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As an observer who is interested in the new Bronco as a tough body-on-frame SUV, I would ask if those people who "demand" 2 doors on a Bronco also demand 2 doors and only one row of seats in a pickup truck. Seems that these go hand in hand. In 1978, I bought a short bed flareside F100 and expected nothing more than a single 3 passenger bench seat and wanted rubber floor covering instead of carpeting.
How many non-fleet pickup buyers are buying regular cab pickups these days? Ford even brought out the Raptor in only the Supercab version and buyers DEMANDED the Crew Cab because they need to take their kids to the mall in them--a more common use for Raptors than desert racing...
Any new vehicle that Ford brings out has to be intended to make them a bunch of money, which means selling in large volumes and also having a good per-unit return--particularly those vehicles built in the US. Ford makes a few hundred bucks on a low end Fiesta; I think I remember reading that the average profit on an F150 is 14 grand...
It seems to me like the new Bronco will be designed to be a more civilized competitor to the Wrangler (which makes FCA a LOT more money in loaded 4-door configurations), and would be a direct competitor to the 4Runner which I think is the only other medium size body on frame SUV still out there. Given the price of these vehicles, I would say very few people are buying them to bounce them off boulders or wedge them between trees off-road.
If you want something based on the F150, buy an Expedition...are you forgetting that the Expy exists?
Here's what I don't get. This thing would likely end up an Explorer sized body on frame SUV as a 4-door. That is basically what the Everest is...
Nice, but not a Bronco....
I'm wondering if they won't offer a 2-door with the rear hinged back doors like the Toyota FJ had.....Either way, I don't know how a dealer is to sell a body on frame 4 door (Bronco) and a uni body Explorer that would compete against each other... Of course the Ranger will take sales from the F-150 as well as the competition...
I see the point here, the FJ crashed and burned. Capable, yes. Cool looking, perhaps. Functional, No.
I can see myself dumping my truck and getting a Bronco and a 5x8 trailer to haul what needs hauling.
I see the point here, the FJ crashed and burned. Capable, yes. Cool looking, perhaps. Functional, No.
I can see myself dumping my truck and getting a Bronco and a 5x8 trailer to haul what needs hauling.
Toyota was simultaneously selling the unibody Highlander, the similar sized 4Runner, and the FJ Cruiser.
The FJ was likely the best off-roader but did not sell (aka did not make money) to justify it.
Likewise, Nissan killed the XTerra (which was a 4 door but it was more of a tough off roader). And they changed the body on frame Pathfinder to a unit body SUV that they could sell in volumes.
People do NOT buy a $40k+ new truck to go off roading. Instead, they put on their rock climbing clothes and go to the mall.
The Ford Everest’s spec sheet is tantalizing for off-road nerds. Body-on-frame construction, a solid rear axle, and a real locking transfer case with a true low range give this truck all the bona fides that have kept Jeep in business with the rock-crawling set. Meanwhile, a high-tech Terrain Management System offers street, sand, snow, and off-road settings, managing throttle response, torque vectoring, and hill control like the systems found in pricey Land Rovers. An electronic-locking rear diff and digital displays for vehicle pitch and roll round out the off-road equipment.
RWD architecture and solid rear axle means it would likely hold up better towing than the Escape or Explorer. Likewise it would be better able to handle 500 lbs tongue weight so I could haul my daughter's wheelchair around. If done right this little guy could see mid-20's for gas mileage with the 2.0L EB engine, or even more with a diesel option.
What's not to love? I wouldn't consider one of these with only two doors.
RWD architecture and solid rear axle means it would likely hold up better towing than the Escape or Explorer. Likewise it would be better able to handle 500 lbs tongue weight so I could haul my daughter's wheelchair around. If done right this little guy could see mid-20's for gas mileage with the 2.0L EB engine, or even more with a diesel option.
What's not to love? I wouldn't consider one of these with only two doors.
+1 here! That's why I said I'd dump my truck and get a trailer to haul my crap.
This is a real bad photoshop I did on my phone... but I'm trying to see this thing as a Bronco. If this is what's coming I'm not so excited now. All the retro stuff has been widely popular across all manufacturers...why not a modern version of the old Bronco.
We don't know what the body style of the Bronco will be and Ford may indeed go retro, but they will need to stay moderately aerodynamic. The new Wrangler is gonna have a laid-back windshield also, from what I understand.
But as a former owner of a 1980 FJ40 Land Crusher, the FJ Cruiser was certainly a totally different looking vehicle, with the only familiar styling cue being the colors (mine was blue) and the white top (which my FJ40 also had).
There are also other considerations like crush zones and room in the pillars and roof edges for airbags.
Being a retro kind of guy (gonna be 65 this year) I like the old look also, but the current Dodge Challenger is about 1000 lbs heavier than the old Cuda/Challenger that it resembles, and the current Mini Cooper is about 50% larger than the original version.
We don't know what the body style of the Bronco will be and Ford may indeed go retro, but they will need to stay moderately aerodynamic. The new Wrangler is gonna have a laid-back windshield also, from what I understand.
But as a former owner of a 1980 FJ40 Land Crusher, the FJ Cruiser was certainly a totally different looking vehicle, with the only familiar styling cue being the colors (mine was blue) and the white top (which my FJ40 also had).
There are also other considerations like crush zones and room in the pillars and roof edges for airbags.
Being a retro kind of guy (gonna be 65 this year) I like the old look also, but the current Dodge Challenger is about 1000 lbs heavier than the old Cuda/Challenger that it resembles, and the current Mini Cooper is about 50% larger than the original version.
George
The new Bronco should have a different front and rear end than the Everest, but I suspect it should be very much based on that model. Don't believe that what you see will be the new Bronco--trust me, it won't. At the very least, the front and rear will look very different, probably rendering the Everest unrelatable to the Bronco. I would guess Ford will give redesigning treatment to the rest of the skin, if they even use the Everest as a basic design platform. They might even start from scratch and just build off the rolling chassis of the Ranger, which has been confirmed to be updated from the current European version.
"While some fans speculated that Ford could make a Bronco based on the upcoming 2017 Raptor, the Redditor says Ford will instead use the Ranger-based Everest for the new Bronco. Ford's Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair, however, contradicted that assertion. According to him, the new Bronco will be a unique vehicle, not a reworked Everest. Size-wise, he said expect something smaller than the Bronco II but bigger than the original Bronco. And if you're worried the new Bronco will be a glorified Explorer, don't be. He followed it up by saying "people have an idea of what a Bronco should be. Certainly, we have an idea of what a Bronco should be, and we're going to be looking forward to bringing that to our customers."
Definitely gets me excited!! Hope it's true!
Did I just quote myself? According to this Ford will be producing a real Bronco. I do not see Ford making an Everest "Bronco" and the current Explorer. They'd trip all over themselves. It will either be a legit Bronco or they'd replace the Explorer with the "Everest" Bronco. I posted a pic of the full size F-150 Bronco artist rendering. I did not forget they make an Expedition, I also did not forget they are $$$$$$
This truly is one retro badge that GM won't be able to fight against. Sure, they could re-invigorate the K/5 Blazer but it was never a smaller vehicle to begin with. BTW, I loved those old Blazers too.
It'd be cool to see the Scout come back if for no other purpose than it's namesake.
The original Bronco was 152" long and the Bronco II was 158" long. No way is a new Bronco going to fall in between those two in length... It sounds like Ford's chief tech officer does not know his history. The Fiesta-based EcoSport is 157" long and is a tiny, tiny vehicle.
Guessing by Bronco II, he incorrectly means the 1978 big Bronco which is 180" long and is still 9" shorter than an Edge.
I say the new Bronco will be 190-200" long--it will need to be if they want it to be a towing vehicle that has 2 decent rows of seats. Basically a tough redo of the pre-2011 Explorer. I dream about cheap also but think that is a pipe dream. The only way they will be able to build it in the US is if they charge a good chunk of change for it. I agree about the stratospheric cost of an Expy--that is purely a money grab in the context of selling a big vehicle "by the pound".
Nobody would want to drive something as small as the original Bronco or Bronco II on the freeway; the wheelbase is too short on those vehicles to keep them from making people seasick. The Everest is 193" long....and by the way, one of my friends posted a shot of an Everest in black and white camo driving around Dearborn a week ago. Ford is consolidating its world platforms, not multiplying them as it did in the past....
Thinking about this, my gut feeling is that a new Bronco with decent equipment is gonna price out like a Wrangler Unlimited, which will put a decently equipped model over 40 grand, and a loaded one over 50 grand. Again, this is gonna be a "cash cow" for well to do Millennials who want a toy that will have offroad capability but be way too expensive to risk wedging between boulders.
Not to pile on too much info, but here's a quote from Raj Nair taken by John McElroy (who is a friend of mine and an auto journalist) and it sounds like doublespeak for "rebodied Everest" with a tougher SUV costume to me:
"What is surprising is that according to Ford Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair, the forthcoming Ford Bronco will not simply be a tweaked version of the Ford Everest SUV – the vehicle pictured above, which is based on the current Ford Ranger and aimed mostly at the Asia Pacific and South American markets. As Carscoops reports, Mr. Nair told Autoline‘s John McElroy that the 2020 Ford Bronco will be distinct from the Everest, although both will share the next-generation Ranger’s platform. “It’s a separate vehicle. It will be an incremental vehicle from the Everest,” Nair told McElroy. Like the Ranger and the Everest, it will feature body-on-frame construction for a focus on “off-road capability,” but allegedly, will amount to more than just a simple rebadge.
As for its size, Ford’s CTO says the new Ford Bronco “will be based off the Ranger platform and so it’s going to be a similarly-sized vehicle to what you see in the Ranger.” The truck in its current iteration is “a bit bigger than the Ranger we used to have here in the US, so I would say it’s kind of in-between in what you saw with that really big Bronco [in the 1990s], and then the smaller [first-generation] Bronco.”
We have probably at least 1.5 years to speculate, before we see it at an auto show....lol
BTW, I'd love to see that Everest brought to the U.S. and called what it should be over here.... Explorer!
Everest specs: 192.59" Long, 73.22" Wide, 112.20" Wheelbase, 4938lbs
Explorer 2017: 198.3" Long, 78.9" Wide, 112.8" Wheelbase, 4890lbs (4WD)
Didn't look up approach/departure angles or ground clearance, but it's obviously quite the difference.
01-20-2017, 11:13 PM
