K9Jeeper
Well-Known Member
I am most definitely in tune with every single change Jeep has made from the TJ all the way up to the 392. I can tell you about a JK sport model that came with a rear locker and sway bar disconnect from the factory. I can tell you the real differences between JK models, JLs and even JTs. Have owned 15 Jeeps the past 20 yesrw
With Ford, I’ve owned 7 Raptors, a current Gen King Ranch F350, and 5 other Ford trucks/4x4s.
Other than what’s disclosed above, I’m also known by many as Jay Leno, one car at a time. I can pick apart every pro and con you can imagine, some factual and beyond most peoples true knowledge base, and some as a chosen pro or con based on personal taste (bias).
So now, let me debunk your imagined and hurried negatives above: $75K will get you about an $82-84K 392 with most the option boxes checked, including the XR package with 35s… How? You don’t pay MSRP at enough dealers to make it happen for a good number of people. The flip side to that: You cannot do that with the Bronco Raptor in general because no one cares to give up their small number of allocations to “hook you up”, because a Raptor based Bronco will not be a constant flow of “sold orders” like the 392 is.
The Rubicon 392 sits on a proven body on frame structure that is not only tried and true, but is reinforced a lot more than just a tad…. So not a bad thing at all… What did you want the 392 to do? Jump dunes??Thats not it’s job… Doesn’t claim to be… Doesn’t make it inferior because it doesn’t.
An 8.4 inch UConnect screen coupled with a pretty nice Alpine sound system is a far cry from “puny screen” and whatever else you had to say in that department. It fits the vehicle very nicely, is functional and is a very well sorted setup in the Jeep.
Tiny axles…. Don’t even know what to tell you here, other than do more research on the current generation D44s and their inners….Again, I don’t know what the expectation is on your end, but the engineers did not set us up to fail in this department. It’s everything we’ll ever NEED. If you want 40s, that’s another story, but it’s also another story for the Bronco as well…
And lastly, as far as “rushed” is concerned, I wouldn’t go that far either. Jeep hasn’t necessarily wanted to give us the V8 in the Wrangler, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been testing… There’s been mules, Moab EJS models in the past that undoubtedly were stress testing certain components and setups, skunkworks going on for years me and you don’t hear about, etc. No one can claim A rushed product here when the evidence shows there’s been a decent level of energy put into the dream of putting a V8 out there. They did it, and the last time I checked, there’s been zero detrimental trends for this vehicle.
Want me to speak truth on the Bronco, I can do that too, because I spent time in the prototype/pre-production vehicles and had actually presented a couple of flaws to the Ford team prior to launch, and so far, I have seen plenty of complaints on one of the items I identified well enough in advance for them to fix, but didn’t. THEN, I can talk about my experience with the production model, Badlands Sasquatch in rather greet detail, but all you really need to hear is INFERIOR in so many ways, that it’s not even funny. I did video reviews and actually decided against editing and posting because it was so negative and disgusting what I had to say the entire time. Oh, and if you think that was due to my bias, you’d be wrong. I had a first Edition reserved up until that point, but was very weary after seeing the pre production models and getting hands on. And then when I went full review on a production model and cancelled my order same day. So what does that leave a sensible and critical thinker to believe with a Bronco Raptor? Well, just about the same negatives are there, minus the lack of acceleration.
There is at least a 30 page summary I could write on Jeep Vs Ford Vs anything else you’d like to hear about, and the Jeep doesn’t come out on top in all the categories, but it does come out on top with a real important one: It’s worth what they are asking and the higher Bronco trims are not. And yea, my last sentence is an opinion, but that opinion is what drives my decision to place the value of the Jeep on top and my $85000 392 that I am paying a tad under $75K for will be here in less than a month…. Someone show me a Bronco Raptor with Adaptive, power painted top, 470 HP, engineering improvements decade after decade since 1941, clubs in every single town filled with members, paid maintenance, and my personal favorite: the best damn automatic transmission I’ve driven with in a 4x4 vehicle….
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