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College Essay - Resurgence of Bronco Popularity

Classic 4x4

Jr. Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2011
Messages
122
What resurgence? Their status has never dropped below "moderately popular." Certainly nothing close to anything like a forgotten model.

Early Bronco popularity dimmed only slightly in the late '70s and early '80s after it was replaced by the bigger models, but brightened quickly. It's dimensions and versatility has made it perennially popular as a builder but in the mid '90s the EB also got popular as a restored/restified collectible. The '78-'79 are catching up quickly on the collectible front... the '80 and more slowly, but all the later Broncos are still popular as builders.

In my considered opinion, the early Bronco suffered most at the hands of FoMoCo, who "underserviced" it... e.g. a slow pace for improvements and upgrades to match the burgeoning SUV market and lackluster marketing (vs other Fords or other makes). As the SUV grew into the mainstream, the market demand for a size increase made that evolution inevitable. BUT... had FoMoCo updated the EB in a more timely manner, their market share could have been higher. 20-20 hindsight, of course.

The new Bronco? They are just recycling the name for marketing purposes and using platform engineering. Nothing against it in particular but it's not going to be anything as whiz bang as the first Bronco when it hit the market, which REALLY had a lot of new and innovative features for the day. Happy to see the Bronco name going to be out there again, mainly for the light it will shine on the old ones.
 

Boss Hugg

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2010
Messages
2,140
Imagine yourself in Kansas in 1875, needing to get to a town 20 miles away for business. You're gonna be on a horse. But along the way, a random thunderstorm blows in. You can't get out of the weather because there's no shelter around. So you ride thru it.

That's what I love about driving my bronco with just the family bikini top. It makes me one with nature. It can take me anywhere I point it, unlike my wife's AWD "escape." lol.

Maybe I can say it like this without too much backlash... Its a testosterone booster. When a guy's spent all week in meetings and cubicles, it's time to get back into the wild. So we get in our broncos and do whatever we want.

They are simple, just like a horse. Feed it, maintain it, take care of it. They are strong. You have to beat on them to break them. And when they do break, you don't spend three hours removing parts to get to the problem, only to spend 10 minutes changing the broken sensor or wire, and then have to spend 3 hours putting it back together.

That's why the bronco is popular to me.
 
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