This hits the nail on the head. except for the buying a jeep part....my wife had a 2014 Sahara she bought new.... what a piece of crap it was.
Constantly needed repairs.
Constantly needed repairs.
I am a Ford man and have owned nothing but Fords in my entire life. I currently own 8 including two early Broncos. Just because I like Fords and own Fords doesn't mean I am blindly loyal and will buy whatever garbage they may or may not pump out.
The new Bronco is something I have been following and waiting 16 years for (ever since the 2004 concept). There are a lot of cool and interesting things Ford did right, but they are too far off the mark on many others in my opinion to get me interested enough to buy one. I still look forward to seeing them out on the trail, but for my money, I am pretty sure I would go with a JL if I had to buy something new.
I will await more details, but from the specs they published, the two door Bronco is going to be significantly larger than a two door JL, which is a bad thing for people like me who like to run tight, technical trails. I would like to find out the width at the body, but I suspect it is over 70" wide seeing as the width without mirrors ranges from 75.9-79.3". The JL is 73.9", but the body is only about 65" wide and the tires (and flares) are what make it 73.9" wide. I don't mind the tires sticking out, but I don't want width at the sheet metal. Also, the two door Bronco is listed as being 173.7-174.8"long compared to 166.6" for the two door JL, so about 7-8" longer. For reference, the early Bronco was ˜69" wide and 152.1" long (without the spare tire, so probably ˜165" with a spare).
As far as IFS goes, They showing their ignorance. There is not a single rock buggy I am aware of competing with independent suspension. Yes, many Ultra 4 cars are running IFS these days so they can be faster in the desert since they usually just winch through all the hard spots at the Hammers. The thing is, the IFS on those Ultra4 cars, trophy trucks, and side by sides is fundamentally different than the SLA IFS on the new Bronco that only musters 8-9" of travel depending on trim despite its substantial girth. The Raptor is as wide as a dually and can't even do 14" which really isn't that much in the world of desert racing. The IFS in these performance applications everyone uses to justify the IFS in the new Bronco use center-mounted, narrow differentials that allow for more travel in a narrower package than SLA IFS. Not to mention that off road IFS systems are substantially more complicated and expensive to build than their solid axle counterparts. Had the new Bronco had TTB, a center-mounted differential, or portal axles (like the HMMWV) I could probably get excited. TTB drives a lot like a solid axle, and you can get huge travel inexpensively and maintain a narrower track width than any other form of IFS. I have a TTB wheeler on 37" tires with ˜13" of travel that I run hard trails with, and it hangs pretty well with the Jeeps, but I am at the point where the shortfalls of IFS are becoming apparent in the rocks. I prefer the solid axle setup in my other rigs and don't really see any distinct advantages of the IFS over the solid axles in my other rigs on the street, or at higher speed off road.
Finally, engines. I am not an Ecoboost-hater, but I would personally prefer equivalent naturally-aspirated engines, particularly a V8. I prefer the better off-idle torque of a larger displacement engine and the relative simplicity and lower cost of a naturally aspirated engine (if it weren't for Ford's price-fixing). I would argue that a V8 is a huge part of the Bronco's identity and maybe even more so than the Mustang's since Broncos have always had available V8s (some years were exclusively V8s) and there was a time when Mustangs weren't available with a V8. Besides, everyone knows the Ecoboost engines sound like crap! Just go watch one of the Bronco R videos if you need a reminder. The 5.0L Coyote weighs in at ˜450 Lbs. and makes 395 HP and 400 LbFt in the F150s. That is 85 more HP than the top option 2.7L Ecoboost and the same amount of torque in and engine that weighs the same or maybe even slightly less. Plus the 5.0L is perfectly happy running on regular even at full load in 100ºF+ weather. I don't think it is unreasonable at all that people are disappointed in the lack of V8 availability in the Bronco.
I really wanted to like the new Bronco and was prepared to custom order one as my first new vehicle purchase (and probably only) and keep it for the rest of my life, but the three factors I've outlined above are a deal-killer for me. The lack of a manual-shift transfer case, over-abundance of non-mandatory electronic nannies and fluff, and styling that missed the mark are the final nails in the coffin. Looks more like an enlarged Suzuki Jimny/modern Scout interpretation with some hints of Landrover Defender than the original Bronco to me. Regardless, it is an interesting vehicle, and Ford could have done much worse, but it is not for me, and I am not the only one who feels this way, and that is okay. Not everyone has to love it just because it is the successor of the original Bronco that we all love for varied reasons.
