1970 International Harvester 800A - Cowboy Cool

I love the timeless, utility-first, no-nonsense cowboy cool of old sport utility vehicles like this 1970 International Harvester Scout 800A. In the modern era, to me, the closest thing to it were the Land Rover Defender 90's from 1990 through 2016.  

If you're thinking this looks like an old, I mean old Jeep CJ, you're not alone and that was intentional. In a nutshell, in 1961, once vast and glorious International Harvester came out with what they called the Scout 80, to compete with Willy's (Kaiser after 1963) Jeep CJ. The Jeep CJ was the only thing of its kind in the market going back to 1945. 

"CJ" stands for "civilian jeep". Hats off to the executive at Willys-Overland who first realized that their war time general purpose or "GP", which the word "jeep" stems from, being as popular as it was with GI's, would be marketable after The War ended. 

Coincidentally or not, in 1966, IH introduced the larger Scout 800 just as Ford rolled out their original Jeep fighter, the Bronco. As they say, with Jeep and International, two was company, but with Ford in the bush, three was a crowd: the sports-utility-vehicle war had begun. Curiously, although GM introduced two full-size pickup truck-based SUV's in 1967, GM didn't introduce anything Jeep or Scout like until 1983. Chrysler never built a "Jeep" although they did acquire Jeep, whom they acquired as part of their purchase of American Motors, in 1987. 

IH updated the 800 with the better equipped 800A, like our '70 here, in 1968. The 800A had niceties like available six- and eight-cylinder engines, standard four-wheel-drive, stronger axles, a quieter transfer case and even offered two-tone paint schemes like this one has. You wouldn't think red and white would work on any vehicle that wasn't a '50's dinosaur made by Big Three, but it does here. Then again, love is blind.  

IH sold the 800A through 1970 replacing it with the lightly updated 800B for 1971. The Scout II replaced the 800B in 1972. 

Our '70 here popped up on Marketplace for sale somewhere up in Michigan west of Detroit. Poster of the ad, who apparently was desperate to "get it gone", recently dropped the price from $19,500 to $12,500. Looks like that price chop did the trick as I can't find it anymore. Bit rich for me, thank you. I love the look of these things, but I know this will beat the tar out of my lower back and kidneys if not slip a disc or two on me. This one was built to military specs too no doubt making the ride even harsher. 

For the same money, this ain't no ten-year old Cadillac Escalade. It is ten-times cooler, though. 

By 1985, International Harvester had sold off all of its various divisions, they had even gone into selling home appliances, but they held onto their truck division which was renamed Navistar International.