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Finally a very neutral and fair enough Bronco vs Wrangler comparison

631_Islander

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https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews/amp38375948/2021-ford-bronco-vs-wrangler/

Guess this author wasn’t sold out to either FCA or Ford. I found the author rather fair. Better than the articles that Car and Driver writes where they just trash the Jeep so much that you’d think someone paid them under the table.
This is a very well articulated reasoning that I think explains why people will love the Bronco. At the end of the, most cars are sold based on a short test drive (at least pre-Covid). And from all the descriptions I’ve read, I think the Bronco will win over a lot of people during a standard on road test drive.
 

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What?

Bronco AND 4Runner should be compared. Neither compare to the Wrangler. Don't understand this "Oh it made me love the Wrangler also" That he never drove, or "Oh I had to drive a Wrangler unlike a Subaru it was "hard" I don't understand"????

Come on MAN! I have never owned a Bronco (Brother had a 72 I drove and it sucked beautiful but) but I have owned a 4Runner that I would say quality, longevity, toughness is a 9/10 for a soccer mom SUV. Bronco? Who knows but I don't think it even relates to the Wrangler and should not even be compared.

I mean it took a turd to understand why he might love a Wrangler? Here is the deal, the Wrangler doesn't drive like an SUV, it is not an SUV, it is not an Explorer, it is not a Yukon, it is not a Sequoia or Bronco and it is not a 4Runner.

It is a Wrangler, it is a rough ride, it is a Jeep you need to pay attention to when driving (mostly because the tires dig in on roads). We love Wranlger because it is a Wrangler. I have also loved and owned 3 Jeep Liberty which I loved, were great cars even though they drove like go carts.

I have owned Jeeps since CJ7 in 1990 (AMC Sucked!) and besides that CJ7 never a one of them left me on the side of the road. JK and JL were worry free and even a Sport S was better than any Bronco they can sell beyond some Baja Turd.
 

R3TRO

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Bronco? Who knows but I don't think it even relates to the Wrangler and should not even be compared.

I have also loved and owned 3 Jeep Liberty which I loved, were great cars even though they drove like go carts.
You do know that Ford built this to compete directly against the Wrangler right? So of course it should be compared!

And I'm pretty sure you are the first person on earth to say they love the Jeep Liberty?! :P
 

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west tex

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I keep seeing these car magazine articles that slag all over the Wrangler's on-road manners. I've taken my 2dr on a 1300 mile road trip and found it to be a comfortable cruiser. That was the round trip distance from here to Moab and back. It ate up the miles with ease and at the end of the road, I certainly wasn't worn out from the drive. And I got surprisingly good gas mileage from the 2.0T.

Doesn't ride or handle like a sports sedan/coupe, which is what I imagine a lot of these writers are more accustomed to driving hard and reporting on. So, from that perspective, it makes some sense that these jockeys would gripe about it.

BUT...

For those of us who were thinking off road when we made the decision to get a Wrangler, having tolerable, not excellent, highway behavior just comes with the territory.

I haven't driven the new Bronco, but I did seriously consider buying one back in January. I have no doubt that it's a decent vehicle with near-Jeep off road capability. That said, I have absolutely no regrets over driving a Wrangler instead.
 

TheNewGuy

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You do know that Ford built this to compete directly against the Wrangler right? So of course it should be compared!

And I'm pretty sure you are the first person on earth to say they love the Jeep Liberty?! :P
Exactly. With the exception of the front suspension, everything about the Bronco is the Wrangler. Soft top, removable hard top, removable doors etc.
Why would anyone think about cross shopping a 4Runner unless they have no intention of using any of the Bronco features mentioned above?
The Bronco was clearly aimed at the Wrangler. Ford has made that crystal clear from the beginning.
 

Mikeoso

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Reactions people have to some of these articles, you'd think someone called their mama ugly.
 

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Here is the deal, the Wrangler doesn't drive like an SUV, it is not an SUV, it is not an Explorer, it is not a Yukon, it is not a Sequoia or Bronco and it is not a 4Runner.
While I get what you're saying, a Wrangler is pretty much 100% the exact definition of what a SUV is. It's the most true SUV available today.
 

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The biggest issue I had with this article is that the part about this review making him love his wrangler is completely unexplained and unsupported. It’s partly an ode to the Bronco and partly an airing of grievances about Wranglers, and then he sticks on a sentence at the end about this teaching him he loved Wranglers. It’s as if his editor just thought this piece would upset Wrangler fans & told him to add that in & change the title. Very strange.
 

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There is no vehicle that compares to a Wrangler, period. The Bronco is a copied city version for all the Starbuck drinking, can't wait for fall to wear my UGG boots over my Lululemon tights women. It will get a lot of sales because of that reason. The people in 4-runners will fall in love with how it drives, and they will pretend they have a cool off-road vehicle. For people like a lot of us on this forum that actually go off-road, and aren't afraid to use our Jeeps we understand the Bronco is no better than a new Chevy Blazer. The Jeep has no competition for what it was built for. Jeep has done a very good job making it more civilized, but underneath it all it is a solid axle off road vehicle.
 

aldo98229

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Exactly. With the exception of the front suspension, everything about the Bronco is the Wrangler. Soft top, removable hard top, removable doors etc.
Why would anyone think about cross shopping a 4Runner unless they have no intention of using any of the Bronco features mentioned above?
The Bronco was clearly aimed at the Wrangler. Ford has made that crystal clear from the beginning.
Nissan built Xterra to compete against Wrangler as well. But there ended being very little cross-shopping between the two. Nissan fans bought Xterras and Jeep fans continued buying Wranglers, and that was that. The same thing happened with Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Ford wanted to avoid the same fate: it marketed the crap out of Bronco for 2 whole years before it even came out; it made the comparisons between the two very obvious; and copied many of Wrangler’s unique features —e.g., iconic looks, removable top, swaybar dislocate— while making sure Bronco always came on top in every “comparison,” however fair or not.

Jeep owners’ animosity towards Bronco is well justified. For 2-3 years now Ford has been pooping all over Wrangler while pretending that its shit don’t stink. Worse, Ford wants to position FSA, Wrangler’s unique feature and the key reason many of us buy a Jeep, as a weakness. And it’s been doing all of this with fake swaybar “disconnects,” fake computer-generated videos of Broncos bouncing over rocks, and by tightly controlling whatever independent reviewers said about Bronco. So now, whenever a magazines appears to be doing the same thing, we are understandably skeptical.

Personally, I was excited when Ford first announced Bronco. But the never-ending delays, the fake videos, the “censored” reviews, Ford’s constant “leaks” and overall dishonest flow of information, and now the endless production issues, have soured me on both Ford and Bronco.

Clearly I’m not the only one who feels this way.
 

jellis4148

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Nissan built Xterra to compete against Wrangler as well. But there ended being very little cross-shopping between the two. Nissan fans bought Xterras and Jeep fans continued buying Wranglers, and that was that. The same thing happened with Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Ford wanted to avoid the same fate: it marketed the crap out of Bronco for 2 whole years before it even came out; it made the comparisons between the two very obvious; and copied many of Wrangler’s unique features —e.g., iconic looks, removable top, swaybar dislocate— while making sure Bronco always came on top in every “comparison,” however fair or not.

Jeep owners’ animosity towards Bronco is well justified. For 2-3 years now Ford has been pooping all over Wrangler while pretending that its shit don’t stink. Worse, Ford wants to position FSA, Wrangler’s unique feature and the key reason many of us buy a Jeep, as a weakness. And it’s been doing all of this with fake swaybar “disconnects,” fake computer-generated videos of Broncos bouncing over rocks, and by tightly controlling whatever independent reviewers said about Bronco. So now, whenever a magazines appears to be doing the same thing, we are understandably skeptical.

Personally, I was excited when Ford first announced Bronco. But the never-ending delays, the fake videos, the “censored” reviews, Ford’s constant “leaks” and overall dishonest flow of information, and now the endless production issues, have soured me on both Ford and Bronco.

Clearly I’m not the only one who feels this way.


Finally someone who gets it. I've been saying since the videos started that many of them are doctored up. They give the reviewers the info they are allowed to print and say. It's complete BS. Just like I said a few minutes ago. The Wrangler actually has no competition if you look at what it is designed for.
 

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FSA was always a controversial feature: it provides uncompromising off-road capability but compromises handling on-road.

Jeep was the only automaker willing to keep FSA in production and, in a market swelling with fake off-road SUVs, Wrangler sales continued to climb.

In fairness, Jeep left its flank exposed by putting a weak steering box on JL, switching to a numb electric assist, and despite consumer complaints, pretending for the next 3 years that there was no steering problem.

As the saying goes: “it takes two to tango.” Jeep bears a lot of responsibility for many consumers —and journalists— souring on FSA.

Ford saw the opportunity: built Bronco with an IFS, positioned IFS as a key asset and publicly derided FSA as a liability.

Of course anyone who off-road knows IFS has its limitations on the trail. But with a growing number of Wrangler owners never taking their Jeep off-road, ongoing complaints of vague steering, and the average auto journalist never leaving the track, here we are.
 
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Nissan built Xterra to compete against Wrangler as well. But there ended being very little cross-shopping between the two. Nissan fans bought Xterras and Jeep fans continued buying Wranglers, and that was that. The same thing happened with Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Ford wanted to avoid the same fate: it marketed the crap out of Bronco for 2 whole years before it even came out; it made the comparisons between the two very obvious; and copied many of Wrangler’s unique features —e.g., iconic looks, removable top, swaybar dislocate— while making sure Bronco always came on top in every “comparison,” however fair or not.

Jeep owners’ animosity towards Bronco is well justified. For 2-3 years now Ford has been pooping all over Wrangler while pretending that its shit don’t stink. Worse, Ford wants to position FSA, Wrangler’s unique feature and the key reason many of us buy a Jeep, as a weakness. And it’s been doing all of this with fake swaybar “disconnects,” fake computer-generated videos of Broncos bouncing over rocks, and by tightly controlling whatever independent reviewers said about Bronco. So now, whenever a magazines appears to be doing the same thing, we are understandably skeptical.

Personally, I was excited when Ford first announced Bronco. But the never-ending delays, the fake videos, the “censored” reviews, Ford’s constant “leaks” and overall dishonest flow of information, and now the endless production issues, have soured me on both Ford and Bronco.

Clearly I’m not the only one who feels this way.
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