Here's what I posted on the 6G site, which summarizes most of my thoughts. Which can be summarized as a kind of "meh" with caveats.
The four door looks as though it will serve the needs of those liking four doors well, a thing that clearly makes a lot, if not all, of the current Jeep buyers happy. So that is not an issue with this design. What may remain as a serious buyer reduction is
1. There is no visible front pumpkin (at least that I can see). That is not a big issue with me as I have driven a few four-wheel drives with independent front suspensions that are remarkably capable. But the hard core will not like it, and it would certainly be cause for plenty of bragging rights for Jeeps and embarrassment for Broncos.
2. The exterior design still needs maturing. Currently it still has the appearance of a mash-up of early and late design elements. It’s a confusing and trying-to-be-too-many-things-to-too-many different people sort of design. The result is there is no solid single design to get excited about. It is just a good solid looking design, but not a radical new design. Someone said it nicely: Think latest Mustang, which takes the original legendary design and truly puts a new spin on it. And in many ways actually looks better and cleaner than the original design.
a. The front end certainly has the signature fender ridges, but the effect comes across as just an-add on. Seriously, you could take any of the existing Ford trucks with their flat fronts and graft on a ridge atop each fender and put in round headlights and it would look Bronco-like. Which is what this looks like. Which is o.k., but the message is immediately obvious that it is just a heavily rebadged current design and nothing new. Kind of a little disappointment trace thought that creeps into the first assessment.
b. The rear end looks like a 3rd generation Bronco rear end, or maybe a mid-generation Pathfinder. Possibly the slab-shaped tailgate area is the signature late model design element that triggers this visual recognition saying, hey, that does not look like a Bronco. The sloping top with slightly rounded corners just re-affirms the 3rd generation look. Which is still o.k., but when you then see the front, which is clearly early Bronco, and the back, which is clearly a late model design, the mind immediately concludes that the design some sort of bad mash-up: The front makes early Bronco fans happy and the rear makes late model Bronco fans happy.
c. The fender flare thing really needs to mature. There has to be a laterally horizontal surface in there, like add-on fender flares of early Broncos, or it looks too much like the puffy fender flares they put on many SUVs, especially cross-overs, just to make the wheel wells look muscular and beefy like some sort of modular four-wheel-drive wannbe.
d. The slanting B-pillar element screams 2nd generation and late model Bronco. Which further confuses the eye when you trace forward and see the distinctly non-late model front. Yet the sides are slab-sided like and early Bronco. Very confusing visually. Very Pathfinder like in the aggregate. I have to say this slanting pillar is the biggest visual hang-up for me.
e. The bumpers are too complicated appearing. They should be simple and monolithic. No design strips or rounded tucks except in a more refined and unobtrusive sort of way as no doubt necessary for modern safety.
and back
