ChaseW
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Chase
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2018
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 50
- Reaction score
- 293
- Location
- Greensboro, North Carolina
- Vehicle(s)
- '22 Wrangler 392 XR
- Thread starter
- #1
Well the title says it.
I am going back to a Wrangler after spending ~8k miles with a Bronco First Edition 4-door. I was fortunate enough to get a Bronco as early as I did given the ongoing fiasco with how Ford allocated them and the constant supply chain issues. I traded my 392 for it, and to the 392, I had an â18 JLUR 2.0, both of which I loved! After spending some months and considerable driving time with the Bronco, I never liked it as much. My goal with this post is to provide some real world observations after having both, for anyone else comparing the two. The First Edition came with pretty much every option you could get, so it gave me a chance to really check out all of the features available. I'm going to omit talking about the power, simply because I do not think its fair to compare this against my 392. Let me start with the things I liked about the Bronco (I know I will overlook some things):
I am going back to a Wrangler after spending ~8k miles with a Bronco First Edition 4-door. I was fortunate enough to get a Bronco as early as I did given the ongoing fiasco with how Ford allocated them and the constant supply chain issues. I traded my 392 for it, and to the 392, I had an â18 JLUR 2.0, both of which I loved! After spending some months and considerable driving time with the Bronco, I never liked it as much. My goal with this post is to provide some real world observations after having both, for anyone else comparing the two. The First Edition came with pretty much every option you could get, so it gave me a chance to really check out all of the features available. I'm going to omit talking about the power, simply because I do not think its fair to compare this against my 392. Let me start with the things I liked about the Bronco (I know I will overlook some things):
- It does drive straighter, thanks to the independent front suspension. No denying that. I honestly do not think the Wrangler is bad as many make it out to be, especially my 392, but I would be lying if I said the Bronco did not track better than the Wrangler.
- To me, the doors are much easier to take on and off. Two easy locate bolts, one wiring quick disconnect, no window frames. The way the doors go on also make it harder to scratch the body when trying to locate hanging the doors back on. The Bronco doors have these conical shaped hinges that for me, make the doors much easier to hang.
- 1-touch automatic windows, up and down on all 4 windows. Donât ask me why I like these so much, I just do haha.
- Rear gate opens much wider than Wrangler and has a hydraulic to hold it open on inclines, which is great.
- 4 roof panels instead of 3. What makes this cool for me personally is that you can take off the roof panels over all of the passengers, while leaving the rear âboxâ on. This is great if you have an excitable dog (which we do) and being able to contain the dog but have the roof and doors off if you choose. Again, this is cool for me, but may be of no value to you.
- The Bronco has dramatically more headroom than the Jeep. Not sure where it comes from exactly, but itâs wayyy more than the Wrangler. The driver seat seems to go down much lower than the Wrangler does. and the shape of the roof panels seem to help.
- I took it off-roading twice at Uwharrie on the easy and several moderate trails and I was impressed. It did great and I have nothing to complain about.
- The factory Swaybar Disconnect being available in 4HI up to 20mph is fantastic. I had a Tazer in my JL to allow me to do this, which has a bit of a cumbersome process, so the fact that the Bronco offered this was quite nice and I hope Jeep follows suit.
- The area for the wireless charging in front of the shift lever offers some great storage, totally absent on the Wrangler.
- The overall build and materials quality of the interior is borderline laughable. The Wrangler is hands down nicer across the board. The grab handles, use of hard shitty plastics, poorly fitting trim pieces, plastic burrs from lazy cuts around the gauge cluster and infotainment screen, all not even close to the Wrangler.
- The Bang and Olufsen surround premium audio sucks. And it shouldn't. There is nothing premium about it and trying to equalize the music I like is impossible. The Alpine stereo in the Jeep isnât that of a high end luxury car by any means, but it equalized significantly better than this B&O.
- The 12â infotainment screen is unnecessarily large. The quality of it is nice, it's just overkill to me.
- The Wireless Charging and Wireless CarPlay is pure trash. The wireless charging only heats up my phone and the wireless CarPlay drops out constantly and confuses itself with the Bluetooth and I hate it. God forbid I want to take a private call or switch hold my iPhone up to my ear, it is nightmare. The wireless charging problem is not unique to the Bronco, as I have the same challenges with wireless charging in other cars, but it still sucks. I think both features are overrated in cars in general, as the whole point of CarPlay is to not use your iPhone while driving. So why does it need to be wireless? The wireless CarPlay drops out constantly and interferes with Bluetooth. I could go on and on.
- There is not a charging port, USB, or any sort of power outlet inside the center console. In my Jeep, I would tuck my phone out of the way in there or keep a spare battery charging or something, but not so in the Bronco. It does have a USB power outlet on top of the dash where you can mount a GoPro, iPad, GPS, etc, but honestly I do not think I would ever use that.
- The quality of the hardtop, as many publications have commented on, is a joke and needs significantly better quality control. There are exposed burrs, uneven cuts, the creak like crazy, and do not pack well at all into their bags due to their shape.
- The glass in the frameless doors isnât particularly secure and they rattle like crazy with the windows up. They also get caught frequently on the roof panels because the do not roll down quickly enough to clear the roof panels when you open the doors.
- The 10-Speed Transmission is too many gears. It constantly tried to figure out what gear to be in, was incredibly clunky, and nowhere near as smooth as the 8-speed in either Jeep I had.
- It does not ride as good as my 392, I don't care what anyone says about the independent front suspension.
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