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JL Wrangler vs New Ford Bronco

Vegas_Sirk

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Yea I read that earlier today. I think the Bronco will still sell fine with IFS .... honestly it doesn't make that big of a difference to me as I have never put my Wrangler in anything my old FJ couldnt handle. I think only the top 5-10% of owners ever "need" solid axels.
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ModdedJK

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True tho it is also a matter of perception but then again the Bronco has always leaned more towards a lifestyle off-roader than the Wrangler especially after it went full size.. anyway I agree the Bronco will still sell just fine, but you know the vocal minority and some of the media will still write it off as not being direct wrangler competition for this very reason.
 

Vegas_Sirk

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Agreed. If Ford goes IFS and they put a long travel IFS set up on it similar to the Raptor I think they could still market it as a serious off roader, just a bit different type. Also could be a selling point for it over the Wrangler as it would have better road manners as a result.
 

Cal_JLU

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One thing the Wrangler has going for it is that it's "pure". Unlike the Bronco, the Wrangler is on a dedicated platform and therefore will be inherently less compromised for use as intended, which is great news for all the Jeep fans. Most people will not care about this, but the discerning few will. IFS might be one of those compromises Ford has to make with the new Bronco. When it comes to a trail rig -which is how I intend to use my future four-wheeler at least part of the time- I want max wheel articulation. But we'll see. Ford could turn out a very impressive machine.
 

Eugene the Jeep

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They probably didn't realize that Dana makes independent front suspension too? Spicer AdvanTEK High-Efficiency Axles | Dana Light Vehicle

I think everyone's so hot to label the Bronco as the Wrangler competitor everyone's been waiting for... gonna take more than just a famous nameplate.
Yea I think someone jumped the gun when they saw the Dana name they automatically assumed solid axles from the Wrangler. I think the Bronco will get a Dana made IFS instead.

I think a lot of the Bronco's success will ride on how off road capable it actually is. Whether people actually use that capability isn't so important as the image it gives the car. Wrangler sales benefits from this image, even if only a small portion of its buyers actually intend to go off roading.

Ford's rhetoric seems to indicate they realize this. This is what Ford CTO Raj Nair had to say about it:

No, it’s a separate vehicle [from the Everest]. It will be an incremental vehicle from the Everest. The Everest kind of serves a lot of off-road capability; maybe the space the Explorer serves here in the U.S., but with a body-on-frame construction with a lot more off-road capability for the rest of the world. This Bronco is completely unique from that Everest. It is body-on-frame and so again, focusing on that off-road capability.
 

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KirkS

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Does Ford realize that if they just made the top and doors come off it would instantly pull some Jeep buyers and make me take a hard look at the Bronco? But because they won't, there won't be much of a dilemma for me
 

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Does Ford realize that if they just made the top and doors come off it would instantly pull some Jeep buyers and make me take a hard look at the Bronco? But because they won't, there won't be much of a dilemma for me
How do we know what Ford will or won't do? Just curious...
 

TsundereKaho

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Maybe I just run with the wrong group of people, but I've never seen a Bronco on the trail. I'm sure they'll out there somewhere. So I see it as more of a competitor to the Hummer/Toyota/Big SUV crowd. It'll sell because people want the look, like with the Hummer craze.
 

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when ford went big with the bronco it became a pig on the trail poor mileage, poor hill climbing and it never saw a sand wash it didn't want to wallow in up to its axels and belly pan where upon it would refuse to leave. ( don't ask me how I know) so I went to toyotas.
but if the new bronco is light swevlt and capable and has good mileage I would still want my Jeep
 

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I've seen several broncos on the trail, but most were the newer generation that had been converted to dedicated trail rigs. I don't think I've seen one of the older models on the trails(which is what I'm hoping they model the new bronco after.) If they model it after the smaller older bronco with solid axles I would be interested. I owned a 1995 Bronco for a few months, but I hated it compared to the Jeep. It felt huge, and that TTB front end was terrible. I considered swapping in a solid axle, but ended up deciding to wait for another Jeep(JL)
 

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PavementWarrior

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As the Wrangler is so small and cant be bothered to fix the plastic on the sport bar debacle, taller buyers will go to bronco by default.

This is a good thing, and hopefully jeep wakes up and competes and we have 2 great choices
 

GRAK

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As the Wrangler is so small and cant be bothered to fix the plastic on the sport bar debacle, taller buyers will go to bronco by default.

This is a good thing, and hopefully jeep wakes up and competes and we have 2 great choices
“Bronco” is just going to be a refreshed Everest. Nowhere near Wrangler. Rubicons will die laughing. Oh well.
 

DanW

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Ford's biggest problem for me is their interior bits and pieces. They have small stuff everywhere that breaks off at the slightest touch. My Ford Transit van has a beautiful interior that has a tremendous number of flawed trim pieces that come off at the slightest touch or bump. From door parts to seat parts, to body parts, to plastic covers, it is a very poorly executed product. I won't buy another Ford until they get that stuff right. My Transit has also had way too many recalls due to poor execution, and they are serious. One was for the female seatbelt connectors, which would randomly cause the belt to unbuckle. Wow! It took them months to get the fix, and their answer in the mean time was to just tug on them to make sure they stayed. That's comforting. Then, we got a recall because the engine wasn't shielded enough from splash intrusion. Then, another for a rubberized, flexible drive shaft link which could, after 20k miles, cause the driveshaft to fall off, causing an accident. The fix? Have a new one installed every 20k miles until they come up with a design fix. They told me probably 6 months ago that they'd have a fix within 30 days or so. We still don't have a fix. Btw, mine had 75,000 miles on the original when we were told of the problem.

I do love driving the van, and it is powerful, efficient, and comfortable, and it really drives well. I'm just not impressed with Ford's execution on the details. The axle shaft coupler design was an absolutely stupid engineering idea. Range Rover has had that kind of a design and it was terrible for them, but their issue was vibration at highway speed, not a total catostrophic failure.

Ford can keep their new Bronco. Jeeps aren't known for high initial quality or trouble free use, but my old JK and even my YJ are and were light years ahead of what I've experienced with my old 2001 F150 or my Transit. Btw, the F150 is a King Ranch. The fasteners that hold the leather together have all failed, so the seats have wide open gaps with leather flailing all over the place. If I reattach them, they come apart again within a month. Small plastic bits and pieces come off all the time, too, and the mechanisms for things like the sliding cup holder in the dash have failed. This is a long term Ford problem. I hope their newest products don't have those issues, but I'll let someone else find out and let me know. I won't take a chance on them until then. I won't even mention the issues I'm having with the 5.4 and its coil over plugs. Only 75,000 miles on it, too.
 

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Yes the bronco is pretty cool. They certainly took aim at the Jeep? I wonder if they had To build it on their own would it have been this rig that emerged? It’s a lot easier to say ok the Jeep has this let’s do this.......

However in my view ford pretty much abandoned us for 24 years. While Jeep continued. So will history repeat itself.? Like what Toyota did with the fj cruiser? Here today gone manana ? Or Nissan who had the old patrol then the Xterra then nada? And Chevy too ? Blazers then what? It still pisses me off that Chevy put the blazer name on what looks like a Mazda. Instead o taking a zr2 and building a really capable. SUV.

So will the bronco be here in 5 years 7 years? Etc.

to me ford is like your old hot girlfriend who dumps you then disappears and only shows up years later when you are doing good and wants back in. Do you let her knowing that she could do it all again?
 

Cazadores

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Yes the bronco is pretty cool. They certainly took aim at the Jeep? I wonder if they had To build it on their own would it have been this rig that emerged? It’s a lot easier to say ok the Jeep has this let’s do this.......

However in my view ford pretty much abandoned us for 24 years. While Jeep continued. So will history repeat itself.? Like what Toyota did with the fj cruiser? Here today gone manana ? Or Nissan who had the old patrol then the Xterra then nada? And Chevy too ? Blazers then what? It still pisses me off that Chevy put the blazer name on what looks like a Mazda. Instead o taking a zr2 and building a really capable. SUV.

So will the bronco be here in 5 years 7 years? Etc.

to me ford is like your old hot girlfriend who dumps you then disappears and only shows up years later when you are doing good and wants back in. Do you let her knowing that she could do it all again?
Exactly. I like the new Bronco, but can't help but think the likelihood of the entire lineup morphing into the "sport", which is essentially what the explorer was in the 90s, is fairly high.

My parents bought a 1992 Explorer, it was perfect, the right size, reasonable off road, just an altogether good concept and car. Look at the Explorer now, its huge, cramped, heavy, and has the off road agility even a Crown Victoria would be embarrassed of.

Again, I really like the 2 door bronco, and a lot of the features, I just don't trust Ford to not try to make it something for everyone, and in the process make it an uninspired grocery getting crossover for no one.
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