1961-1980 International Harvester Scout — MPG & Fuel Facts NO OFFICIAL EPA RATING

The EPA's public fuel-economy dataset only goes back to 1984 — the 1961-1980 International Harvester Scout (Scout 80/800/Scout II) predates it, so there is no government-rated MPG number for this car anywhere, including here.

Estimated 9–24 MPG combined.

Verifiable quantified data covers mainly the later Scout II era (1971-80): the SD33 diesel option ran an estimated 18-24 mpg per period magazine/owner reporting, while the gas V8 (304/345 CID) ran roughly 9-18 mpg depending on transmission and driving. The earlier Scout 80/800 (1961-71) has no corroborated range — only a single non-range period claim — so treat pre-1971 figures as unsupported.

This is our estimate, not an EPA rating — built from the period road tests, marque-specialist guides and corroborated owner reports cited below, hedged where sources vary. Treat it as a ballpark for planning, not a spec to rely on.

Scout II (1971-80) offered 4-cylinder, V8 (304/345 CID), and — from 1976 — a Nissan SD33/SD33T diesel, with manual or automatic transmissions. Diesel World's retrospective on IH's diesel Scouts states period magazine testers 'generally obtained 18 mpg or better in mixed driving' and that the diesels 'could easily break the 20-mpg barrier on the highway,' with one 1980 Traveler owner averaging 21.9 mpg over an 1,800-mile trip. A secondary aggregator (aboutautomobile.com) lists EPA-style figures for the 1980-81 diesel of roughly 20-22 mpg combined, though this could not be independently verified against a primary EPA scan.

For the gasoline V8 Scout II, the same aggregator lists 1980-81 figures of roughly 12-16 mpg combined, and BinderPlanet forum owners largely report 12-13 mpg typical with occasional highway-only claims up to 18-22 mpg from a single well-corroborated thread. A 4-cylinder 'Comanche' 196 CID option is cited at 15-19 mpg by the same aggregator alone — single-sourced, so it is not included in the main range here.

The earlier Scout 80/800 (1961-71, 4-cylinder/6-cylinder/early V8) has essentially no verifiable quantified data. Wikipedia's Scout article states the 1966 Scout 800 with the 196 CID four was 'capable of 20 mpg,' citing a named book (Crismon, International Trucks, 2002), but that is a single best-case claim for one engine/year, not a range. A commonly repeated '20 city/30 highway' figure circulates across SEO buying-guide blogs with no traceable original source and was excluded.

Sources: Diesel World — "The Scout Series: International Harvester" (diesel-powered Scout retrospective) · aboutautomobile.com — 1980/1981 International Harvester Scout II fuel economy listings · BinderPlanet forum — "20+ MPG Scout II" thread · Wikipedia — International Harvester Scout (cites Crismon, International Trucks, 2002)

All classics Search International Harvester Scout (Scout 80/800/Scout II) on FuelFacts (in case a later model year is in our 1984+ EPA data)