Bronco Jeep International ??

My neighbor came over to see my Bronco a few weeks ago and he thought it was a scout. Has anyone had this happen to them?

Lots of uneducated people have called our 77 a four letter "J" word. Kinda annoying. I try to educate them as politely as possible. Lol.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

all the time man, just got to keep em straight..

yes many times

The Scout was offered by International Harvester, not Jeep. International Harvester is perhaps more well known for producing tractors than trucks, but they did produce the Scout beginning in 1961. Maybe a nice way to say it is that the Ford designers might have felt a bit inspired by the styling of the early Scout.

Actually more folks are educated on Broncos now then as recent as 20yrs ago and back. More people know what I have now then they did in the 80s when broncos were called jeeps n scouts on a regular basis.

Now they are so popular seems like everyone knows what an early bronco is.

I always say my J**P is a special edition model only offered by Ford.

Got a. "Nice Jeep" today, I corrected the lady and she says "it's a nice color, like a Jeep". I just drove away

It happens all the time and I am always happy to answer any questions and let them poke around. I usually hear the story about how someone they know had a Jeep and all the memories made. It used to bug me, but I found that by being kind and friendly about the whole calling-it-a-jeep issue is really the best situation. No issue in correcting / educating, but do it with kindness. I'd hate for someone to associate an Early Bronco experience with something negative, like me being a dick. Just my $0.02...

that is a great $0.02 response I think it is priceless

It's why I got this sticker years ago....

Great decal!
But really, to the non-believers (basically most of the population that does not, nor has ever intended to own, a small 4wd utility vehicle) all four-wheel drive utility vehicles have been known to them as "Jeeps" since the mid-sixties at least. If not farther back than that. But it wasn't until there were more and more vehicles in the category that more and more owners even tended to care.
Anyone that's never owned a Jeep, and even some that do but still fall into the relatively "un-enthusiast" category, call everything a Jeep.
Just as they would call a Honda CRF450 and a Yamaha YZF just "motorcycles" or "bikes" even with the names boldly emblazoned on the tanks and other parts, they don't know to call one a Honda or another one a Hodaka. Both start with the letter H, both have two wheels, and they don't want one. To them Jeep is not a specific vehicle then. It's just another entire category. In which Broncos reside.
And since they don't know a Bronco from a Land-Cruiser, they default to Jeep. Ole' grandpa would be proud...

As said, with the popularity of EB's on the rise for the last few years, more and more of the general non-enthusiast public know what they are. But even they might still call it a Jeep out of old habit.
But in general, most people still don't know a Toyota from a Kia from a Ram. But they do remember that they grew up calling all short wheelbase off-road rigs Jeeps.

So we can continue to educate them as we go. But I wouldn't get all cranked up and angry over it. Just makes the world a less friendly place for newbies.

Paul

Hey I'ma goin to the store anybody want a "coke"? Yeah get me a diet Mt. Dew

My dog Roxy rides with me when I can take her. I stopped in 7-11 and walked out to find two women looking and pointing at my truck. Assuming they were looking at Roxy , I said that's Roxy she loves to go for a ride. One of them said " oh we were looking at Bronco I love it, I bet it's a lot of fun. I said thanks and remarked that's it's cool that she knew what it was.

just flip it on them. point to their BMW and say it doesn't have all the tech your kia does but it works for me.

Coupla things..

The Ford Bronco was VERY MUCH inspired by the Scout. Not so much from a design standpoint but as a vehicle type in a market that was growing. Ford took note of how well podunk little IH was doing with the Scout and figured they needed to be in on that game. The compact SUV market was growing and the big thing that IH did was to prove that a more comfortable and more daily driver-friendly rig would sell. Ford already was working towards a new truck lineup, so some of the technology being developed for it translated well into the new compact SUV, soon to be called "Bronco."

IH's success with the Scout was as much an accident as anything. Their original concept was for a compact pickup. The full length top was really an afterthought but after people began ordering station wagons 8-1 over the pickups, IH switched gears and adapted more to cover the wagon market more than the compact pickup. Anyway, Ford took note, let IH do the market research for them and then jumped in like a fat man in a small pool.

As to your Bronco being called a Jeep, remember a few things:

1- There are "Jeeps" (in caps for the trademarked corporate name).
2- And there are "jeeps" (lower case, a general description for a compact 4x4 vehicle). If you pick up a dictionary, you will see a generic "compact 4x4" definition for the lower case word. And the word "jeep" predated the trademark by quite a long time. Years ago I did a story called "Will the Real Jeep Please Stand Up." In it, I outlined all the vehicles called Jeep before Willys-Overland trademarked the name in 1950. Story is online somewhere.

Also, what trademarked look epitomizes "Jeep?" The 7-slot grille, of course. Here is some ammo to use with Jeep guys: Ford invented that look. When Ford was contracted to build the standardized WWII jeep, one of their engineers noted that the welded slat grille was very labor-intensive to build so he developed a simple one-piece sheet metal stamping to replace it. Instead of a welder taking 25 minutes to zap together a grill, one "KERCHUNK" with a stamping machine and instant grille. This was the WWII 9-slot grille that became the iconic look. W-O adapted it for the civvy Jeeps, making it a 7-slot because they had to use larger headlights. So, the most iconic part of the Jeep "legendary" look was a Ford design. (this is an appropriate time to "Barney Fife.")

Finally, Ford designed and built their own contender in the process of developing a standardized military 1/4-ton 4x4 in 1940 for the buildup to WWII. In many ways, it was the best design and if you compare the individual prototypes from Ford, Willys and Bantam to the standardized design (a design the military largely directed), which one looks most like it? The Ford! Some of the other iconic items Jeeps are known for were developed by Ford: one of them is the T-handled hood hold-down.

Willys-Overland won the brass ring for the Jeep solely by turning in the lowest bid. All three of the prototypes had been tested and found suitable, making the builders of them eligible to bid. Had Ford won the bid (it actually did for a short time), the military would have required many of the same changes they did of W-O as they developed a standardized design... a design that had a LOT of Ford DNA in it. Willys got away with claiming to have "invented" the jeep simply because Ford didn't care enough to contest it and Bantam (the REAL inventor of the basic design) was too small and weak to fight it.

I don't want to take anything away from W-O, and it's corporate progeny, for developing a great product. Too often, however, Ford is left out of that great story.

So, now when you are looking at a Jeep and a sneer starts to come to your mouth, remember that there is a lot of Ford DNA in them. It's OK to remind Jeep owners of this!