--- title: "The Jeep Recon Has a Problem the IH Scout Solved in the 1970s" description: "Any time I get to borrow a [Jeep]() [Wrangler]() or [Gladiator](), if I can find a Torx bit, you better believe I'm pulling the doors off. I love doorless driving, and I'm sure I've told more than a couple of…" date: "2025-11-26" modified: "2025-11-26" authors: - name: "Andrew P. Collins" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/andrew-p-collins" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-jeep-recon-has-a-problem-the-ih-scout-solved-in-the-1970s" categories: - "Jeep News" - "News" - "News by Brand" tags: - "suv/crossover" --- # The Jeep Recon Has a Problem the IH Scout Solved in the 1970s ![Super Scout II with Jeep Recon]() *\International Harvester, Jeep, edited by the author\* Any time I get to borrow a [Jeep]() [Wrangler]() or [Gladiator](), if I can find a Torx bit, you better believe I'm pulling the doors off. I love doorless driving, and I'm sure I've told more than a couple of Jeep execs over the years, "If you make an EV, please, let the doors come off." But when I look at pictures of the [2026 Jeep Recon](), I feel like backing into a hedge, Homer Simpson style. I want to like the Recon so badly. A boxy, zero-emissions, off-road-capable 4x4 with removable doors—that description is like something out of my dream journal. Even 200-odd miles of range is acceptable to me for something with this aerodynamic profile. The starting price barely limboing under $70,000 significantly damped my enthusiasm for this thing. But, as a cheapskate who never buys anything new anyway, the real heartbreaker for me here is the fact that the Recon just looks like hot garbage. To the people who worked on designing this vehicle, I'm sorry, personal insult is not intended. It's just ... the Recon doesn't look like a fun, free-wheeling Pixar prop vehicle the way a Wrangler does with its doors off. It looks like a second-gen Jeep Liberty that's been harvested for parts at a junkyard. ![Jeep Rubicon photoed at the LA Auto Show.]() *Like, seriously? *Joel Feder** Whatever the vision for this was in Jeep's product planning meetings, it looks like the door-removal feature was an afterthought. Wranglers (and Gladiators) look cool with their doors off because the door jambs are thin, clean, and simple. On the Recon, we can see way too many shapes and hinges and striker hardware that betray the visual whimsy and make this thing just look broken. Now we arrive at why I invoked Scout in the headline. Scout, when it was an International Harvester nameplate, not a VW one, wanted to do a doorless treatment on one of its models in the '70s and ran into the same problem Jeep has with the Recon now. Removing the doors from the standard wheelbase Scout II body left an odd and unsightly rectangular bite out of the body design. It probably wasn't doing the body rigidity any favors, either. But my point is, Scout had an aesthetically decent solution: Fiberglass inserts that gave the door jamb a new shape while keeping the open-air factor well intact. ![International Scout SSII with canvas top.]() ![International Scout SSII hitting a jump.]() Now, the Super Scout II looked cool and fun with its doors off, but without having to totally redesign the vehicle body. I think Jeep (or the aftermarket?) could do something similar for the Recon. Two pieces of something, maybe even just a high-strength plastic, that you'd keep in your garage except for when you want to have a doorless weekend in the summer, that could clip into the existing door mounting points and clean up the vehicle's look. It wouldn't add that much inconvenience for the small subset of owners who would bother pulling the doors anyway, but it would make the experience much better for them. And most importantly, it'd make promo images of the Recon look cool. ![Artist rendition of Jeep Recon with Scout II-style door coverings.]() *Heck, even a taut canvas covering shaped sort of like this would go a long way to cleaning up the Recon's look. *Joel Feder, edited by the author** Anyway, I'm not super optimistic about the Recon's appeal in general at the price Jeep's talking about here. But this thing about the door jambs has been bothering me since the vehicle was revealed, and I can't imagine I'm the only one. Commenters, what say you? *Got a tip? Drop us a line at tips@thedrive.com.* ## Author As Executive Editor, Andrew touches everything on the site from daily news coverage to feature stories, sponsored content, product reviews, road testing vehicles, ecommerce, and more. He's held pretty much every role there is to have at an automotive news site and has been with The Drive's publisher Recurrent since 2020. Andrew's a lifetime gearhead and longtime writer with a particularly strong penchant for road trips, off-road adventures, and archaic vehicles. His passions outside of the automotive world include skiing, obsolete video games, and his dog Bramble who occationally helps review cars. ### Author social links [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()