July 2020 will go down as Ford Bronco month, with the return of Ford’s 4 x 4 bad boy. We all gawked at that retro yellow finish, and some insanely good specs that are set to give the Bronco the edge in the SUV boulder-crawler wars. It was almost like the Backstreet Boys’ appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
This classy off-roader will feature a two-door and four-door variant, with respective turbocharged 2.3L four-cylinder and twin-turbo 2.7L V6 on offer. You can order both of these with a 10-speed automatic transmission (why would you?), however the latter does come with a 7-speed manual mistress that’ll let you play with her all day.
We say seven, but in truth it’s a six-speeder with a granny gear option for when you’re going rock climbing. And we don’t mean you with an ice axe.
An SUV legend
The Ford Bronco is a household name when it comes to legendary off-roaders. Back in 1966, Ford made hearts swoon with a 1st Generation set of three Broncos, which effectively paved the way for the luxury SUV mould as we know it.
The pick of the bunch has to be the Bronco Roadster. No roof, no doors, no nonsense, and a foldable windshield, nothing like it for a naked adventure out in the wilderness.
Ford’s comfort has always been predicated around its engineering brilliance. From early on, they’ve combined a coil spring front suspension, which was unusual in an off roader, with a radius arm design, bringing comfort and durability to the long-term SUV consumer.
Add to this a short wheelbase for greater versatility (think Santi Cazorla) and a wider track width really made this the ultimate choice for a weekend road trip to Yosemite.
Pulling the plug
And then, in 1996, the Bronco pulled the plug on its offroad lineup. A combination of three things was behind this, and, no, OJ wasn’t one of them.
Firstly, Ford built the Bronco on a shared platform with the F150. In 1996, Ford announced that the F150 would undergo a major redesign, and that meant complications for the Bronco.
Should Ford invest in a new custom platform for the Bronco and produce a low volume model that would effectively take years to see returns, or do they continue building the Bronco on the old F150 platform, even though they could no longer benefit from the economies of scale previously enjoyed with the shared platform.
Coupled with the arrival of a new Ford Expedition and a change in the regulations around high-centre-of-gravity vehicles (dey be rolling fool), there just wasn’t enough in it to continue producing the Bronco, and it was hence put to bed.
Let’s not forget they did have a 2004 Bronco Concept, which can be seen in The Rock’s film Rampage.
I’m sure many can’t wait to get hold of a manual-transmission 2021 Ford Bronco and bring back the old SUV days. This one’s in at number 5 on our list.
