2020 ‘Baby’ Ford Bronco: FTE Members Sound Off
Ford looks to tap a growing market with an aggressively-styled, city-dwelling SUV. So what do you think about it?
It’s been several months since Ford announced that in addition to the forthcoming Bronco revival, they would also be producing a smaller, off-road focused crossover that we now refer to as the “Baby” Bronco. At that time, the automaker released a shadowy image of the front end of this mysterious rig and nothing else. Since then, we’ve learned that this new ‘ute will be built on the Focus platform, yet feature aggressive styling and honest-to-goodness off-road capability.
However, our passionate members here at Ford Truck Enthusiasts weren’t digging this idea one bit. But then, just recently, an astute web surfer located an image that appears to show the Baby Bronco in production ready form. At what appears to be an official Ford sanctioned event. Sporting much improved styling, no less. Thus, we were interested to see if this changes the minds of hardcore FTE members. And this thread certainly doesn’t disappoint on that front.
While many have been quick to pile on the idea of a Baby Bronco, YoGeorge seems to get the strategy behind this move.
“It does have a more utilitarian appearance than I thought we’d see from Ford. Still waiting, I guess, for the bigger Bronco (based on the Ranger). Maybe they will use some of the same style cues to create an off-road SUV family. Kind of like Jeep with the Cherokee/Compass/Grand Cherokee having similar looks.”
And he also expands on the idea that Bronco could become some sort of sub brand instead of one singular nameplate.
“Ya know, if Ford establishes some kind of identity for the Bronco, it almost could be. And they could cash in selling accessories and mods for the Bronco. Although they also have the Raptor, 4WD pickups in general including the new Ranger, and the FX4 version of the Expedition. So they may be better off to do a Toyota “TRD” kind of thing for their whole off-road fleet. And use SVO or Roush to help out.”
However, JKBrad isn’t a huge fan of the styling.
“The C pillar on this is really ugly, with a small rear quarter window behind it. It’s hard to gauge the size of this, but the rear doors seem very small. This looks more like a Jeep Renegade than anything else.”
But as the OP notes, this is the sort of thing that caters to a demographic much different than what most of our members belong to.
“The baby Bronco is indeed Renegade-sized. It’s probably a good city car for many people with a cool look. Weird things like the Kia Soul are selling in numbers if they prove to be reliable.”
And he also does a fantastic job of explaining how the Baby Bronco will fit into Ford’s current lineup.
“Ford builds the Explorer and Flex on the same Taurus chassis. The Escape would be the refined city car and the Baby Bronco would be the outdoorsy recreational vehicle. Jeep did the same thing with the Compass and Patriot, but ditched the Patriot and stuck with the Compass. Honda had the CR-V and the Element on the same chassis also, with different degrees of refinement.
Hell, Subaru is basing all of its vehicles on the same modular global platform these days. From the compact Impreza (Focus sized) to the 3-row Ascent (almost Explorer sized). And Honda is using a shared chassis for the Civic, CR-V, and now the Accord. So common chassis designs that can be stretched in both length and width are becoming more common to save development costs. Tweak the height, and you have cars and SUVs on the same platform.”
Obviously, we enthusiasts are much more interested in the regular Bronco than some sort of stylish city dweller. But there’s no denying that this new offering could potentially be a huge sales hit for Ford. Still, we want to know what you think. So head over here and tell us your feelings on this new crossover that might just sport the Bronco name in some capacity!
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