Test drove a Sport the other day. I was disappointed in the road noise. Quite similar to our 2011 Escape. Our 2021 Ranger is very quiet by comparison. The quietness of the Ranger was surprising, as the tires (18") are fairly aggressive. I did not pay attention to the tires on the Sport. Any comments on the Sport's overall noise level?

 

The Bronco Sport shares its platform with the Escape, with a more upright windshield and front end, and probably more aggressive tires. These are unibody vehicles and I would expect the Bronco Sport to be louder inside than an Escape. (The new Escape is more car-like than your 2011 and may be quieter.)

The Ranger is a separate body/frame vehicle that is not related to the Bronco Sport. The big Bronco shares some parts and construction with the Ranger, but everything I've read says that the big Bronco with the soft top or the plastic hard top is really loud inside, like a Jeep Wrangler.

 

Yo George, I appreciate your perspective. I realize the platform differences, but was not really thinking about the unibody maybe transmitting more noise. It seems road noise related and that it could be insulated somehow. Just dreamin' I guess as we like the vehicle otherwise. I will however look at the tires next time I go by the dealership, that is if they haven't sold it. They tacked 5K on the sticker bottom line. They call it a "market adjustment". I will hold off.

 

I haven't been able to find any road tests listing the actual noise from a Bronco Sport but tires on different road surfaces do make noise. The Bronco Sport is not built to be a luxury vehicle, though. But I read a road test of the big Bronco and the tester said that on the freeway it sounded like the windows were open when they were not.

Bentley, Rolls Royce, BMW, and Lexus make their quietest luxury cars on unibodies so the issue is not unibody vs frame but insulation and isolation of the drivetrain and suspension from the passenger compartment. Isolation is pesky; I had a '98 Acura TL and it was ultra quiet on smooth roads but like all Honda vehicles, it had a loud "thump" over expansion joints.

I'd bet that the new Escape is quieter and smoother than the Bronco Sport because it is effectively replacing the Fusion and Focus and trying to bring in car buyers.

If you want something quieter (and UAW/CAW built), go drive an Edge maybe. Seems like they are not selling like hotcakes these days so you should get a far better deal than $5k above sticker. But they don't have the "off road costume" happening. I remember the PT Cruiser selling for big bucks over sticker in its early days. With today's chip shortage, Bronco Sport prices are gonna be high for much longer before the situation eases up.

 

I did drive by the dealership today and stopped to check the tires on the Sport. They are regular passenger tires, not aggressive at all. So the noise issue is what it is. Thanks again YoGeorge.

 

Good luck with whichever way you decide to go. I know there is a tougher version of the Sport that has all terrain tires, but the ones I've seen at Detroit area dealers are almost exclusively the Big Bend model with pretty tame all-season tires. Not sure if they step up in the insulation on the higher line Bronco Sports. I think the base 3-cylinder 1.5 engine may be rougher and louder than the 2.0 4 cylinder engine.

We are on our 2nd Subaru Forester, which is really a competitor to the Bronco Sport, and the Forester is louder inside than mid-sized vehicles like the Edge. I know the Edge is not comparable to the Bronco Sport, but if you don't need the small size and offroad capability of the Bronco Sport, maybe go drive an Edge. With the $5k premium on the Sport, the Edge might be very comparable in price and is a really nice freeway/travel car that is not as hot a seller as the newer Bronco Sport and Explorer because it's been around longer. Our local dealer seems to be discounting Edges and there is even a rebate of some sort.

 

Only driven around town and mountain roads for the past few weeks, so haven't noticed any excessive road noise. It's a lot tighter and more responsive on the mountain roads than the Honda Pilot it replaced. Taking a 1200 mile round trip from CA to AZ to see a few old friends in September, so I'll post my trip comments to the forum. Looking forward to hearing everyone's personal comments and reviews

Cheer,
"D"

 

Cool, I will follow your experience!

 

Yo George, the sales person said they do not add a "market adjustment" to ordered vehicles. But then I don't expect them to come down from MSRP.

 

The question then is when you will get the Bronco Sport... Ford's current plan involves them taking orders because when they produce vehicles, they will go right to customers and dollars come in fastest that way. There will be a few cancelled orders and those will go to dealer stock. I don't need a vehicle right now and that's a good thing because dealer lots are so empty it's creepy. Good luck!

 

My wife and I drove a bunch of used 2018 - 2020 Escape SEL's, trying to trade-in her 2012 Fusion back in August and they all seemed rough and loud to both of us - the only one that we liked was a 2021 Titanium and that, at the time, was out of her price range. That was smooth and quiet... now she decides she's going to finagle some CD's and get a Bronco! We drove a used (<4000 mi) 2021 the other night and loved it, smooth, quiet, handled awesome... I was totally impressed!!! We put a deposit on it... should be picking it up Tuesday, 11/23!!! Area 51 Blue, Big Bend Package (don't care for the funky looking wheels but it's hers!!!

 

We did buy a Bronco sport off the showroom, have 600+ miles on it and do like it. It is not as quiet road noise wise as our Ranger, but OK. It is very smooth and has surprising "stuff"! One annoyance to both wife and I is the auto start/stop, a bane to many. Unfortunately, the vehicle does not have an inverter to plug a nite light in to fool the feature. It probably can be eliminated via Forscan. Maybe someone can confirm. The salesperson at the dealership tells us they have told many about the nite light fix after we told them!

 

A.) I was reading Forscan stuff the other night and it can be turned off but it's confusing because it looks like there's three choices! B.) My wife and I just turn it off every time we start it up - it's just to the right and just above the "Start" Button, so we've accustomed ourselves to making it a part of our routine, "Start"[1]>"Auto Start/Stop Off"[2]>"Eco Mode On"



1.) Press Start, 2.) Press Auto Start/Stop Off... then we switch "Echo Mode" On and we're ready to go!

 

But we are old and sometimes we forget!

 

Hey Tom, I'm going to be 72 in April and Patti's 66, so don't be using that excuse... it's a simple "Tap-Tap"!