OK, so they think they can get away with putting a little 2.0 diesel engine the the concept bronco. Well hopefully this will get them off their butts and make it with more hamsters under the hood and maybe even tougher all the way around.

http://www.jeepin.com/news/rescue/index.asp

I think I would rather buy the Jeep at this point. Gotta love the integrated winches, below chassis cameras, adjustable suspension, and all the cool gadgets. oh and...600 FT LBS of torque! Now that more like it!...but ITS NOT A BRONCO!! CMON FORD!!!! STEP UP TO THE PLATE!

Here is another good link.

http://cars.ign.com/articles/490/490265p2.html

 

Ford gonna get its sorry little cute ute's wandering all over the highways and urban terrain while the rest of us who like the true 4WD off-road type thing will be lost customers. So long Ford in the off-road market if they don't answer this one in a hurry. How is it that the engineers and designers for most every other major manufacturer can see the need and the market for this kind of vehicle and Ford seems to do nothing but turn a blind eye or at best try to sneak some cheesy knock-off in under the fence. Ford, wake and smell the mud! The market for these things is bigger than you are willing to admit!

 

Not for everyone. I wouldn't take a brand new truck out into the mud or on the trails. At least, not until it's paid for. That's what old beat up trucks are for.

Besides, newer trucks don't have the toughness that the older ones do, and they likely never will. They stopped making the granny low four speeds years ago, for example. Would you want to worry about your air bag going off on a trail because you caught yourself on a tree stump? I wouldn't.

 

yea, we can only wait and see

 

There are ways around that. I mean after all, todays standard cab pickups have passenger side shut offs for when child car seats are used in them. Electronics are easily bypassed for these situations. People in this forum have installed kill switches to their late models to temporarily disable the airbags in off road situations.

And the "toughness factor" I guess is not applicable to the GMC and Chevy HD series trucks, the Ford Superduty line, the Jeep Trail Ready line (not to mention the Rubicon edition) and a host of other larger, stronger trucks hitting the highways and byways in the past half year to nine months.

All I'm saying here is that if Ford can build the Superduty, building a Bronco worthy of the nameplate and what it has stood for since its inception, should be no trouble at all provided Ford is swift enough to realize they are gonna be outsold, and outdone in this niche of the market if they do nothing to compete.

 

Good point gs92

 

Was it me, or did that Jeep look very simular to a Hummer?

 

What niche??? Ford doesn't even have a worthy off roader currently- dont get me wrong, the super duty's are stout trucks, but even the smallest super duty is too big to be considered as a good trail rig. This could be a huge opportunity for Ford to turn the wheeling world on it's ear, and create a legendary rig but sadly we all know down deep that they wont even be on the paper let alone the bullseye.

 

Yes it does look kinda like a hummer. But on another page that I am trying to locate, it has some stats and if I remember correctly, the Jeep Rescue stand at 7 1/2 ft tall! Taller than the hummer I beleive.

As for the toughness that was mentioned earlier, ummm I think Jeep may have found it with this one.

 

I'd rather buy a bone-stock bronco and build it up
Mama always said "If you want something done right, ya gotta do it yourself."

Besides, at the end of the day, even if you got the jeep, if you were going to take it off-road you'd still find ways to sink money into it. And whoever said no one wheels new trucks is right, IMO. Even if you DO take a new truck off-road, you're not going to push it as hard. Face it, you have no interest in rolling your brand new bronco or jeep.

 

In todays Corporate World, its all about the numbers. And lets face it, the money is being spent on large S.U.V's, Mini Vans, and luxury cars. So Ford is going to put their money in those items for the biggest return. As for Jeep, thats all they make is off road vehicles so thats where they put their money. Hopefully someone from Ford visits sites like these and reads the feedback from others. Maybe they will wake up and smell the coffee?

 

that new jeep is realy tall, u can bend over and walk under it, i did so at the chicago autoshow. if ur gonna own one your gonna wanna invest in electric steps. or a stool : )

 

The Jeep looks like a HUmmer because Hummer swiped the 7-slot grille a couple of years ago and finally settled on the lawsuit the Jeep brought against them for using a grille design so similar to the original Jeep grille design.

 

The fact that Ford DOESN'T build something to fill this niche is the problem. I used the Superduty as an example of the kind of stout vehicle they are capable of building. But, as you say, they have an opportunity here and are as far as anyone can tell, letting it pass them by. Obvoiusly, the Superduty is not the kind of vehicle I am hoping to see, merely something with that kind of strength and power stuffed into a more trail-worthy vehicle. The niche is being defined by others right now...Ford has YET to fill it with something from their own stable.

 

It has been my personal joy thinking of all the purely purpose built vehicles that the big three put on the road before i was born. We have all driven the best and the worst that they have to offer. I have been a ford fan since i was concieved in the back of a 1970 mach 1. I personally believe that the big auto makers have reached a point where they do not want to go where they have already been and want to stay ahead of the technology game. This is all well and fine, but i think they would benifit greatly by takeing the old designs and putting new tech. in them. An example of this would be to take a beautiful car that everybody wishes they had, like the '69 mustang cobra and keeping with the original design build the exact same care with today's tech. I think that the power train under my '84 bronco is the toughest Ford ever built. If they started building them agian, with integrated winches gps and put a solid axle under the front end and put some real ponies under the hood and more creature comforts i would be first in line to buy one. And i believe that since there are enough of us here we can make a difference in the way the thinking is done in detroit. Instead of cryin and complaining that our beloved FoMoCo. is dropping the ball lets drop the ball on them and tell them what we want.