I’m sure the startup REO Trucks is going to face a lot of challenges. It’s a rather new concept for an “analog” truck, but I can see a number of different ways the fledgling company could really communicate its brand message without the time and expense of having to build hundreds of brick-and-mortar dealers.
It doesn’t matter how good or cool your product is if it isn’t promoted in the right way. It’s more than advertising, though: the way you present the physical object needs to be as strong as all of the other marketing. That’s especially true with cars. Maybe Carvana can successfully sell a bunch of cars sight-unseen, but that’s with products that potential buyers already know, have seen in person, and likely have even driven at dealers during their research. A brand-new type of vehicle? You likely aren’t going to get away from presenting it to shoppers in person.
I’ve actually presented some ideas for the selling experience (and the truck itself) to Zach DeBerdanardi, the CEO and Founder of REO, and you might be surprised to hear what he said to a certain person (me) who never should have been given a copy of Photoshop.
There Was No Saturn “Genius Bar”
How do you convince a person that the computer you’re selling is worth more than some cheaper PC clone, or that this new and expensive telephone in your product portfolio with a touch screen can change your life? That’s the challenge that Apple faced twenty years ago, and part of their solution was an all-new kind of selling environment to match these all-new products. The Apple Store was more than a shop: it was an experience. That’s something you need with a product that flips the script on the establishment.
With cars, that’s happened a few times. The most notable example might be Saturn, the GM brand with cars built at a separate factory (at least initially) that the brand sold with fixed, no-haggle sticker prices in showrooms staffed by salespeople who didn’t walk up and harass you the minute you set foot on the lot.
It was a magical place where the experience almost overshadowed the rather lackluster cars. The dealership was transformed from what most shoppers saw as a living hell to a friendly family-style home you’d go to for barbeques they’d often host on Saturdays:
REO trucks could take a similar tack. The concept that founder Zach DeBernardi has is an affordable series of light trucks, an idea not unlike the new Slate pickup, but DeBernardi’s will apparently be gasoline-powered and feature four-wheel drive. He also claims a starting price of around $22,000. If you ever wanted an eighties Toyota Hilux to be reborn, this might be it. My guess, however, is few people will lay down any cash without experiencing the truck and understanding the benefits.
Of course, making a new truck will require all the cash that DeBernardi can find from investors; how can get a physical presence with the least cost possible? Also, how can REO really tell the story differently than any other brand?
Don’t Take My Stuff Too Seriously
Full disclosure: Our own Jason Torchinsky has interviewed REO founder Zach DeBernardi several times. In the Autopian podcast he appeared on, Jason presented some of the ideas that I had shown in an earlier post guessing what the REO might look like. Zach was intrigued by a number of the design ideas I’d shown for the truck, such as optional lower storage bins and the interior details. During the Carbage podcast, he actually requested these be sent over to him.
Torch was dumb enough to let me have Zach’s email. Big mistake. I forwarded my ideas (which you can see here), to which DeBernardi responded rather quickly.
Really appreciate you sending all of this over! It takes a lot of time to design vehicles and you’ve put a lot of work into this!
I’ve gone ahead and forwarded this over to our design partner so that they can take a look at everything you sent.
We’re well under way right now but it could be early enough to make some changes.Thanks again, and let me know if you need anything else. My line’s always open!
Zach probably didn’t realize how much precious time I am willing to waste for free on drawing up ill-conceived sketches after work, so he was about to get carpet-bombed with far more dumb ideas he hadn’t bargained for.
Mind you, we still don’t know what the drivetrain and other detailed specs of the REO will be; a press release stated that designer Frank Stephenson is working on the design, but the final aesthetics are still very much a mystery. To be very clear: the trucks that I am showing in my renderings are NOT the ones that REO will apparently be releasing images of shortly. I have no idea what those will look like; I simply needed to come up with trucks to act as placeholders.
To do that, I followed the style of the Toyota Hilux Champ that Zach claimed he was using for inspiration.
He mentions the Land Cruiser 70 Series as influential to his idea of REO; the Toyota that hasn’t really changed much since 1984:
This is the “placeholder” REO I made up:
I’ve probably taken my placeholder truck too far in the industrial direction with not only sealed beams but off-the-shelf items like box turn signals and taillights so the sum of all the exterior lighting would barely be over 100 bucks (and available at Amazon or AutoZone). Still, in a world where I was just told that the headlights on my current old car are $6000 a piece, cheap lights would be nice, no?
Anyway, try to ignore the overall looks of “my” trucks and just evaluate the selling concepts and thought process. Know that REO is going to have a lot of different thinking, but be aware that absolutely none of what I’m showing is even remotely real.
Toy Cars, Magnetic Graphics, Coloring Books, And Whatever It Takes
If you go into most car dealerships today, there are far fewer display fixtures than there were twenty years ago. Touch screens or just QR codes have replaced almost all of these. The ethos of the REO is to be a low-tech “like it used to be” truck, so I think the physical displays used to demonstrate the features should be rather similar. Here’s the full display wall I’d suggest for an REO Experience Center:
In one of the sections, I’d like to have scale model (maybe 3D-printed) trucks in all of the available colors that you can switch out things like wheels and snap-on accessories like “sport” bars to see what your new truck might look like with your selected options. There are even coloring books for the kids (or adults) like “The Brave Little REO” or “The Little REO Saves The Day.”
How about a way for the potential buyer to configure the interior and specifically the dashboard? I’ve got no clue as to what REO is really doing, but earlier I had suggested a modular instrument panel layout where you could add whatever accessories that you wanted (or even upgrade later):
We’ve even got the optional “ball cooler” vents that Zach is promising in the real REO:
If REO were to do something like this, the display wall would have a mock dashboard with accessories (tach, radios, screens) on shelves that you could physically pop in to see what your new truck will look like.
We could possibly even do the same thing for the rest of the interior, if REO is considering doing anything like I had suggested with upgradeable seats and door panels (or partial door panels on the base model). Interior mockups such as the ones below could be inside the Experience Center:
This way you wouldn’t need to have one of every kind of trim level REO out in the parking lot to show customers.
Also, there would be a large video display in one section and another with magnetic graphics that you can add to the side of the real REO trucks to see what they look like before ordering.
Actually, if they sat in recessed areas, then they might be able to be used as actual graphics on the truck.
Even with the recessed areas, the graphics might not stay in place through a car wash, but they’d be so easy to change you could even do seasonal ones for fun!
The question you have now is, where would these displays go? What if REO has no initial budget to build dealerships, or really doesn’t want the standard concept of a “dealership” at all? Here’s what they could do.
Inside The Box Thinking
Driving through most “dealer rows” in urban areas of America, I notice a trend. First of all, they’re often surrounded by two things: struggling retail mall stores and large, empty office buildings with equally empty parking lots. Isn’t there some way that a startup could take advantage of these spaces?
We know that Tesla has had a presence in malls over time, so that’s a natural place for REO to build an Experience Center, too. That’s especially good for exposing the product to people who have never seen it and might not even be actively looking for vehicles but happen to be just hitting The Gap or Banana Republic for their sale (hint: they always have some kind of sale).
Hey, how about a pop-up shop in a retail space like Costco? You could have a sales kiosk inside:
There could even be a test drive center out in the parking lot:
If you really wanted a standalone facility, there’s no reason REO couldn’t make Experience Centers in vacant parking lots with repurposed shipping containers. Here’s a way to create an inexpensive facility that might be set up in a day or two at most. The industrial aesthetic really matches the feel of the whole REO mindset of everything you need and nothing you don’t.
This mock floorplan below shows the layout with modular wood plank “deck” flooring used around the 20-foot and 40-foot “high cube” containers. The garages would likely need more vertical space for lift access, but if that’s the case, we could add on taller structures. Honestly, there’s an almost endless supply of old containers out there, so expanding the layout would hardly be a major task.
If there’s as much room as I’m imagining in a vacant business parking lot, I can see setting up obstacles like those from the traveling Bronco event below; a great way to show the capabilities of the REO’s 4WD system.
Maybe in the future REO would build more permanent structures on purchased land instead of shipping containers on leased parking lots, but why? Somehow a setup like this might get more attention for the product anyway, and it follows the “simple is better” approach of the truck.
Surprisingly, Zach responded rather positively to all of this Experience Center junk I sent and was happy for me to share, as he said to me here in one exchange that can be published:
I like the shipping container idea but we’re not committed to any architectural style as of just yet. We are definitely going to be looking at service and experience centers.
Thank you for staying in touch! We are hard at work on our targets for delivering design reveal on 11/16. We think it’s quite an amazing looking truck.
Simple Is Fun
I’m glad that Zach seemed receptive to these ideas, but don’t expect to see the finished products looking like this. We don’t know exactly when we’ll see REO trucks themselves, though DeBernardi is obviously single-minded in his quest to make them a reality.
As tough as the odds are for REO, I’m absolutely going to hold out hope for the brand’s success. I will say that twenty years ago I never, ever expected to see Tesla cars in every other driveway, yet here we are. I’d much rather see a new five-speed, four-cylinder gasoline 4WD mini truck than any new Tesla EV. Wouldn’t you?
Top graphic images: The Bishop; DepositPhotos.com
We can pretty much write off the sealed beam and modular lights from the jump. Its definitely going to have some LED DRG.
I can definitely see them doing the mall route though, why not? My local mall already has Tesla store and a “Porsche Studio”
Gotta love the mall scene.
New REO’s are in early this year…
This mall has EVERYTHING
Honestly? If the goal is longevity and efficiency, I don’t think a five-speed would be the way to go. If you’re building a small 2wd car that doesn’t need to be fun or powerful, the smart move seems to be what everyone else has done: copy off Toyota’s homework. A planetary eCVT 1) has no clutches, synchros, torque converters, bands, or any friction materials to burn out and 2) Theoretically, has a near-infinitely low crawl ratio. That finally struck me after reading was an article here about lifted Prius-es and the comments had some notes unusual places they turn up.
Engineering costs would be higher than an off-the-shelf engine and transmission, but it’s a mature and proven technology that would fit a small 2wd work truck’s uses well.
We need our friend Jatco here to drop some truth.
It’s definitely gonna have to be DTC and follow the Tesla/Rivian/Slate model. The shipping container style looks the part but I don’t know if it’s space efficient enough for a startup that I frankly have no faith in. I like them conceptually though, so I still want them to make it to market, I just think I’m a realist and the market for what they’re selling ain’t big enough (same with Slate but they have a slightly better chance, Ford Fathom notwithstanding).
Wow, that place holder truck looks like a Isuzu.
Or a Mazda B Series
That’s what I thought! Big Isuzu Rodeo vibes and I love it.
Even though I live in the snow belt, I’d even take a RWD model!
Snow tires and a bed full of sandbags.
and half a bag of kitty litter for traction
I use three bundles of asphalt shingles (left over from a couple of old re-roofing projects) in the front of the bed of my regular-cab, 4-cylinder, 5-speed GMC pickup.
Not only are they heavy, but if you get stuck in the snow, after you shovel some of the snow away, you can peel off individual shingles, stuff them under the tires and get instant traction!
Sandbags rip open too easily.
Firewood works, too
I was expecting a restraining order
That would have been the smart move on his part.
You should give us his email! We have great ideas!
There’s still time.
““I’d much rather see a new five-speed, four-cylinder gasoline 4WD mini truck than any new Tesla EV. Wouldn’t you?””
No… I’d like to have an all electric forward control electric passenger van with removable seats that is RWD but ALSO has a 4 speed manual that you can just keep in one gear to drive like an automatic, but that you can shift yourself if you want to make the most of the electric motor’s power.
We’re just re-inventing the Mitsubishi Delica with an electric swap at that point. We always spend a lot of time re-inventing the Mitsubishi Delica.
Is that bad?
Stay with me now….what if you could only buy an REO at………REI?
That’s what was missing. I’m in.
YES!
But what about the Subarus? Won’t someone think about the Subarus?!?
They don’t make trucks. No issue.
As much as I appreciate the concept of using sealed-beam headlights, the longevity and efficiency of LEDs I think makes them unavoidable.
There are some that are the same footprint as sealed beam, and have the warm light, same look so they don’t look like cheesy ebay specials, but are actually LED. Maybe use sealed beam incandescent in manufacturing to keep costs low, but offer LED as an upgrade, or just replace them yourself.
Needs AWD as an option. And dog tethers in the back.
“I’d much rather see a new five-speed, four-cylinder gasoline 4WD mini truck than any new Tesla EV. Wouldn’t you?”
I’d rather see a new E0-E100/NG/propane capable 50+ MPG REXEV standard cab, maybe extended cab minitruck with 50-60 miles of BEV only range, 600+ miles total (on E0) with a generator mode capable of comfortably powering (and heating) an entire large house through a bomb cyclone.
Truck must fit inside a conventional 2 car garage with bikes and stuff hanging from the ceiling.
Nicely equipped with a powerful, quiet heat pump, decent stereo, the usual powered stuff, and physical controls for the normal car stuff with a large, easy to read SatNav actually molded into the dash not tacked on as an afterthought. Built with materials that don’t damage or wear easily. And a full sized spare.
All for under $25k OTD.
That’s what I’d rather see.
If they’re not careful, REO might become a real threat to Spirit of Halloween pop-up stores in vacant mall and big box locations…. which–would be a great way for REO to get a toehold in mall spaces and strip mallage–plenty of room an for indoor test track, service center and more, and still plenty of leftover Sears auto centers.
And when REO goes bust, REO locations will become REO locations (real estate owned… i.e., repo’ed properties)….
The new REO’s are in!!
Disco pants and haircuts…
By Autopians – for Autopians.
That would be the BAFA
I love the concepts you have presented.
thanks!
Let’s not put the trailer before the truck. Start with something that can be bought first. We don’t need more Elios and Alphas.
I like the Costco sales idea and I’ll take it one step further: have REO build the long-desired Kirkland-branded truck.
but you have to buy a pack of 4 of them
You mean, an Allstate for the 21st century?
Or if. Real estate guy decides he can make a super cheap new vehicle isn’t exactly a sure bet.
I like your concepts, but this isn’t a company I’m putting a lot of faith in. I’d have a lot more faith in an Autopian-branded vehicle coming to market, so if you want to sell us these pickups in the merch store here, please start working on them.
OH! The Autopian SLATE! I’d go for that. Simple wrap and decal package, and maybe a used tool set to stash behind the seats – missing the 10mm socket, of course.
Autopian brand 10mm assortment included. Should be able to find one of ’em.
The Autopian vehicle, hand crafted by David in his backyard. 1 per year until Delmar (NHRN) can help double production. Sign up now as total production run is limited to less than 100.
I’m in for one of those, for sure
They could have a guarantee of “your pickup built by the delivery date or it’s free!”
That would give him a ton of article fodder about finishing vehicles just before the deadline.
That’s essentially been his MO for years anyway: buy old broken vehicle, let it sit then realize it has to be fixed RIGHT NOW, finish just before deadline and enjoy it once at MOAB, then sell it now that it’s a nice vehicle. I’m not complaining about the format, I enjoy all of David’s articles, just clarifying that yes, he should make it official as a low production company/restomod brand like Singer.
Do we know who they are sourcing their drive train from? I doubt they’re building their own, too much $$$ in R&D for a start like this
Supposedly he’s getting one from an OEM.
“Build like it used to be”
So, it’ll look like a Michigan Rust Free ™ car within 4-5 years?
I’s sure this obvious joke has been made before but I hope they eventually release a fast and long hatchback called the Speedwagon
Nah, just remake this one.
Forget that, I want a new Flying Cloud
Their in-house performance arm should be called “Tuneafish”.
The hatchback section needs to angle slightly down to make it a shooting brake variant, that would really limit it’s ability as a truck but look amazing and be worthy of the name SpeedWagom
I want a dropside! I still can’t get a kei truck here, so then my only option is a large work truck with that body added, and I don’t want that.
The container idea is interesting. New direct to consumer car brands have gone to sort of upscale popular malls. They love Macerich. It looks like slate is doing similar because it’s whats worked. I’m surprised one of the franchise dealers hasn’t used containers. They have the space alot better looking then the sales trailers they bring in. Maybe Carvana will do it with their Stalantis dealers.
I just don’t see how reo will make a product. Tesla took off because of EVs, tech, ecosystem. How many died while Tesla lived. Has to be 20+ just in the US. Fisker made a fancy volt and died. With Bob lutz standing over the corpse shoving LSs in them and the Chinese beating a dead horse building a few a year. The slate people even considered ice but said it would end up being more expensive where evs are reducing in cost.
If I saw someone trying to sell a startup vehicle from a site as temporary as a stack of shipping containers, I’d firmly grasp my wallet and back away. That just screams “short-lived” and “scam” to me.
I guess that’s a risk. Those sales trailer always gave me that impression. Most ended up as the used car section after the dealer lost interest or the brand retreated.
It reminded me of these guys
https://smallssliders.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/can_sign-scaled.jpg
And now I want a burger. Funny how the impression of the facility changes when it’s a $30,000 vehicle vs. a cheap burger.
The Fuddtrucker: step up to the counter and order your truck.
No. No options except color.
Got your truck? Cool. Now take it to the Options Bar. Load it or don’t. Each one has its own cost and installation for most of them is up to you. Lety-loosy, righty-tighty. You got this. Electronic bits just plug in and the plug is already there, load it or don’t.
Find some room in the budget a few years down the road, come on back. You can upgrade the stereo, replace the regular cruise control with adaptive, swap in the better engine management computer – two plugs, two bolts, five minutes. Or just keep using the one you’ve got, it gets the job done. Except in California, the new one meets requirements and the old one doesn’t. Don’t look at us, we didn’t make that rule. We like the old one fine. It adds lean burn capability, which can shorten the life of the catalytic converter but again – it ain’t up to us.
New seats? No problem. You can trade yours if they aren’t damaged, we sell to folks repairing their rigs after a crash. It’s like a used book store and the rig is the shopping bag you picked up at the door: load it or don’t.
You’d better trademark Fuddtrucker right now.
I’ve seen Idiocracy enough times to know where this is going.
They better release an Autopian:Bishop edition!
If they can nail the drivetrain, I will be very interested in the crew cab. I really want a modern 1st gen Tacoma crew cab with a manual. Instead, I have a Maverick, which is fine, but the drivetrain is not amazing for longevity.
Just out of curiosity regarding the Mav, not amazing how? Which drivetrain variant do you have, and how has it disappointed you?
I’m considering one, so I’d rather not get screwed. It’s a lot of money to put into something only to be let down.
I have the 2.0 Ecoboost 8 speed awd. Do not get this drivetrain. The engines are fine-ish. The Transmission, PTU (transfer case) and RDU (rear diff) are known to be hot garbage.
If I wanted another Maverick, the Hybrid AWD is the move. And even then, FWD will be the actual most reliable as the PTU and RDU require fluid changes every 30k miles.
Today I learned the AWD Maverick Hybrid has a mechanical link from the engine to the rear axle. I always assumed (bad move on my part) that it was an eAxle like Toyota uses in the RAV4 hybrid.
Thanks! I love learning!
I have a RAV4 Prime, a ’21 I bought in May last year. Of the ~15,000 miles I put on since then, about 60% has been EV miles. I am a fan of EV miles.
I could wish for more EV miles but about the only way to get it is to get a full EV, and I’m not quite there yet. But I can feel it getting closer. If I ever install an L2 charger – I have been living with L1 this whole time and it’s plenty – an EV will probably be an easy choice.
Actually I think I’d prefer the vehicle demanding a fluid change every once in a while. I don’t believe in sealed-for-life mechanisms, things should get opened up and looked every now and then.