Ford unleashes reborn Bronco

Tuesday, 14 July 2020

Watch as the all-new Ford Bronco family is revealed.

At long last, Ford has taken all the wrappings off its reborn Bronco. Let’s get into it, shall we?

As previously reported, Ford will offer three different versions of the off-roader; a two-door, a four-door and the baby Bronco, suffixed Sport. Before you get too excited, Stuff has been told by Ford NZ that the Bronco will not be offered in right-hand drive, despite being built on the same platform as the Ranger. Same with the Escape-based Bronco Sport. Weird, we know, but Ford sometimes operates in mysterious ways.

Anyway, the Jeep Wrangler rival sports looks based on the original Bronco, which debuted in 1966. That includes the square grille, circular headlights, short overhangs and a wide stance. It looks tops. Ford looks to have taken some inspiration from Jeep in offering the two-door on a shorter wheelbase with four seats and the four-door on a longer wheelbase with seating for five and a bit of extra storage. The roof and doors can all be removed as well. Thankfully, pulling the doors off doesn’t also sacrifice the wing mirrors.

The new Bronco is finally here! Want yours in two or four-door config?

Inside is a modular affair. Aside from basic items like the seats, steering wheel, gear selector, a device rack with power outlets and the infotainment screen, Ford will pretty much let you customise your Bronco as much as you want. Big grab handles on either side of the centre console and each end of the dash gives front occupants something to hold onto but if you’d rather not have them, you can delete them.

**READ MORE:

You can also take the roof off. Naturally.

* In your face Ford: Jeep unveils V8 Wrangler

* Can Ford's Bronco take on Jeep's Wrangler?

Yup, that’s a gear shifter for a manual transmission. If you’d rather the machine did the shifting, a ten-speed auto is available too.

* Ford takes aim at Jeep with revived Bronco

* Five vehicles that are a Ford Ranger underneath

Aw, such a cute family photo. We can see the resemblence.

Buyers can spec a marine-grade vinyl upholstery with both active and passive drain plugs in the rubberised floor, so owners don’t need to worry about getting damp on the trails or caught out by a passing shower when driving with the roof and doors off. And if the cabin gets muddy, it’s easy to hose out.

Ford says the Bronco is a vehicle with the “toughness of an F-Series and the spirit of a Mustang.” It might sound like cringey marketing but it looks like Ford can back up its claims. The Bronco will be available with two different powertrains, the familiar 2.3-litre Ecoboost turbo-four making 201kW/420Nm and a larger 2.7-litre Ecoboost V6 with 231kW/542Nm. The former is available with a Getrag seven-speed manual or a ten-speed auto while the latter can only be had with the automatic.

Meanwhile, the Bronco Sport gets the same engines as the Escape on which it is based. That means a turbocharged 1.5-litre triple with 135kW/259Nm or a 2.0-litre turbo four with 184kW/373Nm.

Two different four-wheel drive systems will be offered. The base system utilises a two-speed electronic shift-on-the-fly transfer case, while the optional advanced system features a two-speed electromechanical transfer case that adds an auto mode for on-demand engagement to select between 2H and 4H.

The Bronco will have some serious off-road chops too, with a rated ground clearance of 294mm of ground clearance, along with 43.2° approach, 29° rampover and 37.2° departure angles, along with an off-road crawl ratio of 94.75:1. Massive 35-inch tyres should help retain traction. Ford will include locking front and rear differentials as well as some sort of off-road tight turn ability.

Suspension up front is of the independent type, similar to the Ranger Raptor, while the rear axle is live and coil-sprung. Bilstein has supplied the shocks, instead of the Fox-branded units Ford has previously used. The new shocks have position-sensitive damping, which, effectively varies the damping forces during big suspension events, like hitting a boulder or sprinting across rough terrain.

Ford has also revealed a new terrain management system, called GOAT (Go Over Any Terrain). Apparently it will allow drivers to alter characteristics of the Bronco to better fit the environment, ranging from sand, mud, rock crawling to high-speed jumping.

All the best off-road bits come courtesy of the Sasquatch pack, which is available for every version of Bronco. If you’re happy being a bit of a poser, you can spec yours to be more liveable on tarmac than mud.

The Bronco Sport doesn’t get the same degree of off-road customisation though, making do with a standard all-wheel drive system, a handful of off-road drive modes and a trick rear drive unit with a differential lock function on higher-end models.

As for even more performance, we’re not sure. Ford doesn’t seem that keen on giving the Bronco a V8 like Jeep has done but never say never. Another possibility is the 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 found in the F-150 Raptor.