved. If this ends up going state by state, Scout will probably focus on states where they don't have DTC problems (stay out of it Minnesota Auto Dealers Association!) If I had to guess, if it's questionable, Scout will settle with these dealer associations, hopefully with just some one time payment rather than an ongoing relationship with Scout. I'm done with dealerships after buying a Rivian and seeing how easy it is.
That’s what I suspect. The interesting thing when this started (you know we get bored here) it is clear that the NADA/US VW dealerships are under VW of America and SM is listed as under VWAG. So VW dealers in U.S. don’t have the automatically given right to sell other companies under VWAG umbrella like Ducati, Audi, Seat, etc…. So I’m curious how that will play into things. If Scout were a VW of America product I can see the argument but by their current argument, US VW dealerships should be (under their mindset) permitted to claim all Ducati, Audi, etc… sales as theirs as well-but they don’t. And to that point, what if VWAG starts/adds more Tritan dealerships to sell the scouts and what is NADA’s role in commercial trucking sales? Can Tritan be used to sell DTC? The Scout rights came from that acquisition so why not use it to bypass the dealerships all together?
Some of it is work around. Some of it is you order your out of state then pick up and some of it was Tesla out the door first and getting favoritism for direct sales but only they are permitted and laws since changed. I’m sure others can extrapolate
These are all fair arguments and I have to believe that Scout is making the same ones in Court. The argument to counter them though is that VW is playing shell games with their companies and corporations for no purpose other than evade state-X's franchise laws. These franchise laws exist because the associations lobbied their state legislators to get it added. It protects them and in some cases, harms consumers. Therefore, that's the type of thing these franchise laws protect against. Things like the franchisor (VW) selling a territory to sell VWs (Scouts) to someone else after the franchisee (existing VW dealer) already paid the franchise fee for the right to sell in that territory.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not in favor of the dealer model and much prefer the DTC model. Other than people in the automotive sales industry, I'm not sure I know of anyone who bought a car recently and says "Hey, that was an extremely positive experience" if they have to go to a dealer. Given how frequently I change new vehicle (it's a real weakness, but I'm sure there are worse ones than that), I have a lot of experience with both. The last dealer I went to (Chevy) back in 2023, I already had the truck I wanted, picked out, cleaned my trade and got everything out of it, and brought the title with me. I didn't even test drive the new one. Just said "I want that one." I got there at 9:15 a.m., and left at 2:30 p.m. There were several "I need to talk to my manager" responses."I traded that truck in and bought my Rivian online in about an hour. DTC for the win.
I'm a recovering addict! I used to get a different vehicle for Christmas and my birthday in the summer, each year... I haven't bought anything in ~7 years now, though that's more related to me being unhappy with my choices in the market instead of actually being reformed.
Seven years! Holy smoke. I have the shakes just thinking about it.
I'm not quite as "bad" as twice a year, but about every two years or so. This one is going to be three because I'm waiting for Scout and its ... its tough.
By the time I get my Scout my Wrangler will be 15. 15! That’s the longest I have ever had a car by far.Seven years! Holy smoke. I have the shakes just thinking about it.
No, I would suspect it’s too early for that.
But here’s a question. Do we think they will offer leasing at launch?
I run about 3 years, sometimes 4 on vehicles so I hear you. Sad it still took that long for you. Fastest we ever did it was buying from my cousin so entire pricing was 6 texts, finance manager skipped all the BS and we had other previous Hondas/Acuras so no walk through on the vehicle. I think we were in and out in 54 or 56 minutes and partly because several docs needed reprinted due to a typo. Wish it was always that way
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