The Ford Bronco is big, raw and ready for all challenges. Just like the Jeep Wrangler. Is the Bronco more than just an imitation?
TEXT AND PHOTO Morten Beck
I’ve said quite often that I don’t understand what Ford is doing. Most models are gone in a few years and you can’t even buy an honest Fiesta anymore. Electric cars are on the way, but I really thought that Ford would be the guarantor of nice petrol cars for a long time to come.
You must also remember to say nice things, and when something good happens at Ford, it must also be told. The facelift of the Kuga and Puma is not what I want to praise Ford for. It is the courage to not only take the new generation Mustang to Denmark, but also the spectacular Bronco.
The Bronco is both like a spaceship and like something you know anyway. People ask what kind of car the Bronco is (there’s only a Ford logo on the side-hinged tailgate, but it’s easy to see what it resembles: the Jeep Wrangler.
If money can be made in the automotive industry, then money must be made. It’s really bizarre that it has taken so long to make a Wrangler copy, because Jeep is making money with the Wrangler in the US. But is the Bronco just a copy?
Bronco is ferocity with a gentle approach
Jeep Wrangler, which roughly started as the four-wheel drive that helped save the world from Nazi supremacy during World War II, was created with a purpose. Purpose and function dictate the design, and the boxy Wrangler expression, flat and narrow front and large freestanding fenders are iconic.
It’s not like that, a wild four-wheel drive must gaze. There is nothing that says terrain, mud, forest floor and rivers require exactly that format – the Land Rover Defender, Toyota Land Cruiser and Mercedes G-Class don’t look like that. But Ford has copied and imitated as if the American brand is really a cheap China brand from 20 years ago. The more integrated front fenders fool no one.
Bronco is cool, fierce, tall, mighty. In Denmark, it is only available with five doors, but the Americans are lucky enough to also be able to choose a short version with three doors, which looks even cooler. The roof can be removed in sections, the doors can be removed. Sound like Wrangler? Then it’s because that’s the Wrangler way of doing things.
When you could finally buy Jeep’s four-wheel drive in Denmark, it was as a plug-in hybrid. It would probably have been cooler with a diesel, but it has been a long time since such a thing has been relevant, and in the USA the Wrangler is the best-selling PHEV, so Jeep has made a solid target there. But the Bronco always runs on pure gasoline, and it sounds cool with a 2.7-liter V6 with 335 hp and 563 Nm.
It sounds like something, the V6, but the sound is not delicious. The engine is lazy, geared for all roads other than tarmac, and it has to pull around 2.5 tonnes to start. It goes sluggishly before the revolutions really come on, and 10 steps in the automatic gearbox gives no real help in that area. It certainly helps to save a few deciliters of petrol for every 100 kilometres, and the WLTP figure of 7.9 km/l is, for a rare occasion, very accurate.
For the very few Danes who could get lost in buying a Bronco Badlands, first look at this figure: 1,000 kilos. This is the maximum weight if you buy a towbar for the Bronco in the Badlands edition. You can choose to tow something of 1,000 kilos with the Bronco – or choose to do it with a Polo with 95 hp. The cheaper Bronco Outer Banks, which has the same engine, ups that to 1,250 kilos, but it’s still an embarrassing few kilos.
It drives better than the Wrangler
To take advantage of all the many terrain and off-road systems that the Bronco comes with, one must have access to large areas of nature that offer challenges. One of the closest you can get in Denmark is if you know someone with a gravel pit, because we have so little nature in Denmark that fortunately they don’t allow you to drive around in it.
I would love to do skydiving on the dune in Thy or drive through the trees in Almindingen, and in the USA and many other countries you can do that. In Denmark, the Bronco and its congeners are mostly road warriors who rarely see anything more challenging than a deep puddle. There are settings and adjustment options at a glance.
Here, a more modern suspension and undercarriage than in the Wrangler benefit the newer Bronco. It is durable on the road. It is even quite straight and can hold out on the motorway, even if the cabin noise is violent.
The Wrangler, as I have recently tried it, wanders and moves a lot on the road. A speed above 60 km/h Wrangler brings out the worst in the car. When the Bronco is forced into motion, and it suddenly goes up to 130 km/h briskly, it just sits there. It doesn’t go from side to side and the steering wheel stays still because I don’t have to constantly correct when it goes straight. This is where Ford shows that not everything is worth copying.
This one or a house
Ford has wrapped the interior in waterproof rubber and plastic, and I’m sure you can get going with a bucket of water if you need it. The front seats are large, so even an ordinary American can find space, and the infotainment system is the latest from Ford. You can 3D print accessories for your Bronco, and there are many places everywhere in and on the car where they can be mounted.
But the Bronco is no more unique in the cabin than the Wrangler is, and if the Wrangler is once again to be sold in Denmark, it will come in a renewed form with a lot of upgrades.
The Bronco was hardly ever intended as a product to be sold in Europe. It was the same when Ford chose to send the Explorer PHEV across the Atlantic. It makes for very expensive cars, but at least the Bronco is spectacular and good to drive, where the Explorer is a sad American car.
You pay at least DKK 1.42 million. DKK for the Bronco, and the tested Badlands edition with capabilities aimed even more at rough terrain costs DKK 1,532,817. In the USA you can go to Ford and get it, with the same engine and similar equipment, for DKK 441,000 before any local taxes, which, however, do not raise the price very much. It is expensive to do a US-European transaction, but it is worth all the glory. What I’d rather have from Ford is ordinary, good cars.
If I were to become a millionaire myself and get an unbearable off-road urge, neither Wrangler nor Bronco would be my choice. The Land Rover Defender has the skills, but the packaging is far more elegant and the cabin is as luxurious as it will ever be in a Ford.
SPECIFICATIONS
Ford Bronco 2.7 Badlands
Engine: V6, 2,694 cc
Performance: 335 hp/563 Nm
0-100 km/h: 7.2 seconds
Top speed: 161 km/h
Spending: 7.9 km/l
CO2 emissions: 288 grams/km
Dimensions (L/W/H): 480/194/196 cm
Curb weight: 2,418 kilos
Draw weight: 1,000 kilos
Trunk volume: 562-1,804 litres
Price: DKK 1,532,817 (Bronco available from DKK 1,422,323)
Private leasing (one-off payment/monthly payment): Not informed
Tax basis, company car: Not informed
