End of an Era: A Look Back at the 1996 Ford Bronco
Is the last Bronco fast, loaded with technology, or practical? No, but that doesn’t matter. It’s still cool.
SUVs have been so commonplace on American roads for so long that it’s hard to imagine that the Ford Bronco has been out of production for almost 25 years. The Blue Oval has made plenty of other rigs over the years, such as the mammoth Excursion and the tiny EcoSport, but its original off-road icon hasn’t been in new vehicle showrooms since the days of the first Clinton administration. With the next-generation model on the horizon, now’s a perfect time to look back at the last year of the full-size Bronco, which Doug DeMuro does in this video.
Every part of the Ford Bronco serves as a reminder of just how convenient modern vehicles are. At the rear of the Bronco, DeMuro points out the “rather complicated process” you need to go through if you want to throw something into the rear cargo area. There’s no foot-activated power liftgate or a button he can press on the key fob. He starts by unlocking the spare tire carrier and swinging it clear of the tailgate. Then he inserts the key into the rear keyhole and gives it a twist.
Doing that lowers the window – an essential step because there’s no external door handle. DeMuro has to reach inside to pull a release on the tailgate, which lowers it and creates a nice bench. There is a bright side to it, though. After DeMuro sits on the lowered panel, he says, “Unlike pickup truck tailgates, which are just metal, Ford knew people were going to do this so they carpeted the tailgate so you can just sit here and hang out.”
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These days we’re so used to seeing plastic bumpers with integrated parking sensors. Back in ’96, the Bronco’s rear bumper was just a long strip of chrome that jutted out past the sides of the body. No grace, no subtlety, no electronics. It was just there to do one job.
Ford’s designers didn’t use complex shapes or patterns for the Bronco’s wheels, which seem tiny compared to the giant wheels on modern vehicles. In fact, they just used one shape: the circle. And lots of them. DeMuro says, “I counted the circles on this wheel and I got to 44, if you include the wheel itself and the valve stem.”
The interior is almost as uncomplicated. It’s a broad landscape of gray and black plastic dotted with oddly placed controls, such as the island-like button for the rear defroster and the array of cruise control buttons that eat up the usable real estate on the sides of the steering wheel. Getting into the back seat is relatively easy, but there are no rear side windows to roll down. Fortunately, there are quarter windows up front to increase cabin air flow.
Under the hood, which features functional, no-frills lighting, DeMuro’s test truck has a good old-fashioned V8. A whopping 5.8 liters of displacement. No direct injection. No turbos. No hint that the EcoBoost engine was coming or even imagined.
As big and burly as the Bronco looks, it doesn’t really take up a lot of space on the road. DeMuro says, “This is only 183 inches long, which is shorter than … a Camry.” It just feels like it does thanks to the big sound of its V8, its loose steering, its abundance of body roll, and its noticeable width.
The last-generation Bronco seems even larger when you consider the size of the whole it left in the hearts of its owners and fans. It’s a broad and brawny reminder of how badass SUVs could be without wood trim, panoramic moonroofs, and a bunch of gadgets. Ford has had nearly a quarter of a century to think of a way to fill that void. Only time will tell if they can do it with a very different vehicle without a V8 power.
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