http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2017/07/21/insider-reveals-secrets-new-ford-bronco.html

well, if this is true, I guess I won't be spending a bunch of money on a new bronco in a couple years......

 

Thanks for the link but I'll consider all communications as hearsay till Ford officially releases the info.

 

Totally agree, the closer we get to the new bronco the more I think it's going to be a four-door IFS rebadged explorer with a removable top and automatic trans only. The idea of us getting a two-door , straight axle removal top manual trans bronco is completely gone from my mind. Not going to happen. The new Wrangler will continue to be the only game in town.

 

Seems like rather than seizing this great opportunity to build a modern Bronco they are just going to cash in on the name

 

4 door only, "removable top panels" (???), and not too much like a Wrangler. Yep - sounds like Ford is trying to "cash in" on the Bronco name... Should have let it rest in peace!

Let the market decide... TWO DOOR, REMOVABLE TOP, and let the four door be a $5,000 option. Simple. DONE!

"Removable panels" equals flop as Ford does not understand the market.

 

More and more rumors point toward mediocrity. The removable roof panel idea is where I thought this would go (i.e Jeep Renegade). Not having a 2 door is a mistake. This needs to be a truck based utility vehicle that is plain and simple. When I say truck based, I don't just mean body on frame. It needs to be able to carry a load inside without damage to soft plastics and it needs to have real bumpers vs neoprene aero designed bumper covers. It seems focus groups are leading the designers astray. Ford already makes sleek, plasticy cross over station wagon/mini van things. This should not mimic those. If the Bronco as we knew is the inspiration and the Wrangler is the competition, I see no reason in building a Ford version of a 4runner or Xterra.

If Ford builds an Everest and puts a Bronco label on it, I doubt I'd even stop to look at one. My wife already has a GX460, why would I buy another similar vehicle? I want something rugged and simple. I've had Wranglers before, looks like I will have one again.

I know many point to the fact that the 4 door Wrangler outsells the 2 door 3 to 1. But if you look at sales figures, the 2 door sales remain relatively flat, it's the 4 door sales that continue to increase. So 2 doors aren't loosing ground, they just aren't increasing in sales. That means that there are customers who prefer them.

 

So the steady market for the 2 door Wrangler (the only 2-door SUV) is about 70k vehicles per year and steady. The combined market for 4 door SUV's in the small and medium range is about 3 million and growing.

Which market has more potential for sales? When Ford reintroduced the 2-seat Tbird for the 2-seat market that had about 70k sales per year, how did that do in the market? You can drum up some excitement with a new vehicle in a tiny market segment for a couple years, but you can't sustain big sales for years and that is what Ford needs to keep the Wayne, MI plant open.

I am not saying that a 2-door Bronco would not be cool, but the wishes of a few enthusiasts don't make for big sales numbers and profits for Ford....they are in biz to make profits.

I absolutely agree with you on the soft plastics inside. Honda did well with the cargo area in the Element but that lacked the ground clearance for even deep snow and was in no way off-road capable. I'd like a Bronco that is tough inside as well as outside--I would like a truck also. And I want 4 doors and a rear seat that is habitable by humans. Doing an interior along the lines of an Explorer Police Interceptor (rubber mats standard instead of carpeting, rear area made for dogs and unruly convicts) but on a real truck has some possibilities...

 

Ford could build a 2 and 4 door on the same wheelbase, like the old XJ Cherokee. It I believe you're right, a 2 door is probably out of consideration.

If it's another 4 door soccer mom station wagon, count me out. My high hopes are fading fast.

 

Where do 2 doors on the same wheelbase or vehicle length get you? You can still high-center the vehicle...

In the old days, cars had more issues with stiffness so 2 doors were superior, but technology and high strength steels have made that less of an issue. Again, I have no problem with a 2-door, short or long, but would not want one. I used to climb into the back seat of 2 doors when I was young, and took long trips in the back seats of Camaros and stuff, but people expect more comfort these days.

In another thread I brought up the idea of baby seats also....when our son was a babe we carried him in the back seat of my wife's Escort GT frequently. Got really annoying to lift him back into the seat. I can just imagine the fun of the new rear-facing baby seats in the back seat of a 2 door. Many young people who might buy a 2-door Jeep or Bronco also do things that make babies happen....

I do have a favorite pic of my son as a baby in his baby seat strapped into one of the side-facing jump seats of my old FJ40 Land Cruiser....having the top off made access to the baby seat pretty good...but I think side-facing seats would not meet crash standards these days.

So a 2-door Bronco makes sense for rock crawling single people who do not plan to get married or have kids and have no friends, or empty nesters with no friends, kids, or grandkids.... Again, this is coming from someone who, as a young father, had a 2-door Escort GT and an FJ40 Land Cruiser in the garage as our family cars. We quickly supplemented with a full size E200 van and then had big vans for 30 years as our son grew, did Cub/Boy Scouts, etc. I still have my old '91 BMW 318is, 2 doors, as my garage queen and fun car.

George

 

I understand the problems with things like carseats, if I didn't have T tops in my 99 TransAm I would never have gotten one in it.

But the idea that every vehicle needs to be built to fit all markets is what is making vehicles so boring now days. The Bronco should be an enthusiast vehicle, soccer mom's only drive one when they want to get away from the kids. If you try to design a vehicle to be usable for every imaginable task, it will do them all, but do most of them poorly.

People never bought the original Broncos because they wanted to haul around seven kids to ball practice, they bought them mostly because they wanted to be able to go hunting and camping without worry about getting stuck, or they wanted a dependable work vehicle for going into places with poor roads or no roads. When I was a kid my grandfather's friend drove one and they went bird hunting all the time, hauling around the dogs in the back and getting in with muddy boots without worrying about it. Get home and just put a water hose to it and wash it out. Now days a Wrangler is the only vehicle you can buy in a stripped down version that doesn't cost a fortune and will take you anywhere you want to go, even if not in the comfort you would find in a luxury car.

Everyone talks about how well the four door Wranglers sell, but there are also a lot of them on the used market too, because many buy them thinking they are getting an Explorer/Expedition or Trailblazer/Suburban, then find out they will jar their teeth out on a rough road and not handle well when driven like a race car through heavy traffic. I see so many posts on the Jeep forums where people complain they must have gotten one with bad shocks, then find out that is how they were made to ride.

A four door Bronco would be like a four door Mustang. A four door Bronco is an Explorer, a four door Mustang is a Fusion.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PREACH IT BROTHER!!!! I grew up putting elk and deer in the back of our Bronco. Back then there was a passion for vehicles. Whether it was a Bronco, muscle car, big ol honkin pickup, whatever, they did what they were built to do. And people loved em for it. Nowadays you buy a vehicle because you gotta have something to drive and it should get the job done. How many old hot rodders do you think rolled in their graves when the new charger was reborn with FOUR DOORS?????

 

I am an old hot-rodder with a passion for vehicles. In my esthetic, a pickup truck has a regular cab and a single bench seat, and if it is meant to go off-road, it has a short bed. Pickups were not so big and honkin' back in the day. You could shovel stuff in and out of the bed without using a ladder. They didn't have heated and cooled DVD players. They had rubber mats on the floor.

I owned a '78 F100 Flareside as my first brand new vehicle. Compare today's pickups to that and tell me how the old rules apply to them? I bet a lot of old hot-rodders drive 50-foot long Platinum Crew Cabs that need tugs to park them. And when the Raptor came out as a Supercab, there was no call for a regular cab version...instead people demanded a Crew Cab. And they got it. Are pickup sales down?

Everyone loves the '55-57 2-seat Thunderbird, but when Ford made it into a 4-seater in 1958, sales QUADRUPLED. Not a 4-door, but even those people who loved the "glam" concept of a 2 seater did not buy it till it was a 4-seater.

The Charger was always unnecessarily huge; I owed a '68 Hemi Roadrunner a few years ago myself... I have drag racing trophies from the '70's on my shelf. I don't think too many millennials and current buyers have fond memories of the original Charger. Your biggest LOL: people IN THEIR GRAVES are not buying new cars!!!

There are not many old hot rodders who drove in the 1970's around any more, and the world's approach to vehicles and transportation have changed. I'm nostalgic too, and if I wanted a '66 Bronco, I'd buy a '66 Bronco. Instead, I am looking forward to the new Bronco and want 4 doors. Fine for me if they build a 2 door also. I am 65 and may be good for 2, maybe 3 more new vehicles in my lifetime. Or none if I die soon (not planning that though). Ford has to grab the youth market and hold them, as well as meeting crash tests and emissions rules.

George

 

+2...very well said .. I agree as well.

 

I'm not sure if I could get on board with a 4 door Bronco...don't really see much difference between that and an expedition/explorer/etc.


But what if it was a "4 door" Bronco? As in, SuperCab...like the F-150. It would give at least the look of a 2 door with the slightly less utility of the suicide doors.


Personally I've always preferred the Super Cab look over the 4 door...I think I could get behind that idea for the Bronco.