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For years now we’ve been patiently waiting for Ford to disappoint us with a new generation of the classic Ford Bronco, some watered-down flabby design that won’t match the original’s chunky looks. Well, we were all wrong.
Back in October, Ford held its annual national dealer meeting and showed what was called the “Baby Bronco,” as the Detroit News reported at the time:
Dealers drove the 2019 Ranger in Las Vegas. They saw the new rear-wheel drive Explorer, redesigned Escape, as-yet-unnamed 2020 battery electric vehicle, an unnamed small “rugged” SUV some call the baby Bronco, and the Mustang GT 500.
These pics turned up today on Off-Road.com, which claims that they are publically-available Ford photos, though Jalopnik has not been able to track them down:
Found on a publicly accessible part of a Ford website hosting pictures of the 2018 dealer meeting in Las Vegas, these pictures give us a dandy look at the new Bronco.
But it’s the looks that have me amped. It’s like the FJ Cruiser is back, or a Flex that’s not gigantic.
We have reached out to Ford for comment and will update when we hear back.
In total, there will be five trims available at launch: Base, Big Bend, Outer Banks, Badlands and First Edition. The First Edition trim is limited to just 2,000 initial vehicles, so we won’t be seeing many of those, and it won’t be around in the second year.
It starts at $28,155 for the Base Bronco Sport. You get the 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine and eight-speed automatic transmission here — four-wheel drive is standard. The flat black-painted grille and black Bronco badge is your first hint that this version is the Base trim, but it’s also paired with the standard 17-inch “Sparkle Silver” wheels. Roof rails come standard, and so does the flip-up liftgate glass opening and cloth seats.
Thankfully, Ford provides some of the tech we all want on the Base model as standard. You get the eight-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and Ford’s Co-Pilot360 suite of driver assistance systems that includes things like blind-spot warning, automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assist. The G.O.A.T. mode switcher also comes standard with five different modes for a number of off-roading scenarios.
Big Bend
This is where Ford begins to add a few extra nice-to-haves to the equation. The look is switched up here, too, with a gray grille and white Bronco lettering up front. It gets the same powertrain as the Base Bronco Sport, but it also picks up 17-inch gray aluminum wheels (matching the grille), heated side-view mirrors and push-button start.
Ford makes the interior slightly more utilitarian, too. Big Bend adds “easy-to-clean” cloth seats, zippered seatback pockets with MOLLE straps, a rubberized cargo floor and seatback protector, rear center armrest and two-way manually-folding rear seats. Automatic climate control is added and so is SiriusXM radio. Before options, the Big Bend trim starts at $29,655, making it $1,500 more than the Base Bronco Sport.
Outer Banks
The Outer Banks trim is where the Bronco Sport starts getting luxurious. On the outside, you’ll notice this trim has a black grille with white lettering. It also adds a black-painted roof and black-painted 18-inch aluminum wheels wrapped in all-season tires.
On the inside, Ford has added heated, leather seats up front — both the driver (eight-way) and passenger (six-way) seats are also powered. A leather-wrapped, heated steering wheel, ambient lighting, rain-sensing wipers and windshield wiper de-icer round out the new convenience features. Additional tech comes in the form of an upgraded 6.5-inch digital instrument cluster screen, reverse sensing system and dual-zone climate control. All these features will cost you, as the Outer Banks trim starts at $33,655.
Badlands
This is the Bronco Sport you want if off-roading is in your future, or you just want the coolest and best possible trim. A number of mechanical upgrades makes it more expensive, but also more capable. You get a unique off-road suspension and a different four-wheel-drive system that features a twin-clutch differential on the rear axle capable of torque vectoring. Bigger 28.5-inch all-terrain tires wrap 17-inch gray-painted wheels, and you also get metal bash plates, a low-speed trail cruise control function, front tow hooks and a trail camera system.
On top of the extra capability off-road, Ford makes the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder standard equipment to give the Bronco Sport significantly more go. Finally, the G.O.A.T. mode switcher is expanded to seven different terrain modes. The Badlands trim takes all the equipment from the Big Bend as its starting point, so if you want all the luxuries of the Outer Banks, those will have to be added as options after the fact. Its price starts at $34,155 and only goes up from there.
First Edition
This one is peak Bronco Sport for anybody willing to spend big money on the crossover. It’s based on the Badlands trim, but it also features every luxury item and option in the book as standard equipment. You get a gray grille with Bronco lettering in black, and you also get unique black graphics on the hood and sides of the vehicle. Just like the Badlands, it comes with the 2.0-turbo and the trick four-wheel-drive system.
Special “Navy Pier” leather seats set it apart inside, and the moonroof and 10-speaker B&O audio system come standard, too. The Class II trailering package is equipped and so are 29-inch all-terrain tires. The motto here is, if it’s on the ordering sheet, this one probably has it. There will only be 2,000 of them sold, and the First Edition big Bronco is already sold out. The Bronco Sport First Edition starts at $39,995, and they’re still available to reserve as of this post’s publishing.
Using the springboard of the Bronco Sport only makes more sense for the compact truck. It builds on the public awareness around the Bronco name and helps dispel some stigma around a unibody compact pickup. Basing the upcoming pickup on the Bronco Sport also helps save Ford time and money when it comes to manufacturing. That would also help Ford hit the expected 2021 target for revealing the new, FWD-based compact truck.
As with all speculation, especially during trying economic times, the Bronco Sport’s pickup truck cousin could get shelved like television spinoffs from the 1980s. Though, with Ford knowing how much money there is in the pickup truck market, we would bet on seeing a compact Blue Oval pickup before the end of 2021.
Wow. A Bronco sport based affordable pick up truck sounds awesome. Ford is really playing into its customer base well.
May be they should introduce another pick up variant of Bronco as well to go head to head with Gladiator.
Wow. A Bronco sport based affordable pick up truck sounds awesome. Ford is really playing into its customer base well.
May be they should introduce another pick up variant of Bronco as well to go head to head with Gladiator.
I'd be shocked if the truck version wasn't already in the pipeline.
The all-new 2021 Ford Bronco Sport may have been pitched by the marketing department and media as a softer version of its bigger off-roading Ford Bronco sibling, but newly “leaked” video of the company’s development team driving the baby Bronco Sport through Moab is very promising.
While we already saw how torn up from the floor up the new 2021 Ford Bronco gets on Jeep’s “Trail-Rated” 20-mile off-road Rubicon trail territory, The Bronco Nation YouTube channel has now uploaded the baby Bronco Sport taking some challenges in Moab, Utah for all of our (compact) off-roading ASMR needs:Apart from the very discouraging “clank” right at the start of the video, the Bronco Sport is adequately surprising in its ultimate capability as a Ford engineering team put it through some real-world torture testing.
Despite being automatic-only—unlike its bigger Bronco sibling—the Sport’s available ground clearance of 7.9 inches, or up to 8.8 inches in the Badlands trim, seems aplenty for some pretty gnarly rocks and inclines like the one captured in the top screenshot. To be fair, it looks like the little Sport is either leading or following the bigger Bronco in most of the clips, so it’s nice to imagine they can handle a lot of the same terrain together.
The Bronco Sport Base will start at $28,155, while the Big Bend trim level starts at $29,655, the Outer Banks at $33,625, the Badlands trim at $34,155 and the First Edition option at $34,155. All of those include the $1,495 destination charge.
On the forums, there’s chatter that the team could have possibly aired-down the tires more for better grip and less wheel spin. My biggest takeaway from the clips is just how affirming those “steelies” are as an option, and I hope it’s a popular one.
If that's the badlands trim then it comes with AT tires. Either way, that's impressive it can do that even though there was a lot of slipping tires, getting stuck, crunching metal, and grinding the skid plates. This is a competitor to the Cherokee no? If yes, I'd buy one of these every day compared to that POS.
Ford advertises the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport as an off-road beast, boasting of “unrelenting Bronco capability,” and saying that the new Ford Escape-based SUV “delivers the 4x4 off-road capability that made the original Bronco a legend.” Plus: “For maximum off-road capability and long-term durability, Bronco Sport was tested in extreme conditions.” But when it came time for journalists to test the new baby Bronco late last year, multiple vehicles experienced four-wheel drive system performance degradation due to overheating. Here’s what we know about this scenario.
In my 2021 Ford Bronco Sport review, I mentioned how, during my test drive, a journalist on one of Ford’s specially chosen off-road trails experienced a four wheel-drive overheating episode.
“While on the trail ride in a group, the driver of an Outer Banks model attempted to ascend a hill,” I wrote in my generally positive piece. “After just a couple of failed attempts to climb the rather modest incline, she said over the radio that her vehicle indicated Four-Wheel Drive Temporarily Disabled.” This message, per the Bronco Sport’s owner’s manual, indicates an overheating condition: After Ford’s rep at the press event noted that the Outer Banks model the journalist was driving didn’t have a liquid-cooled Power Transfer Unit (basically a gearbox that apportions power between front and rear axles) like the more hardcore Badlands trim does, the journalist let the vehicle sit for a few minutes. The four-wheel-drive system seemed to recover and function well, successfully managing the climb.
In my story, I also mentioned Emme Hall’s Bronco Sport review on CNET—a review in which the seasoned off-road driver alluded to what seemed like a similar incident. This happened while driving the Badlands model (which, it’s worth highlighting, does have a liquid-cooled PTU that pulls coolant from the engine cooling loop post-radiator, per a Ford engineer) in moderate temperatures. Hall’s remarks from that review below:
Unfortunately, after 15 minutes of hooning around in the sand, my Bronco Sport overheats and goes into limp-home mode. I might expect this if ambient temperatures were very high, but it’s a perfect 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Thankfully, the Bronco cools back down quickly so I can keep on playing — albeit a bit less aggressively.
I chatted with Hall about this shortly after her review published. She told me that she got a warning about operating temperatures having been exceeded, and that the car should be shut down.
“I don’t think that mine actually said four-wheel drive,” she told me. “Something got too hot and it went into limp mode.” That all went down at Olancha Dunes roughly 200 miles north of Los Angeles. “It’s not a super dune-y steep area. It’s pretty small,” Hall told me, though she did admit that she was “driving [the Bronco Sport] like a freaking idiot.”
The vehicle was in sand mode, the throttle was on the floor and Hall was “just not being gentle with [the car] at all.” It took roughly 15 minutes for the car to give the overtemp warning. Hall shut the machine off, and after five minutes it was ready to go again.
Hall told me that she didn’t expect to have this issue. “I would expect maybe something like that to happen if it were super hot outside, but it was not. It was perfect.”
With two unrelated incidences of apparent four-wheel drive system overheating (though admittedly, we don’t know for sure that it was the 4x4 system overheating in Hall’s case, though I bet it was a drivetrain issue based on the situation) in what seem like relatively mild off-road conditions, I reached out to Ford to learn more.
That was a few months ago, so this story is hardly timely, but let’s talk about it anyway.
Spoiler
After I published my review back in December, the Ford Bronco Sport forum began buzzing, with fans growing concerned over the off-roader’s potential vulnerabilities. People wanted to know more about what was going on, and so did I.
My discussion with Ford didn’t really get to the root of the issue, largely because the vehicle engineering manager, Eddie Khan, denied that there was an issue at all. And to be frank, he wasn’t technically wrong, because the concept of a vehicle “failure” can often be highly subjective. I’ll dig into that thought further in a sec, but for now, I’ll just download the contents of my discussion with Khan.
Khan mentioned three main points: The first was that the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport has met Ford’s internal targets, which are based on projected customer usage. The second is that Ford has made sure that the Bronco Sport is competitive with other vehicles in its class. And third (this one is related to the others) is that Ford has done extreme testing on the vehicle, putting it through conditions far more strenuous than the vast majority of customers will see. All of these are fairly standard in any vehicle development process.
Whether we should consider the aforementioned overheating episodes as failures relies in large part on expectations. As an experienced off-roader and former Jeep engineer, I found the hill where the preproduction Bronco Sport Outer Banks struggled to be a rather mild climb.
”First of all, that’s not a small hill climb,” Khan told me in our interview. When I challenged that, he responded with: “Would you do that in a normal vehicle?” I responded that this isn’t a normal vehicle, it has “Bronco” in the name. Khan agreed, though the discussion seemed to get a little tense from there, as we weren’t in agreement on the severity of the driving condition.
In any case, all of this is subjective, but it does give us an idea of how my expectations may have differed from Ford’s when it developed this SUV.
What were my expectations based on? I’m not sure. Possibly Ford’s marketing, possibly my own hopes and dreams, and likely my experiences off-roading older vehicles that use transfer case-based four wheel-drive systems — a design that tends to be more thermally robust than clutch-based systems like the one in many modern front-wheel-drive-based off-roaders. Damn near any old-school 4x4 could have climbed that grade 1,000 times without overheating its four wheel-drive system (maybe the transmission would have gotten hot after a while, but I doubt it’d have been a big deal), and that includes the old Bronco. So the whole “delivers the 4x4 off-road capability that made the original Bronco a legend” line is a hard one to buy.
Though the Bronco Sport shares its “C2" architecture with the decidedly not-off-road-oriented Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair, there are important differences. “We geared and sized it up to the needs of a Bronco Sport duty cycle,” Khan told me, saying the clutch size and number of clutches in the four-wheel drive system are higher than in the Escape, and that the shorter final drive ratio, along with changes to the halfshafts and driveshafts, are all important factors in off-road capability and durability.
“We sized our system very generously to have a lot of capacity to ensure the robustness,” the vehicle engineering manager told me.
Styling and off-road capability all meant significant compromises in fuel economy and on-road manners when compared with the Escape—compromises that Car and Driver enumerates in its comparison and that I mentioned in my own review. These compromises could make customers think: Does the styling matter that much to me? And am I getting enough capability to offset the drawbacks versus the Escape? Let’s get into the latter some more.
You’ll find plenty of media showing the Ford Bronco Sport undergoing off-road testing, and indeed, Khan said his team put the machine through the wringer. Khan said that thermal issues did not arise in testing and that the company takes the 1.5-liter base model everywhere it takes the 2.0-liter models other than on the “extreme hill climbs.”
The Bronco Sport, he told me, has been to off-road parks all around the country, including Borrego, Johnson Valley, Moab and of course, Ford’s own proving grounds. The Blue Oval’s team has done testing on various surfaces and different inclines, with Khan telling me about the latter: ”I get nervous in those hills sometimes.”
Search the web and you’ll find all sorts of literature on how Ford tested the Bronco Sport. “Ford Torture-Tested the 2021 Bronco Sport Off-Road Just Like the Big Bronco,” claims an article from The Drive. The story’s lede definitely makes the little Escape-based SUV seem impressive:
Possibly the only vehicle under more intense scrutiny than the newly revealed 2021 Ford Bronco is its diminutive doppelgänger, the Bronco Sport. For the first time in its history, the Bronco badge will be found on a unibody SUV—one which could easily sully the Bronco name if it didn’t meet the public’s expectations. Ford knows this, so to ensure the Sport exceeds expectations, it ran the junior model through many of the same extreme testing gauntlets as its larger, truck-based sibling.
Though he wouldn’t tell me the extreme use cases that drove the sizing of the vehicle’s four-wheel drive system clutches and cooling system, Khan said the Bronco Sport was put through much more extreme driving conditions than what the media saw on its press drives (“We were running much...harder than those journalists,” he said), and he also mentioned the Rebelle Rally as an example that proves the vehicle’s toughness. “All-New Bronco Sport Nabs Off-Road Win at Grueling Rebelle Rally,” Ford’s press release reads.
Ford’s “Go Over Any Type of Terrain” modes, or GOAT modes, alter the way the vehicle puts power to the ground, because the modes adjust engine output and brake application. With four-wheel drive clutch temperatures highly contingent on wheel speed and engine operating point (which itself is a function of grip and overall vehicle demand/driver input), it’s clear that drive modes can have effects on a four-wheel drive system’s thermal performance.
“Maybe the user was not in the right mode, and that could have created different slip conditions and different thresholds,” Khan was sure to note. “When we tune these systems, we did make sure that you are in the right drive modes,” he told me, saying his team clearly sees significant differences in off-road performance in different GOAT modes. “If you tend to deviate from the intended operating conditions that we recommend you to use...then you can have that [derate] situation.”
OK, let’s talk about whether these overheating events constitute a problem. To answer that, we’ve got to talk about vehicle-level functional objectives. These define what the vehicle must be capable of in order to satisfy the customer.
Often, it’s product planners and members of a “brand team” who hand down objectives/directives to the engineering team about how the vehicle should be able to perform off-road. The engineering team translates those directives into engineering requirements like drive cycles and other scenarios that the vehicle must be able to handle. Engineers then develop the vehicle based on these engineering requirements, using simulation tools and physical testing for validation.
So that brings us back to the question of whether these Ford Broncos are failing. I think the answer to that can be looked at in three different ways.
1. Does the vehicle meet the vehicle level functional objectives that Ford set? FoMoCo says yes.
2. Does the Ford Bronco Sport compete favorably with the competitive set? Ford says yes, but independent off-road comparisons will be the judge of this. Those have the potential to play a big role in shaping the Bronco Sport’s reputation.
By the way, the vehicle’s “competitive set” (i.e. what Ford used as benchmarks) include: Jeep Compass and Cherokee (Sport up to Trailhawk trims) and some Subarus. Ford, Khan told me, also looked at the Toyota Rav4 and Range Rover Evoque.
It’s also worth showing the video below to drive home just how difficult “split mu” scenarios are for clutch-based all-wheel drive systems (you can read all about such systems in our all wheel-drive explainer). When one axle has significantly more traction than the other, and the grade is steep, getting the vehicle to ascend the grade will often cause lots of slip in the clutches in the PTU, which are trying to couple the front axle’s rotation with that of the rear axle. Slipping clutches means heat, and heat means, well, lots of warning messages on the dash and an overheat-protection mode that some might call “derate.” This is quite common for vehicles in this class:
3. Most important: Are customers satisfied with the vehicle’s capability? Answering this can be tricky, but a key to satisfying customers is making sure that their expectations are met. Do the few customers who actually go off-road think the Ford Bronco Sport should be able to tackle more than it’s actually capable of? Were customer expectations exceeded or were they not met? And if the latter, did Ford over-market the vehicle by using some of the phrasing I mentioned in my opening paragraph, and by calling this vehicle a Bronco in the first place?
Some of this stuff will take time to answer. More off-road comparisons will have to reveal how the Bronco Sport competes with the likes of the Jeep Compass and Cherokee on the sand dunes. And as more people buy Bronco Sports and take them off-road, we’ll learn more about how customer expectations for the vehicle’s off-road skills align with reality. From what I’ve seen just browsing forums, most folks seem fairly happy, as do most journalists who’ve had time behind the wheel.
So are these Bronco Sports — which are going into a self-protect “derate” mode to prevent component damage when temperatures get a bit too high — failing? The boring answer is that “It all depends on what the expectations are.”
I reached out to a bunch of engineers well-versed in vehicle drivetrains to get their opinions on these two Ford Bronco Sport overheating incidents. Before we get into that, I’ll point you all to a Society of Automotive Engineers article titled “Dana’s twin-clutch axle boosts Bronco Sport’s off-road cred.” The story shows the system’s basic layout (see above). You’ll notice that the PTU allows for a clutch to disconnect the rear driveshaft from the front axle. Two other clutches in the RDU apportion power left-to-right. One paragraph from that story addresses thermal capabilities of the four-wheel drive system. From SAE:
The development team, co-led by Kahn and program chief engineer Adrian Aguirre, put a premium on robustness. They ran duty cycles beyond Ford’s standard and tested in a variety of off-road environments and events, including Borrego Springs (Calif.) and Moab. Bronco Sport’s thermal reliability is ensured with a trans cooler, a PTU cooler and an engine cooler. There also is what Kahn calls “a very advanced” predictive thermal-management system that will intervene without causing a loss of 4wd capability.
Go ahead and check out that SAE story, but with that out of the way, let’s get to some input from other automotive engineers. This first bit of wisdom comes from an axle engineer working for a competing major automaker. The math-and-science whiz mentions that the vehicles I mentioned were clearly going through a derate, which was designed to protect components from damage. The engineer notes that the vehicle could likely have performed better had it had larger clutches that could better handle the speed disparity between the front and rear axles:
The thermal issues you described seems most likely a thermal protection algorithm. The fact that it “cooled down” so fast makes me think it never really got the bulk oil temperature very high. That takes a looong time to cool. But the algorithm (whether based on an actual temperature sensor or just an energy model looking at clutch pressure and slip speed) did what it was supposed to do, protect the parts from permanent damage. The fact that they added a liquid cooler to the systems suggests they didn’t size the parts to do this job on the regular. Seems like this is something that we will read about more in the near future. It’s too late for Ford to make the parts bigger and if you give someone a vehicle with a Bronco badge on it you better believe some of them are going to expect it to actually do stuff off road.
Here are some words from another engineer well-versed on all wheel-drive:
Simply put the coupling they are using for the all wheel drive is sized too small for the kind of abuse you put it through. Here’s what I experienced with Ford on a trip to Silver Lakes Sand Dunes sometime around 2010. They invited us out with our just then released Jeep Grand Cherokee two speed active t-case for some fun on the dunes. They brought along a bunch of vehicles for their execs to drive including the then pretty new front wheel drive based Explorer. They also had some other competitive vehicles, I can’t remember them all now but there was some flavor of GM full size SUV and probably something from the Asian OEMs.
The Explorer and the GM vehicle had the exact issue you are discussing. After a few runs up a dune, or just bombing around in the sand both vehicles would call it quits with sending torque to the rear axle and the vehicle would be stuck until you waited it out. Talking with the Ford Engineers they said that the rear coupling only had a small capacity, 900 Nm comes to mind but I can’t remember the exact number. Basically it didn’t have the capacity to fully lock the drivetrain front to rear in all conditions, and in conditions such as the sand dune there was a fair amount of slip across the clutches. Their software would monitor the slip and torque across the clutch and call it quits to save the clutch after a certain amount of heat was generated. The idea being that for 99% of their customers the reduced clutch capacity would be fine. Big cost savings when you consider how many vehicles they planned to produce. And your average soccer mom will never come close to overheating the coupling driving to the mall or Starbucks.
Jeep on the other hand, as you know, was and still probably is very concerned with their off road image and sized their couplings appropriately for all kinds of abuse. Also take into account the torque coming out of the low range planetary and you need a mighty big clutch. The Grand Cherokee never skipped a beat all day playing in the sand, it became a crowd favorite as there was no worry about having to wait for the coupling to cool so you could continue.
This driveline engineer goes into detail on why a loose hill climb like the one I witnessed leads to heat buildup in the PTU or RDU:
Low grip, forward hill ascents are one of the hardest scenarios for drivelines that are FWD primary/permanent drive with clutched couplings to the rear, because they’re inherently limited in how much torque they can divert to the rear axle. In this driving scenario, the weight distribution of the car is heavily biased to the rear because you’re pointing up the hill, and so you want to divert as much torque to the rear axle as possible because it has way more traction available than the unloaded front axle. However, the amount of torque you can bias rearward is limited by the driveline clutches - whichever is the weaker out of the one on the PTU at the front, or the one(s) on the rear drive unit (RDU).
When you’re driving up the hill, firstly you’d hope the control systems will be smart enough to request maximum locking torque from the clutches. This means that up to the torque threshold of the clutches, torque can move between the front and rear axles naturally, as if you had a locked centre diff on a “proper” 4x4. Where it gets difficult is once the front axle has no more grip available, and the driveline isn’t capable of sending more torque rearward. At this point, the front tyres can’t react enough torque to keep the car moving, and the powertrain torque exceeds the amount that the clutches can transmit to the rear. The power has to go somewhere, and so the front wheels slip, and at the same time so does the PTU and/or RDU clutch. That clutch slip is occurring at the same time that the clutch is at maximum torque transfer. Clutch energy is Torque * Slip so there’s now suddenly a load of energy to dissipate as heat.
You don’t want to damage friction plates:
Looking at the hill ascent video in your article, you can see what I’m describing above happen - the front wheels are scrabbling and spinning, especially after bouncing over the bump, but the rear wheels aren’t and so my guess is there’s a very unhappy clutch in the driveline somewhere. The driveline control modules have thermal models within them that are constantly estimating clutch temperature based on torque and slip across the clutch - once they realise shit’s getting hot enough to damage the friction plates, they’ll open to protect themselves, and in so doing leave you with FWD only.
It’s interesting that Ford refer to an upgrade to a “liquid cooled” PTU clutch on the Badlands model. I assume this means that the base spec driveline has a dry clutch on the PTU, and probably one with a low-ish torque capacity. This means that a) it won’t be able to send much torque to the rear axle before it slips, and b) when it does slip, it’ll overheat quickly because there’s no oil to dissipate that heat. My guess would be that “liquid cooled” specifically means that the Badlands model has a wet PTU clutch which will naturally be much better able to dissipate heat and therefore be more robust to high-slip, high-torque events.
If you’ve just read over 3,500 of my words, only to arrive at a conclusion that Bronco Sports may or may not have a problem, I’m sorry, but that’s just how automotive engineering works sometimes.
Whether a vehicle is a failure for derating during certain conditions can be highly subjective, though sometimes it’s not. The Ford Bronco Sport’s 2,200 pound towing capacity isn’t subjective, it’s based on SAE’s J2807 test, which lays out a specific test that the vehicle must be able to complete in order to be rated to tow a certain amount.
Unfortunately, there is no commonly-used equivalent test regimen when it comes to “certifying” that a vehicle offers something like “unrelenting Bronco capability.” These marketing terms are subjective, and that means Ford doesn’t owe any particular performance under any particular driving conditions. That hill climb that caused the journalist’s Outer Banks Bronco Sport to overheat? Ford never promised that the vehicle could handle that grade without derate. That sand dune that Hall was driving? Ford never promised that the vehicle can be hooned for 15 minutes in ~80 degree weather without derating.
If you are looking to buy a rugged crossover with proper performance and good practicality, you probably need to check out the new Ford Bronco Sport. With two engine options, the Escape-based off-roader can be had with as much as 245 horsepower (183 kilowatts) and 275 pound-feet (373 Newton-meters) of torque from its flagship 2.0-liter engine. Should you want more power, finally, there’s a quick solution.
The tuning specialists at Vivid Racing have introduced a software tweak for the Bronco Sport 2.0 EcoBoost, which gives the SUV a little more oomph over the stock figures. The Arizona-based aftermarket shop can boost the four-cylinder engine to 305 hp (227 kW) and 350 lb-ft (475 Nm) with a simple engine remap.
As Muscle Cars and Trucks reports, Vivid Racing has been using a Bronco Sport Badlands as a test vehicle and a new dyno video shows huge improvements not only in power and torque, but also in the way the output is delivered through the rpm range. The big news here is that the power curve doesn’t dive deeply down at the top and the peak power figure comes earlier in the range than before.
While on paper the power increase may not look dramatic, the gains at the wheels seem significant. There, the Bronco Sport benefits from an additional 36 hp (27 kW) and 54 lb-ft (73 Nm) of torque for a total output of 222 hp (165 kW) and 300 lb-ft (407 Nm) of torque at the wheels. In a combination with the improved power curve, this means the crossover should feel much livelier in real-world driving.
If all of this sounds good to you, Vivid Racing asks $600 for the ECU flash but needs you to remove the ECU from the vehicle and ship it to the tuning shop. Bear in mind that this tuning is labeled for off-road use only, which means you are unlikely to pass any emissions tests around the United States.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't know if the Ford Bronco Sport was capable of doing what I was about to ask of it. In fact, I had no idea what was going to happen. I'd driven through Monticello Motor Clubs course with ease before, but that was in a Toyota 4Runner TRD Pro with big all-terrain tires. And locking differentials. And a separate body and chassis. The Bronco Sport is really a Ford Escape underneath, and an Escape is basically a lifted Focus.
Chris Duplessis, the track's director of fun, told me I'd be fine. He'd done the course in a Subaru Forester once. If anything, I might just need a bit of speed to get through the mud. And this particular Bronco Sport, in top-of-the-line Badlands trim, did inspire some confidence. It was equipped with optional alloy wheels, styled to look like steelies and wrapped in 29.5-inch Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires. It also had tow hooks, bash plates, and fairly short overhangs to give it decent approach and departure angles. And while the Bronco Sport uses a Focus RS-style twin-clutch rear-drive unit to get power to the back wheels, it can simulate a locked rear differential. The Badlands also gets Mud/Ruts and Rock Crawl drive modes.
Ford also proudly displays the Bronco Sport doing off-road-y things in its promotional materials, and when I asked if I could take one to the trails myself, the company was happy to oblige. Stop worrying, Perkins. This'll be fine.
And it was. I had been really worried we'd have to use those tow hooks.
No, the Bronco Sport isn't as capable as that 4Runner, and certainly the real Bronco will go much further than this thing will. But this is shockingly good for a crossover. In a day’s worth of muddy trails, steep hills, moguls, and even a stream, absolutely nothing flummoxed the Bronco Sport.
Perhaps this is unsurprising. After all, Ford has been doing the whole software-driven off-roader thing brilliantly ever since the second-gen Raptor arrived in 2017, and the Bronco Sport has simple physics on its side. The 30.4-degree approach and 33.1-degree departure angles are around the same as a base Mercedes G550's, and while the 20.4-degree breakover angle isn't that impressive, it wasn't an issue. Plus, 8.8 inches of ground clearance and nearly two feet of wading depth were enough.
It's incredibly easy to hit the trails in a Bronco Sport. Just put it in whatever mode you think it should be in and the car does a lot of the work for you. In normal road driving, the all-wheel drive system sends most of its power to the front. But as soon as you call up an off-road mode, it splits the torque around 50:50. There's also a button to turn on the simulated rear-diff lock, and it's automatically "locked" in rock crawl mode.
As long as you have your modes right, you really just point the thing where it needs to go. Pointing is easy, too, as the Badlands gets a front-facing camera activated by a button on the dash, makes wheel placement a cinch. Also standard on the Badlands is a 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder making 250 hp and 277 lb-ft of torque when run on premium fuel. (Lesser Bronco Sports have a 1.5-liter three-pot.) There’s enough grunt to deal with most situations, though you need not be afraid of the throttle pedal if you're looking hard for traction.
I don't think I trusted the Bronco Sport as implicitly as I did the 4Runner I'd previously driven here, and I certainly felt I was much closer to the Ford's limits. But there were no issues. And the Bronco Sport had a clear size advantage. It's only an inch and a half narrower than a 4Runner, yet it felt tiny. And with a length of just 172.3 inches, the Bronco Sport was very maneuverable through the tight trails. Despite being a four-door, the Bronco Sport is barely any bigger than a two-door Jeep Wrangler and that small size pays dividends.
Honestly, we pushed this Bronco Sport harder than most owners ever would. This is a car aimed at the Active Lifestyle crowd, those who might otherwise buy a Subaru or some sort of Jeep. The most off-roading they'll ever do would be mild trails and muddy roads, not fording streams and tackling steep grades. But all this capability should make the Sport appealing to overlanders who aren't afraid to push the envelope to find a beautiful campsite. Plus, you can fit 30.5-inch tires with the stock suspension, so extracting more capability out of the Bronco Sport is not at all difficult.
While the Bronco Sport defies its ordinary crossover underpinnings with real off-road capability, it benefits from its car platform on the road. It's not the most comfortable compact crossover out there, especially in Badlands trim, but that's a very reasonable sacrifice for all the ability you get off-pavement. Plus it's quiet, with Ford's typical sound-insulating windshield and enough sound deadening in the wheel wells to make you forget you're riding on A/T tires.
The Bronco Sport also handles decently enough, with fairly quick steering for an off-roader and a reasonable amount of body roll. It's not sporty, as the name might imply; then again, neither is a Range Rover Sport. The 2.0-liter four feels a bit labored here, but it should be fine for most people. Test figures from our colleagues at Car and Driver indicate that it's actually quicker than my butt dyno suggests. Still, I can't help but suspect that the three-cylinder Bronco Sport feels very sluggish.
I wish the interior were a bit more inspired, a little less Escape-like. This tester being pre-production, it's hard to render a verdict on build quality, but the materials are very meh. Materials seem nicer if you option the (redundantly named) $2595 Badlands Package, but the standard model simply feels cheap You don't even get a leather-wrapped steering wheel, but a round vinyl thing more appropriate to a fleet-spec Transit van than a compact crossover carrying a near-$35,000 price tag. But the cabin is, at least, perfectly functional, with good space overall despite its small dimensions. It would've been nice of Ford to include the new Sync 4 infotainment system available on the F-150, Mach E, and the larger Bronco, even if the Sync 3 used here works fine.
But I can overlook a dull interior when the Bronco Sport is so easy to live with day-to-day and so accomplished off road. And there's the fact that this crossover is just cool. People notice it, ask about it, and confuse it for the upcoming bigger Bronco. It looks pretty great, especially from the front, and that puts it far ahead of its boring rivals from Jeep and Subaru.
It really is a complete package. Not perfect, but excellent in its intended role as an easy-to-live-with, relatively affordable, and surprisingly capable off-roader.
There's a risk of putting a beloved name like Bronco on a crossover like this. The thing has to wear the name with honor, otherwise, it'll be dismissed as cynical by enthusiasts. Would that hurt sales? Probably not, but in any case, Ford did the right thing here. The Sport doesn't sully the Bronco name by offering excellent capability from the factory, and it'll appeal to mainstream buyers looking for a solid compact crossover with a bit more style and intrinsic value than most.
In other words, don't dismiss this as a simple cute ute.
Saw a B Sport up close, on the road over the weekend. It's a good looking little ute for sure. Wife liked it too, but it's too small for our needs.
Could work as a Malibu replacement, but we're a looong ways off from that.
B Sports are like a toy by comparison to a sasquatch bronco. Wait until you see one - road presence is crazy. A lot of of Bronco6G guys are really unhappy that Ford re-branded the escape to carry over the Bronco name. Although, the front and rear interior dimensions are shockingly similar. The sasquatch big bronco is basically a RAV4 cabin mounted to F150 wide chassis. I had to run the dimensions, and it barely fits in my driveway (width wide), yet the interior cabin is the same as my subaru outback. Guess that's what happens when you tack on 12.5" wide tires with 5" flares to each side.
Bronco® brand is taking trail riders to their off-road roots with the introduction of the 2023 Bronco and Bronco Sport™ Heritage and Heritage Limited editions.
The special-edition models will be available across the Bronco family lineup, including Bronco two-door, Bronco four-door and Bronco Sport SUVs. Ford will build just 1,966 units of each Heritage Limited Edition model to commemorate the year the original Bronco debuted.
"Bronco captivated America in the mid-'60s with its rugged style and uncompromising off-road agility, a legacy that is still prevalent today," said Mark Grueber, Bronco marketing manager. "With these new Heritage and Heritage Limited editions, we're paying respect to Bronco's roots with nods to some of the signature design cues from the first-generation vehicle, while continuing to build the Bronco Brand with more special editions that our customers want."
The 2023 Bronco Sport Heritage and Heritage Limited edition models are available to order for all customers now. Bronco two- and four-door models will go on sale in late 2022, with initial orders prioritized for current Bronco order holders awaiting their vehicle. Orders will open to all customers in 2023, regardless of current reservation status.
1960s Bronco styling meets modern capability
Bronco two- and four-door Heritage models are highlighted by a two-tone paint job that includes signature Oxford White accents including the modular hardtop roof. A unique Oxford White grille features Race Red "FORD" lettering, while 17-inch aluminum heritage wheels painted in Oxford White and a bodyside stripe dial up the throwback looks.
The 1960s era-inspired squared fenders with Sasquatch-width fender flares provide a visual callback and cover the nearly two-inch wider track. A powder-coated steel capable front bumper with built-in recovery points and integrated fog lamps is standard.
Heritage Limited models add gloss black-painted 17-inch heritage wheels with classic "dog dish" centers, plus an Oxford White-painted lip for more retro flare.
Inside, Bronco Heritage Edition units feature plaid cloth seats and exclusive touches such as an Oxford White instrument panel, center console badging and exclusive front and rear floor liners.
Heritage Edition models come standard with Big Bend® series equipment and features, including a 2.3-liter EcoBoost® engine with 7-speed manual or available 10-speed SelectShift™ automatic transmission. The engine delivers up to 300 horsepower and 325 lb.-ft. torque. The Sasquatch® Package with a High-Performance Off-Road Stability Suspension (H.O.S.S.) 2.0 system with long-travel Bilstein® position-sensitive dampers with end-stop control valves and increased ride height is standard, as are 35-inch Goodyear® mud-terrain tires and Dana™ front and rear electronic locking axles with 4.7:1 final drive ratio.
Bronco Heritage Edition is available in five paint options, while Bronco Heritage Limited Edition is exclusively available at launch in Robin's Egg Blue, which is a throwback color based on Arcadian Blue, available on the original Bronco in 1966. The color Yellowstone Metallic, which is based on the 1971 Ford color Prairie Yellow, is planned for late 2023 model year availability. Peak Blue is planned for the 2024 model year.
Heritage Limited Edition models offer the increased capability of Badlands™ series equipment and features, including a 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 engine with up to 330 horsepower and 415 lb.-ft. torque mated to the 10-speed SelectShift automatic transmission. They are also differentiated with features that include metal "Bronco" script fender badging, leather-trimmed/vinyl plaid seats with white and Race Red accent stitching and unique Heritage Limited console badging.
Bronco Sport wears the brand legacy proudly
Though not part of the Bronco family in the 1960s, Bronco Sport gives customers a chance to enjoy the brand's heritage with exclusive Heritage and Heritage Limited Edition styling.
"Bronco Sport has been a hit with compact SUV customers since it arrived two years ago, but it is just as important that we give our customers special editions similar to what we have done with the two- and four-door Bronco," Grueber said. "These Heritage Editions are every bit as important to Sport as they are for the rest of the Bronco Brand and we think the iconic themes from the '60's work perfectly on this vehicle."
All models feature signature Oxford White accents including a uniquely painted roof to mimic the original Bronco style. A unique Oxford White heritage grille features Race Red "BRONCO" lettering, while Oxford White 17-inch aluminum heritage wheels and bodyside stripes heighten the throwback appearance.
Both versions include interior touches such as plaid cloth seats and a Navy Pier instrument panel with Oxford White accenting the bin and door ring. Cloth seats feature heathered Navy Pier with plaid inserts and Race Red and Robin's Egg Blue accent stitching. A unique Navy Pier microsuede center console and armrests include Race Red stitching. The Bronco Sport MOLLE strap storage system on the front-row seatbacks includes Navy Pier straps and Race Red zipper grips. The Navy Pier color was inspired by the cloth seats that were available in Bronco in the 1980's.
Like the full-size Bronco SUVs, the 2023 Bronco Sport Heritage Edition is built on the Big Bend series, with the proven 1.5-liter EcoBoost engine that puts out 181 horsepower and 190 lb.-ft. of torque.
The vehicles feature a H.O.S.S. system with increased ride height, uniquely tuned front struts with hydraulic rebound stops designed to provide a quiet, less jarring off-road experience. In addition, 46-millimeter-diameter monotube rear shocks, antiroll bars and uniquely tuned springs help provide off-road comfort.
The Terrain Management System™ offers five G.O.A.T. Modes™ because Bronco "Goes Over Any Type of Terrain" and in various conditions. Standard modes include Normal, Eco, Sport, Slippery and Sand.
Bronco Sport Heritage Edition is available in seven paint options including Robin's Egg Blue, while Heritage Limited Edition is exclusively available in Robin's Egg Blue, Yellowstone Metallic and Peak Blue.
Heritage Limited Edition models add metal "Bronco" script front fender badging and larger 29-inch all-terrain off-road tires with more aggressive, deeper treads that stretch on to the sidewalls for improved off-road traction. Heritage Limited Edition models also upgrade to leather-trimmed seats and include Oxford White door inserts and unique center console badging.
They are powered by increased performance and off-road capability of the Badlands series, including the more powerful 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine with up to 250 horsepower and 277 lb.-ft. of torque for high-speed off-road performance.
An advanced 4x4 system with a twin-clutch rear-drive unit with a differential lock can divert virtually all rear axle torque to either wheel, and the G.O.A.T. Modes system increases to seven modes, adding Mud/Ruts and Rock Crawl.
Bronco Sport Heritage Edition MSRP will start at $34,245 and the Heritage Limited starts at $44,655. Bronco Heritage will start at $44,305 and Heritage Limited will be priced at $66,895.
Small changes arrived with the 2023 Ford Bronco Sport, including the deletion of two exterior colors, Bronze Smoke Metallic and Velocity Blue Metallic, as well as the removal of the rearview camera washer. Despite these two minor eliminations, the Bronco Sport received a handful of compelling options, including the new Eruption Green exterior color. Ford Authority recently spotted a Bronco Sport wearing the deep green color out and about.
Eruption Green is tagged with paint code FA, and is one of 11 exterior colors available on the 2023 Ford Bronco Sport. It adds an extra $295 to the cost of the Bronco Sport. The color is also available on the Bronco Sport’s larger sibling, the regular 2023 Ford Bronco, which received the color for 2022.
Note that this particular Bronco Sport is an Outer Banks model, which also gained some unique new features for the 2023 model year. This model features new standard memory features, such as driver’s seat memory and side view mirrors, meaning that the vehicle will “remember” how each driver likes their seat and mirror set based on which key fob is detected.
Beyond the aforementioned changes, the Bronco lineup has been augmented with variants such as the Heritage Edition models. These vehicles take retro styling cues from Broncos of the past, sporting three two-tone paint options that will be paired with Oxford White accents, a throwback to the SUV’s debut 1966 model year.
That two-tone paint scheme may not be limited to just the Bronco Heritage Edition models, as recent spy shots suggest that the 2023 Ford Bronco Sport could also gain a white roof. Additionally, the Bronco Sport lineup will gain the the Black Diamond Off-Road Package, which is optional on Big Bend and Outer Banks trimmed models and includes underbody protection, a special graphics package, and 17-inch Carbonized Gray-painted low gloss aluminum wheels.
If Ford would offer the Badlands without requiring the brown interior to get the Premium Pkg, I'd be more interested. This green looks great on it, too.
Same with the Maverick, brown interior required to get the Lariat Lux pkg
If you want a Ford SUV that can brave the outdoors and hit the trails, chances are you’re considering a full-size Bronco. Its smaller Bronco Sport brother is neat, but lacks the grunt you might be after. But, Ford is hoping to change all that with a new optional off-road pack that adds steelies and armor to the baby Bronco.
Dubbed the Black Diamond Off-Road Package, the new option is available on Big Bend and Outer Banks series Bronco Sports. Unlike the big Bronco, where the Black Diamond model is its own line, here it’s an optional extra.
If you choose it for your 2023 Bronco Sport, you’ll be treated to “even more off-road capability” thanks to four steel bash plates, including a front metal skid plate, fuel tank protection, and the canister shield.
And we all know new wheels instantly up your off-roading prowess, so Ford has given the Black Diamond pack a set of 17-inch carbonized gray aluminum wheels paired with a set of all-terrain tires.
There are styling tweaks with the new pack too, which adds a matte black hood graphic with a small Bronco horse logo. Ford has also added graphics on the lower bodywork, including Bronco lettering on driver and front-passenger doors.
It does a good job at making the Bronco Sport look a little more rugged, but what do you think?
Also for ‘23, Ford will offer access to its Off-Roadeo service free for every new Bronco Sport owner. The service offers adventure access and trail guide instruction for new Bronco owners.
According to Ford, this service and the new accessory pack for the Bronco Sport is all about getting more Ford owners out in the wild.
Mark Grueber, Enthusiast Vehicle Marketing Manager at Ford, said: “For adventurers who want to get more from their Bronco Sport, we’re enhancing the ownership experience by offering more trail capability with the new Black Diamond Off-Road Package, plus an included opportunity to learn what their SUV can do at Bronco Off-Roadeo.”
11-13-2018, 01:28 PM
This is a competitor to the Cherokee no? If yes, I'd buy one of these every day compared to that POS.
