“To me, it’s like our little child,” Glancy said of the Scout name and logo.
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Glancy’s business has been dedicated to preserving the International Harvester Scout, selling new, used and aftermarket parts, offering service and restorations, plus selling and appraising IH vehicles. Super Scout Specialists is an Original Equipment Manufacturer, or OEM, under an agreement with Navistar.
The last Scout rolled off the production line in 1980, and Glancy said essentially since 1990, “the Scout trademarks and pretty much anything to do with it had come to us,” with Navistar holding future use rights.
His business helped prove Scout was still active.
“It seemed like every 3 or 4 years, somebody was trying to get it,” Glancy said, ticking off attempts from China and Saudi Arabia, plus Ford, General Motors and Honda. “The next time you see a Honda Pilot in traffic, that was going to be a Scout.”
“We’ve worked feverishly and hard to keep that logo from being taken away,” he said.
International Harvester became Navistar, which sold to Traton, which is part of the Volkswagen Group. So when Volkswagen plunged deep into electric vehicle manufacturing, the company spun off a separate company called Scout Motors that will build EVs that pay tribute to the IH Scout from years the past.
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Scout Motors announced last month a site in South Carolina for the new assembly plant, and Glancy said he has an invitation to the groundbreaking.
He said the new company is in its beginning stages, but he has traded messages with officials there about a relationship.
“The willingness is there on both ends,” he said.
Glancy said some Scout purists have reacted with reservation about an electric vehicle. The same was true for other iconic models such as the Mustang when it first announced an EV.
“We’re really hoping it will give the Scout people a thrill,” he said.
How has the Scout managed to keep a loyal following around the country decades later?
“We are talking about a vehicle that last was built in 1980,” Glancy said.
The vehicle is something totally different than other vehicles, he said.
“A lot of it is because it is not a Jeep or something everybody else has,” Glancy, who co-wrote a book called International Scout Encyclopedia, said.
Locally, the popularity remains for other reasons.
“A lot of employees bought them,” getting an employee discount, Glancy noted.
He has special insight on that. His late father, Robert T. Glancy Sr., ran the International Harvester dealership across from the Springfield plant.
He also thinks Scouts and Travelalls, plus anything else connected to IH history, appeals to local residents.
The Super Scout Specialists building includes an IH museum with a wide assortment of memorabilia.
“It’s all IH, and it’s all in the family,” he said.
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