Living with the Bronco
Review by Jacob Lerklint
The current generation of the Ford Bronco was introduced in mid-2020 as a 2021 model. It’s been a long time since it was revealed, and there are hundreds of reviews of these tough off-roaders online. I have been looking forward to getting my hands on one, and after all that wait, I finally got the chance to review a Ford Bronco
Our review Bronco had the upgraded 2.7-liter V6 engine, which is quite a nice engine. It provides plenty of power to move this rather large off-roader. The engine is smooth and works well with the 10-speed automatic transmission. It doesn’t feel overpowered at low speeds, but putting your foot down gets the Bronco going, and highway passing is a breeze.
The exterior design of the Bronco is quite beautiful, in my opinion. I know this is a subjective matter, but I didn’t meet anyone that didn’t like the design of the new Bronco. The design has been a hit since the first Bronco images were released in 2020. It takes a lot of design elements from the original Bronco and brings them to the modern world. Our Badlands trim looked absolutely badass.
The interior is quite loud at highway speeds, with lots of wind noise coming from the plastic hard tops. I haven’t driven a Jeep Wrangler in a while, which is the Bronco’s main competitor, but I believe the Wrangler’s top doesn’t let as much wind noise in. The Bronco’s top also made a decent amount of creaking noises. I hope Ford can refine it more; I know this is a tough off-roader, but a bit more refinement would be great.
The interior has a tough look, with lots of hard plastics. Normally I would complain about hard plastics on a vehicle in this price range, but in the Bronco, it’s by design. Every surface needs to be hard plastic because the Bronco is technically meant to be thrashed around in the dirt, mud, sand, and everything else you can think of. And with the ability to take the roof and doors off, the interior will get dirty. So having hard plastics makes sense for ease of cleaning.
The interior layout is quite simple and truck-like. All the buttons/knobs are large, and the interior is angular, like the exterior. You get modern amenities like power windows, heated seats/steering wheel, power mirrors, navigation, Sync 4, and smart cruise control. The interior is fairly comfortable if you ignore the road noise from the large tires and the plastic roof.
Overall, I was impressed with the Ford Bronco. I did enjoy spending time with it. I didn’t enjoy the gas bill; it averaged 14.7 liters/100 kilometers when I had it for a week. It’s also quite expensive, but then again, what isn’t expensive nowadays?
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