Sponsored

Drove The New Bronco Today

jimim

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2020
Threads
31
Messages
622
Reaction score
593
Location
NEPA
Vehicle(s)
2020 Rubicon, 2017 Tahoe LTZ
That front license plate can’t be for real. No way. There is no way a sane person Would let that happen. I mean even with a zero iq it makes no sense there. None. Someone tell me a reason it’s that high.


I still like the look of a Jeep better. Even more seeing it front on. The bronco looks like someone squeezed its head. I said that before seeing it from the rear with the soft top on too.
Sponsored

 

Rhinebeck01

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 9, 2018
Threads
155
Messages
11,875
Reaction score
17,122
Location
Multiple places..
Vehicle(s)
'18 JL Rubi, '22 Prevost M H3-45,'01 Harley FatBoy
I mentioned in a post in late June, I got my hands on a Bronco... and not Bronco Sport. Was a 2 door and not a 4 dr... My buddy owns a Ford dealership...

I got to drive it for a dozen miles but did not go off road with it... Since that day, I have installed some aftermarket lights on that Bronco, some other do dads too and have fooled with it a bit more...

I'm not up to getting into a back and forth here in regard to the the 2 dr Bronco... ... nor will I post a review.

I'm a long long time Jeep / Jeep Wrangler owner and all I will say is the 2 dr Bronco is not chopped liver lets say. I can actually see myself owning one...

By the way, I don't care for the look of the 4 door Bronco, at all.... but to be honest I do not care for the look of the JLU...
 

EJWF11

Banned
Banned
Banned
Joined
Jun 19, 2021
Threads
1
Messages
198
Reaction score
234
Location
VA
Vehicle(s)
21 JLUR
….mmm. Great insight, it’s appreciated here, as a recent
Hey everyone, just wanted to leave some thoughts after spending some time in the new Bronco and post my driving impressions. I have owned many jeeps ranging from early models all the way to the JL model. I have had a JL rubicon and Rubicon 392. So, I feel like I can at least give some comparison between the two. I'll start off by saying for purposes of this review I am not going to compare it to the 392. It would not be fair the Bronco, but the only thing I will say is that if I ordered a launch edition four door bronco for $63k I would be really tempted to drop that reservation and spend the extra $10k for a 392. That's just my personal opinion after having owned a 392, but of course some people will disagree with that. With that being said I'll be comparing a JLU rubicon to a four door Bronco Badlands without sasquatch package.

The spec of the Bronco: this one was a badlands, it had the high package which give most of the comfort and technology options such as the larger screen, heated seats, leather seats, power seats, etc. This one had a soft top and not the hardtop. No sasquatch package. The engine option on the bronco was the 2.7 ecoboost.

The spec on my Rubicon JL is a 3.6 V6 Etorque with almost all the options offered from jeep. I've also had the 2.0 4cyl turbo Rubicon so I'll leave some thoughts on the comparison between that below.

If someone does not have time to read the whole thing my overall impression in short would be that they do not feel like they're in the same class of vehicles purely from driving on the street. They are completely different in the way they drive, and I think many people who enjoy a jeep actually won't switch to a bronco. If you have the time then please read the whole post because I go into a lot more detail on how I formed this opinion.

Exterior impressions: The Bronco is bigger. It definitely looks chunky because of how wide it is. Also was longer than the JL, but overall height seemed pretty similar. The overall height was almost the same, the bronco was maybe an inch taller in overall length. Chunky would be the one word I would use to describe its appearance. I might be in the minority because I know many people like the design, but I really was underwhelmed when I saw it in person. In pictures, I wasn't a big fan, but figured it might grow on me in person, but it's really just not my style. I prefer the look of a wrangler better, it just has more character and utilitarian look to it because of the fender and hood design on the wrangler. I also like the proportions better on the jeep. Of course this is all subjective because a lot of people will love the design of the bronco. With the design of the bronco the front end is pretty tall so if you stand directly in front of the bronco it seems a lot taller, but in reality the overall height is not that different. This one had a soft top, and one of the things it does is that the rear of the soft top will lift up/raise up a 6 inches or so and be propped up with a rod. I think it was pretty useless to be honest. you have to push a button on either side and then prop it up. So if you were carrying anything you couldn't raise it. You need both hands to raise it.

Interior impression: Certain areas are definitely better in the Bronco, such as having power seats. Not really a big thing having manually adjustable seats like in the wrangler, but to be honest it did feel nice being able to have power seats. It's a minor thing. The screen is big in the bronco, the touchscreen is pretty responsive I did not notice any lag when going through different screens. I only spent 10 minutes going through it so, not too much to add on it. But all the features are there that are in the wrangler. The front camera on the bronco coupled with the larger screen is pretty nice. Really clear view, but no lines on the screen like the wrangler has. The steering wheel felt smaller than the wrangler, which for some is good, but others might prefer a larger wheel. The wheel felt soft in hand. I did not like the button feel on the steering wheel. It did not have a real click/push feel to them. That goes for that buttons on the drive mode selector as well, it just felt like cheap made buttons. Would have imagined it have a better feel or at least a more utilitarian feel to them. The dash trim is plastic, and there is a lot of hard plastic surfaces around the cabin, especially on the door. The soft top quality was okay, I didn't get a chance to take it off so I'm not sure how easy that process is. The rear seat was actually not a spacious as I thought it would be. Having the driver seat adjusted to my comfort (I'm 6'3) I had no leg room in the rear, my knees were hitting the seat in front. However, I did have ample head room. The leather on the seats were soft, and the seat was larger feeling than in the rubicon which on long trips may be more comfortable. The dash is analog and digital. So the speed/mph is analog the rest is digital. No lag between the different modes on the digital dash screen, and the graphics were pretty cool. I was not a fan of the RPM gauge. It's part of the digital screen and is a bar that raises as the engine revs higher. I would rather have a normal design for the revs. In pictures I did not like the half analog and half digital, but in person it actually works okay. Overall, I wish the fit and finish was better, the interior quality just is not as good as I was hoping, and it just did not feel like a finished product, which I will go into more detail below.

Driving impression: The steering is very direct. There is not a loose steering feel like in the wrangler. It has a nice weight to it, and is very direct. This is probably because of the set up difference between the bronco and wrangler. If I was going on long drive across the country, then I would prefer the steering in the bronco. It felt very much like a SUV, and similar to the steering in a 4runner. When driving you definitely feel the difference in size. Bronco feels much bigger, but for me personally it was not comfortable. I actually like having the smaller feel on the road that the wrangler has. I suspect the bigger feel might also make it a little more difficult off road. Because of the hood design it's more difficult seeing over the hood compared to the wrangler. For example, on the wrangler you have a more commanding feel over the road because the driving position and the design of the front end, whereas in the Bronco it did not have that feel. Felt more similar to a regular SUV, it just didn't have that distinct off road/utilitarian feel. The suspension was very well sorted in the Bronco, it handled bumps very well and did not notice much body roll on corners. The engine had good torque at initial offset, but at the higher RPMS it seemed to fall flat. It was smooth though, and went through gears smoothly. However, it did not feel as powerful or quick as the number would lead me to expect. It fell pretty flat at the higher revs even compared to the 2.0 4 cyl in the wrangler. The bronco also did not sound very good, especially compared to the 3.6 in the wrangler. The rear window is really small, and there a lot of blind spots such as between the passenger and second row seating there is a large blind spot and in the rear the set up of the soft top and small windows creates a blind spot. The windshield is not as upright as in a wrangler, it's pretty racked back (doesn't fold down). The rearview mirror was vibrating while driving which really sucked. There were quite a bit of rattles and with only 150 miles on the vehicle there were error messages popping up, and right after I test drove it the sales guy was going to take it to service. Which makes me concerned for those who placed an order because being such a new product it might have many issues or might not really be fully ready for production with the amount of software and technology that it has.

Conclusion: The highlight of the Bronco is that the steering is better (more direct, does not feel like the vehicle wanders). I do not think the bronco rides better than a wrangler I think they are pretty comparable. The bronco feels more bulky/chunky, which some may like, however, I like the way I feel in the wrangler better. The wrangler isn't tiny, but the design and feel of being in it makes it feel narrow and more fun rather than having a wider bulkier vehicle. Jumping back into my wrangler JLUR I was left not impressed with the bronco despite the better steering. The fit and finish in the wrangler seems better, and the overall quality was just better. The feel of being in the wrangler is different than being in a bronco. The bronco has a lot of hype, so maybe I went in with expectations too high. The bottom line is that if you like a wrangler, and you like the character and feel that you get of driving and being in a wrangler you won't necessarily fall in love with the Bronco. The Bronco is more similar to a 4runner than it is to a wrangler. The wrangler and bronco are just really different, they don't feel like competitors, they feel very distinct from one another. The wrangler just has more character and is more enjoyable to me. The wrangler feels like a product that has been in production for a long time and has been tweaked over the years, which gives it a more production ready feel that the bronco just did not have. I really felt like the bronco was just not prime time ready the materials were not great, the design has some flaws, and there were some electrical issues on the test drive. The sales guy mentioned that if I placed in order it won't be here till 2023 which I think is a problem cause by 2023 I'm sure the wrangler will only get better and I personally would not want to wait 2 years for a vehicle. To be completely honest, even if the sales guy had one in stock and gave me top dollar on my wrangler I would not do the trade.
pic bronco.jpeg
Lemme ax ya somthin’…

how was the build quality?? The fit and finish? The materials? The weight of the doors?

these are the things that folks overlook and cant quite put there finger on identifying why the prefer one over the other…
 

Sponsored

blnewt

Well-Known Member
First Name
Brad
Joined
Oct 8, 2018
Threads
96
Messages
9,876
Reaction score
23,795
Location
New Mexico
Vehicle(s)
2019 Jeep JL V6 SportS, (Retired 74 CJ-5, 80 CJ-7)
Occupation
Just ask @cosine he knows!
When I initially saw the 2 door in pics a couple years ago I thought they nailed that grill/front end, seeing real pics they really saved some coin there, compared to the JL (at least from the front) the JL looks so much better and more substantial.
 

JeezAJeep

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jimmy
Joined
Oct 27, 2020
Threads
15
Messages
356
Reaction score
278
Location
NYC
Vehicle(s)
2003 Baja..2019 BMW X2
Thank you for the great review...I love my JL
 

jimim

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2020
Threads
31
Messages
622
Reaction score
593
Location
NEPA
Vehicle(s)
2020 Rubicon, 2017 Tahoe LTZ
I mentioned in a post in late June, I got my hands on a Bronco... and not Bronco Sport. Was a 2 door and not a 4 dr... My buddy owns a Ford dealership...

I got to drive it for a dozen miles but did not go off road with it... Since that day, I have installed some aftermarket lights on that Bronco, some other do dads too and have fooled with it a bit more...

I'm not up to getting into a back and forth here in regard to the the 2 dr Bronco... ... nor will I post a review.

I'm a long long time Jeep / Jeep Wrangler owner and all I will say is the 2 dr Bronco is not chopped liver lets say. I can actually see myself owning one...

By the way, I don't care for the look of the 4 door Bronco, at all.... but to be honest I do not care for the look of the JLU...
That’s pretty cool you have been able to work on one a bit. A saw Baja designs has some pretty cool light setup already. Can I ask what you did on it?
 

Goin2drt

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2017
Threads
48
Messages
2,572
Reaction score
3,198
Location
Kentucky
Vehicle(s)
18 Rubicon, 17 Grand Cherokee Trailhawk
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. I've wanted a Bronco for years and years and have a reservation to order one. As tempted as I've been to just order one, I need to touch/see/drive it first. I do love the design and feel that they nailed it (in my opinion, of course) but I need to drive one before I order and wait until next year to get it. The 'tighter' steering does appeal to me as my wife's JL has the typical loose feel to it, but we'll see. I would love a 2Dr Willys....
Go over to any of the Bronco forums and you will be back on to wanting to order one. Remember all the reviews on here are from very biased Jeep owners Albeit they are trying real hard to be non biased. The same reviews of folks that love Broncos and Ford in general are not the same as you are seeing here. Amazing that if this Bronco is so inferior to the Jeep then why all the fuss And the multiple threads about it on a Jeep forum. The competition is real. Jeep now has competition that will be just as capable for almost everyone that uses them at the level they do.
 

Sponsored

zrickety

Banned
Banned
Banned
Joined
Aug 7, 2020
Threads
20
Messages
1,549
Reaction score
1,840
Location
USA
Vehicle(s)
2020 Rubicon 2DR 3.6L 6MT, VW 2.0T
Build Thread
Link
Occupation
Technician
Local Ford Dealer has one. It's a base Bronco for $39k. They won't let anyone drive it. Said if you order one it will come in 7 months. Apparently they are modding it up so they can get the price to $60k.
 

lowmpg

Well-Known Member
First Name
Ryan
Joined
Apr 2, 2021
Threads
32
Messages
751
Reaction score
1,410
Location
Kent Island, Maryland
Vehicle(s)
2021 Rubicon
Hey everyone, just wanted to leave some thoughts after spending some time in the new Bronco and post my driving impressions. I have owned many jeeps ranging from early models all the way to the JL model. I have had a JL rubicon and Rubicon 392. So, I feel like I can at least give some comparison between the two. I'll start off by saying for purposes of this review I am not going to compare it to the 392. It would not be fair the Bronco, but the only thing I will say is that if I ordered a launch edition four door bronco for $63k I would be really tempted to drop that reservation and spend the extra $10k for a 392. That's just my personal opinion after having owned a 392, but of course some people will disagree with that. With that being said I'll be comparing a JLU rubicon to a four door Bronco Badlands without sasquatch package.

The spec of the Bronco: this one was a badlands, it had the high package which give most of the comfort and technology options such as the larger screen, heated seats, leather seats, power seats, etc. This one had a soft top and not the hardtop. No sasquatch package. The engine option on the bronco was the 2.7 ecoboost.

The spec on my Rubicon JL is a 3.6 V6 Etorque with almost all the options offered from jeep. I've also had the 2.0 4cyl turbo Rubicon so I'll leave some thoughts on the comparison between that below.

If someone does not have time to read the whole thing my overall impression in short would be that they do not feel like they're in the same class of vehicles purely from driving on the street. They are completely different in the way they drive, and I think many people who enjoy a jeep actually won't switch to a bronco. If you have the time then please read the whole post because I go into a lot more detail on how I formed this opinion.

Exterior impressions: The Bronco is bigger. It definitely looks chunky because of how wide it is. Also was longer than the JL, but overall height seemed pretty similar. The overall height was almost the same, the bronco was maybe an inch taller in overall length. Chunky would be the one word I would use to describe its appearance. I might be in the minority because I know many people like the design, but I really was underwhelmed when I saw it in person. In pictures, I wasn't a big fan, but figured it might grow on me in person, but it's really just not my style. I prefer the look of a wrangler better, it just has more character and utilitarian look to it because of the fender and hood design on the wrangler. I also like the proportions better on the jeep. Of course this is all subjective because a lot of people will love the design of the bronco. With the design of the bronco the front end is pretty tall so if you stand directly in front of the bronco it seems a lot taller, but in reality the overall height is not that different. This one had a soft top, and one of the things it does is that the rear of the soft top will lift up/raise up a 6 inches or so and be propped up with a rod. I think it was pretty useless to be honest. you have to push a button on either side and then prop it up. So if you were carrying anything you couldn't raise it. You need both hands to raise it.

Interior impression: Certain areas are definitely better in the Bronco, such as having power seats. Not really a big thing having manually adjustable seats like in the wrangler, but to be honest it did feel nice being able to have power seats. It's a minor thing. The screen is big in the bronco, the touchscreen is pretty responsive I did not notice any lag when going through different screens. I only spent 10 minutes going through it so, not too much to add on it. But all the features are there that are in the wrangler. The front camera on the bronco coupled with the larger screen is pretty nice. Really clear view, but no lines on the screen like the wrangler has. The steering wheel felt smaller than the wrangler, which for some is good, but others might prefer a larger wheel. The wheel felt soft in hand. I did not like the button feel on the steering wheel. It did not have a real click/push feel to them. That goes for that buttons on the drive mode selector as well, it just felt like cheap made buttons. Would have imagined it have a better feel or at least a more utilitarian feel to them. The dash trim is plastic, and there is a lot of hard plastic surfaces around the cabin, especially on the door. The soft top quality was okay, I didn't get a chance to take it off so I'm not sure how easy that process is. The rear seat was actually not a spacious as I thought it would be. Having the driver seat adjusted to my comfort (I'm 6'3) I had no leg room in the rear, my knees were hitting the seat in front. However, I did have ample head room. The leather on the seats were soft, and the seat was larger feeling than in the rubicon which on long trips may be more comfortable. The dash is analog and digital. So the speed/mph is analog the rest is digital. No lag between the different modes on the digital dash screen, and the graphics were pretty cool. I was not a fan of the RPM gauge. It's part of the digital screen and is a bar that raises as the engine revs higher. I would rather have a normal design for the revs. In pictures I did not like the half analog and half digital, but in person it actually works okay. Overall, I wish the fit and finish was better, the interior quality just is not as good as I was hoping, and it just did not feel like a finished product, which I will go into more detail below.

Driving impression: The steering is very direct. There is not a loose steering feel like in the wrangler. It has a nice weight to it, and is very direct. This is probably because of the set up difference between the bronco and wrangler. If I was going on long drive across the country, then I would prefer the steering in the bronco. It felt very much like a SUV, and similar to the steering in a 4runner. When driving you definitely feel the difference in size. Bronco feels much bigger, but for me personally it was not comfortable. I actually like having the smaller feel on the road that the wrangler has. I suspect the bigger feel might also make it a little more difficult off road. Because of the hood design it's more difficult seeing over the hood compared to the wrangler. For example, on the wrangler you have a more commanding feel over the road because the driving position and the design of the front end, whereas in the Bronco it did not have that feel. Felt more similar to a regular SUV, it just didn't have that distinct off road/utilitarian feel. The suspension was very well sorted in the Bronco, it handled bumps very well and did not notice much body roll on corners. The engine had good torque at initial offset, but at the higher RPMS it seemed to fall flat. It was smooth though, and went through gears smoothly. However, it did not feel as powerful or quick as the number would lead me to expect. It fell pretty flat at the higher revs even compared to the 2.0 4 cyl in the wrangler. The bronco also did not sound very good, especially compared to the 3.6 in the wrangler. The rear window is really small, and there a lot of blind spots such as between the passenger and second row seating there is a large blind spot and in the rear the set up of the soft top and small windows creates a blind spot. The windshield is not as upright as in a wrangler, it's pretty racked back (doesn't fold down). The rearview mirror was vibrating while driving which really sucked. There were quite a bit of rattles and with only 150 miles on the vehicle there were error messages popping up, and right after I test drove it the sales guy was going to take it to service. Which makes me concerned for those who placed an order because being such a new product it might have many issues or might not really be fully ready for production with the amount of software and technology that it has.

Conclusion: The highlight of the Bronco is that the steering is better (more direct, does not feel like the vehicle wanders). I do not think the bronco rides better than a wrangler I think they are pretty comparable. The bronco feels more bulky/chunky, which some may like, however, I like the way I feel in the wrangler better. The wrangler isn't tiny, but the design and feel of being in it makes it feel narrow and more fun rather than having a wider bulkier vehicle. Jumping back into my wrangler JLUR I was left not impressed with the bronco despite the better steering. The fit and finish in the wrangler seems better, and the overall quality was just better. The feel of being in the wrangler is different than being in a bronco. The bronco has a lot of hype, so maybe I went in with expectations too high. The bottom line is that if you like a wrangler, and you like the character and feel that you get of driving and being in a wrangler you won't necessarily fall in love with the Bronco. The Bronco is more similar to a 4runner than it is to a wrangler. The wrangler and bronco are just really different, they don't feel like competitors, they feel very distinct from one another. The wrangler just has more character and is more enjoyable to me. The wrangler feels like a product that has been in production for a long time and has been tweaked over the years, which gives it a more production ready feel that the bronco just did not have. I really felt like the bronco was just not prime time ready the materials were not great, the design has some flaws, and there were some electrical issues on the test drive. The sales guy mentioned that if I placed in order it won't be here till 2023 which I think is a problem cause by 2023 I'm sure the wrangler will only get better and I personally would not want to wait 2 years for a vehicle. To be completely honest, even if the sales guy had one in stock and gave me top dollar on my wrangler I would not do the trade.
pic bronco.jpeg
Great write up, thanks for that.

And for the life of me why did Ford decide that was the 'right' spot for a front plate?
 

Walker Texas Wrangler

Well-Known Member
First Name
Kelly
Joined
Mar 10, 2021
Threads
5
Messages
234
Reaction score
397
Location
Humble, TX
Website
www.hamburgsolutions.com
Vehicle(s)
'21 JLU Rubicon, Previous: '99 TJ Sahara
Build Thread
Link
Thanks for the great write up. The old style Bronco/Blazer holds a special place for me. I initially wanted one but I don't have the patience to wait and I don't pay MSRP or above. Once these have a couple years of production I can see myself talking my wife into getting a 2 door Bronco. I like the Wildtrack with the Sasquatch.

But I gotta say, that front license plate mount is hideous. No way I could live with that. The geometry looks better on the 2 door vs. 4. Which I feel the opposite on the JL. I also don't like the frameless windows on the Bronco and the way the mirrors are stretched. I wonder if they will do a faux 2 tone with trim like my K5 had. I think it would be awesome and soften a bit of the boxiness.

Also, I see a lot of conversation going on about IFS and Solid axle. I remember from my TJ days that Jeep was toying with the idea of having the JK with IFS. People were going nuts. I think the next Jeep iteration will keep the solid axle, but dump the folding windshield to allow the mirrors to be mounted on the doors.
 

Killed by Death

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2018
Threads
5
Messages
935
Reaction score
1,495
Location
North Carolina, USA
Vehicle(s)
Sarge Green 2021 Rubicon 2 Door
There is nothing wrong with the solid axle. Like seriously, what is the problem?
The Mustang is a road car, you are comparing apples to tortillas.
Thinking it's mostly life long sports car guys like me that have a problem with SFA. If your not rock crawling IFS with Ford's innovative sway bar disconnect is PLENTY capable for intermediate to hard trails. Some, like me, are buying a Jeep in spite SFA not because of it IMHO.
Sponsored

 
 



Top