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SPEAKER 1: It is here, the first member of Ford's all new Bronco
line is finally ready.
It's the 2021 Bronco Sport.
And you're going to be seeing this compact crossover
on public roads and off-road trails very soon.
So is the Bronco Sport really a mini Bronco?
Or is it just a bunch of BS?
See what I did there?
I crack myself up.
This is a crossover with attitude.
And while that's cool, it's certainly not the only one.
The Bronco Sport is going to have
to prove its mettle against off-road variants like the Jeep
Cherokee Trailhawk, the Toyota RAV4 TRD Off Road,
and of course the trusty Subaru Forester.
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Now, there are tons of really cool features
in here that you have to see.
But what you really want to know is how it drives, right?
So let's get right into it.
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So the Bronco Sport shares its basic architecture
with the Ford Escape, which we found
to be a competent but pretty unremarkable crossover.
Since the Bronco Sport is a little bit more
of a niche vehicle, though, it has a chance
to really express more personality.
Under the hood you have a 1.5 liter three cylinder engine
in base models and an optional two liter, four cylinder
engine.
Both are turbo charged and both are
mated to an eight speed automatic transmission.
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So here's the good news.
All-wheel drive is standard, so you
don't have to worry about adding it on as some pricey option.
The bad news, at least for hardcore off-roaders,
is that there's no four-low transfer case.
So you're not going to be able to do some of the really,
really gutsy adventurous stuff.
But Ford does have a four wheel drive lock feature.
And there's a rear differential that can effectively
lock the rear axle.
And when we were driving off road,
I found that it worked pretty good considering what
the Bronco Sport is capable of.
You've got a choice of five trim levels.
There's the base version.
And then there's the Big Bend, with a couple
of extra features.
There's also the Outer Banks, with more of a refined exterior
look.
And then finally the Badlands is where
you get to add the seven driving modes, skid plates, tow
hooks, adventurey stuff like that.
Finally, you've got the First Edition, of which Ford is only
going to make 2,000 units, most of which
are already spoken for.
Here's something we don't normally do,
start with the back.
The Bronco Sport has a lot of cool features
that are based around usability.
For instance, instead of having to open the trunk all the way
all the time, you can independently
open the glass, which is great in case
you have to get in and grab stuff off the top.
But if it's super packed in there with all
your camping gear or whatever, you
don't have to open the whole thing
and have it all come tumbling out first.
This theme continues inside the cargo hold,
where there's a neat little rubber texturized
pad on the bottom so that it's easy to clean.
There are lots of hooks, a 12 volt outlet and a 110.
And Ford is making more than 100 accessories
available at the launch of the Bronco Sport.
One of them is a cargo management system
that will divide all of your gear to keep it in place.
And it also turns into a nifty little table.
Base versions of the Bronco Sport
get 17 inch wheels, while Outer Banks versions
get 18 inch wheels.
But then when you get up into the Badlands and this First
Edition, you get all terrain tires.
And these tires aren't really any bigger
than what you might find on competing crossovers.
But it's great to have all terrain come standard
on a trim.
Base versions of the Bronco Sport
also come with 7.8 inches of ground clearance, which
is really not a lot if you're going to do any type of action
in the dirt.
But the Badlands and the First Edition
get bumped up to 8.8 inches.
Now that's more like it.
Those ever-important off-roading angles
around the exterior of the car are again
impressive when you get into the Badlands and the First Edition
trims.
Approach and departure angles are better
than the Cherokee Trailhawk.
Although, the Jeep does have the Ford
beat when it comes to breakover so you don't get high-centered
on a rock in the middle of it.
Inside the Bronco Sport, there's a lot to look at.
First of all, standard is an eight inch touch screen.
It's actually one of the things that we
liked best about the Escape.
And it works pretty well here too.
One thing is that navigation has to be
added on as an additional package on all trims, which
is kind of a bummer.
But you do get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, standard.
And then pretty good storage too.
This center cubby is pretty deep.
Two cup holders, a tray up here, and then another tray right
below the screen for your phone, or keys, or other small items.
Continuing with the theme of the Bronco
Sport, the real cool stuff is in the back.
On the Badlands trim, you get a couple of neat features,
cargo netting on the back of the front seats,
and a pocket that zips instead of just staying open
all the time.
Also don't forget, the switchgear here
is all sealed off and the floors are made of rubber.
So if you ever need to wash out the entire interior
from a muddy day, or sandy day, or dirty day,
that seems a little bit excessive
for the vast, vast majority of Bronco Sport owners.
But pretty cool attention to detail, nonetheless.
Also there are two dials to use when
you're selecting the type of driving you want to do.
First of all, to control the transmission,
there's this gear selector with cool rubber
grip on the outside, nice and big, and easy to use.
And then there's a smaller one that controls the goat modes,
or the terrain management system.
That's how you toggle between the different modes
like normal, eco, sport, and then the fun
ones, rock crawl, sand, mud and ruts, tough stuff.
First time behind the wheel of the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport.
And there are a few things that immediately stand out.
The first thing is that this does not
feel like a rebodied Escape.
You immediately know that you're in something different.
First of all, the hood is very visible from the driver's seat.
It is wide and prominent in front of you, with big bulges.
And that helps so that you know where the corners are,
which is going to come in handy later for off-roading.
But here at highway speeds, it's a pretty smooth ride
for a compact crossover, especially one that's basically
shaped like a refrigerator.
We are getting a little bit of wind noise
from the higher speeds, but it's not unpleasant.
And inside, the Bronco Sport is comfortable.
There are nice materials.
And this first edition comes with some extra features
that you won't find on some of the lower trims.
There's plenty of power from the engine.
It's doling it out well to the all-wheel drive system.
But I am going to need a little bit more time getting
used to these brakes and the steering wheel.
The brakes sometimes just feel like they have
a little bit of a dead spot.
After you initially touch the brake
pedal, if you get deeper into it,
there's just not very much feel.
It comes back on when you get harder,
but that dead zone is just a little bit disconcerting.
Maybe you get used to that over time, we'll have to find out.
Steering also has a lack of feel on your initial turn in.
It's not until you really lean into it
that the car responds in the way that you might expect.
It'd be much nicer to have a consistent, smooth resistance
or response from the wheel.
That's not really what you get here.
There's a similar kind of odd sensation in the Ford Ranger
pickup.
But it's worse there.
That can sometimes leave you feeling a little queasy.
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So we're going to give this Bronco Sport a real test now.
We're going down a very, very steep--
SPEAKER 2(ON RADIO): OK, when you're ready we're going
to start rolling out.
We're going to take it nice and easy.
SPEAKER 1: Going down a very steep descent.
Let's see how it goes.
Staying on the brakes, we're not using Hill Descent for this.
We're going to see how the Bronco Sport does just
on the brakes.
A very, very steep decline.
Brakes had the problem with that.
This is a pretty lightweight vehicle,
it feels light on its feet.
But any descent like that, gravity
is going to work against you.
But the brakes really had no problem.
It was not very much slippage, felt good.
Inputs on the steering wheel were great.
Clearance worked well.
There was no scraping.
The wheels went up from time to time.
But for the most part, it didn't bother the car.
And we made it down relatively easy.
Now, do I think a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk could
have done that also?
Yeah, probably.
I don't know about the RAV4 TRD Off Road.
But nonetheless, pretty impressive from the Broncos
Sport.
So the Bronco Sport has been pretty
impressive in off-road trails so far.
We're going to kick it up a notch a little bit right now.
We're in sand mode on the train management system.
That's going to send more power to the rear wheels.
We're not going super fast.
But it is cool to see it work really
well in a dynamic setting.
I expected the Bronco Sport to be capable, especially
at low speed.
But it is a lot more rough and tumble than I was thinking.
It's got pretty meaty tires.
And the engine is definitely willing to go.
All in all, starting to feel like a pretty
versatile and capable off-road vehicle.
And an off-road environment, the Bronco Sport
has been pretty impressive so far.
And I'm going to chalk up most of that to the suspension.
Ford calls it HOSS, which stands for, I think,
High-performance Off-road Suspension System.
And it really incorporates a lot of unique components.
It's not just a straight carryover from the Escape.
You do have independent front and rear suspension.
But a lot of the components like sway bars, and bushings,
and dampers are completely unique to Bronco Sport.
And I think they really, really work
well in rhythm with each other and with the car
so that you are not feeling a ton of vibration
through the car, even when you can
tell you're going over ruts and cracks or bumps
on an off-road trail.
And that's really nice, not only for comfort,
but it makes you feel more confident in being
able to put more power to the ground when you want to go fast
or in the vehicle's ability to handle
some of the rougher stuff that you may encounter.
Power from the engine has also been great out here today.
We've got 250 horsepower and the Bronco Sport puts its power
down to the ground really well, through that terrain management
system.
I expected that to be good.
That's one of Ford's calling cards
when it comes to off-roading.
You see similar systems in the Raptor and vehicles like that.
And in the Bronco Sport, they've proven really effective so far.
After a little bit of time on the off-road trails
today, I'm pretty impressed by what the Bronco
Sport was able to do.
The terrain management system lives up to its name.
And the Bronco Sport certainly has the exterior dimensions
to get through some pretty rough stuff.
The question is, how much are you
really going to want it to do?
Because those plastic bumpers, I don't
think are going to stand up to much more than what
we did today.
And there's no rock sliders or any protection on the side.
And as much as Ford's kind of simulated rear locker
works pretty well, I can't get over the fact
that there's no four-low.
This is really only going to matter
to a very small number of people,
and the vast majority, I think, will
find a really nice daily driver that looks pretty cool.
Now, if you really have your heart
set on taking this thing out to Moab
or spending a lot of time overlanding in it,
I think it can do it.
But it's going to take a lot more seat time before I really
feel confident saying that.
On the other hand, if you're just looking at it
and thinking it looks cool and it
would be great to drive around town, the comfort is there.
And I think the usability built into the interior
is a big plus.
Ford wanted to make a big splash with the new Bronco name.
And in the Bronco Sport, they did just that.
Thanks for watching.
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And for an in-depth article on the Bronco Sport
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to see it on Edmunds.com.
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