Next morning Ford Roadside Service pick up

Summary
First things first. You're all here to read our personal opinions and actual experience of the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport

• · Don't buy this car if it bothers you to have people staring and pointing as you drive by or to have people every time you get in or out of the car ask how you like your new Bronco.

• · My wife and I are very impressed with the quick response of the 1.5L and the tight suspension on the winding mountain roads.

• · Head and Legroom, no car in its class can match the roominess of the driver and front passenger seats. Comfort, no issues driving 5 to 6 hours on the highway, through twists and turns of our mountain roads or sitting in city traffic during our trip.

• · On the highway, the car is still a pleasure to drive at high speeds. Often times you don’t realize how fast you are going and need to slow down to posted speeds.

• · There is a lack of gas pedal response at high and low speeds with the air conditioner on MAX.

• · The cargo area is noticeably smaller than other cars in its class. (Buy a cargo rack)

It is a pleasure to drive in all driving conditions. WE LOVE driving the 2021 Bronco Sport, but we left it on the side of the road 5 1/2 hours from home. Ford Roadside Service stepped up and picked the car up at our scheduled time the next morning. Our salesperson from Ken Grody Ford jumped right in with phone numbers for us to call and began making calls to the closest repair dealership, Paso Robles Ford, 30 miles away. The Service Manager had already checked out the car and put in an order for the NEW TRANSMISSION before we called about the car. He also called every day with an update and possible completion of the repair. With the weekend approaching, we decided to head home and return to “Wine Country”, Paso Robles in about a week. At which time I hope to get the details of why it failed, the cost to repair, and an itemized list of parts and labor costs. It’s all under warranty and our auto insurance paid for the SUV rental.



Our First Trip current mileage 345

The first leg of the trip through AZ was great. The car cruised down the highway at 70 - 80 MPH effortlessly, with weather temperatures between 102 - 110° degrees. The coolant temperature gauge never moved beyond the midway point of the “Cool” side. However, with the Air Conditioner at MAX, the 1.5L, gas pedal response is lacking or just sluggish. Normally the engine is super responsive at high speeds, and from a dead stop (with Auto Engine Shut OFF on-off)

During this leg of the trip, the MPG computer showed readings between 24 and 33 MPG, with most speeds between 30 - 70 MPH. The lower speeds mostly occurred while driving winding uphill, mountain roads. After driving multiple vehicles up and down the same mountain roads for nearly 20 years, my wife says, this is her favorite car after the Dodge, Challenger. Apples and oranges in my book, but not bad company to be compared to. Her word, the Bronco Sport is "Awesome" to drive.

Personally being over 6' 5" I am amazed at the legroom in the driver and front passenger seats. The "knee to dash" distance is about the same as in my Ford Excursion. The driver and front passenger seats have long travel tracks for the front-to-back movement, and the up and down seat lifts. Ford definitely gave roomy preference to the driver and front passengers. This was very noticeable in the rear cargo area when packing for the trip. After readjusting camping gear, luggage and bags we were able to finally see through the rear window from the driver seat. The only issue while driving is my vision was partially blocked by the large housing for the forward camera and front vehicle sensors behind the rearview mirror. You will also want to keep the windshield in this area clear of bugs and debris. During our trip back to California the computer screen displayed “Front collision system is blocked and may not be working properly”.

Ending mileage, 1,495

The second leg of our trip heading up Highway 1, Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu with the windows down, there was no excessive road noise noticed. First stop, the city of Ventura to meet friends and enjoy cooler weather. From there an unexpected detour to Solvang for a coffee, danishes, and shopping for warmer clothes due to the unusually cool weather.

We headed to Moro Bay for a planned 2-day stay and to meet family in Pismo Beach the next day. That’s when the transmission issue began. Luckily we already stopped at our hotel and unpacked our luggage. Coming from dinner, while pulling of away from a stop sign the Automatic Engine Shut Off restarted the engine with a loud grinding sound and the engine cut off. The computer display read “Manually Start Engine”. I put the transmission dial in “P” and pressed the Start Engine button. The car started, I put it in “D” took my foot off the brake the car moved forward, the engine cut off and I coasted to the side of the road. I had my wife start the car after I lifted the hood. She put the car in “D” the engine shook violently from front to back (mounted sideways) and died. I figured it was a motor mount or the transmission. We grabbed some remaining items from the car and started our 5 block walk to the hotel.

Ending mileage 2,268

Paso Robles Ford received the new transmission from the Sacramento warehouse on a Friday and will start working on the car Monday, so we decided to drive back to So. Cal. We hope to drive back on Wednesday or Thursday, pick up the car and drop off the rental in San Luis Obispo. We will keep you updated as things progress.


OK Back in the saddle, pun intended. The vehicle took a week longer than expected, but gave us time to regroup and decide to continue with the vacation, YEAH!



The service department was able to drive the car in its condition. They initially had the same response as I did with the engine shutting down when shifted to “D”. The Ford service team started the vehicle in Neutral, then pushed it forward and shifted to Drive. The vehicle kept driving until the forward motion stopped and the engine shut off. The service manager believes it was the torque converter, and usually, they would dive into the transmission to find the problem, but because it had such low miles Ford said to just replace it.



Well, because Ford paid for the repair I couldn’t get any real useful info on the invoice, but here is a copy of the invoice.



Ford paid for all parts and service charges

If anyone has any thoughts or opinions on the issue please let me know. I’m a guy with a car, not really a car guy. This is what I’m told by my “Car Show Buddies”



We continued the drive up and down the California Coast, returning to Paso Robles every night for great dining and entertainment. We stopped in Avila Beach, Jagged rock, San Simeon and spent part of a day in Cambria. All beautiful locations and the weather was a nice 78 degrees, perfect. The Bronco, Sport, drove great, no issues, but during this leg of the trip three strangers did ask me how I like the Bronco, LOL



Avila Beach Cliffs

San Simeon

Any questions shoot me a note; still love the car very fun to drive!!!!

 

I'll just respond with a "yikes"...sounded like most of your comments are positive but the blown up transmission on a new car has to be discouraging. I've been conditioned to be afraid of CVT's but own 2 of them (Subaru Forester and Nissan Murano) and they have been fine for 4 and 3 years respectively...knock on wood.

Looks like the Bronco Sport transmission is an 8F35 which has been used since 2017 in the Edge, Escape, Taurus, etc, so it's not a new design. I hope it's just a fluke.

 

You are right, an overall good experience with the car, so not discouraging, but disappointing it shorten our trip. You hear about major malfunctions in new vehicles from time to time, but it's never happened to us. We realized it could have been a way worse situation, being in AZ or CA, Mojave desert with 100+ temperatures. We were very fortunate in that respect to get stuck on the coast.

I had also read the tranny had a good history and is used in multiple Ford designs, so I'm hoping it was just a fluke too. I have not heard good things about the plant in Mexico, so hopefully, it was just an installer error and the Dealer will make right. It's actually a debate between my wife and me as to where the car was manufactured. I haven't bothered to research, cause it's a lose-lose conversation. We have two friends with the Ford Escape and they both are very happy with the car. I've been tempted to ask if I could take one for a drive just to see how similar it is to the Bronco Sport.

We have a lot of Subarus here on the mountain, not necessarily Foresters, the little hatchback models. They seem to do really well on the mountain roads and snowy conditions. I would imagine the Forester is an upgrade, more of a luxury model. Our mechanic actually recommended the Subaru line when we were selling the Honda, Pilot. Maybe we should have listened, LOL Only time will tell.

Well, the service department missed their first completion date (Tuesday 9/21), so hopefully, this isn't the sign of things to come

 

The Escape is American, built in Loiuisville, KY. The Bronco Sport is built in Mexico but engines and transmissions may come from the same source as they do for the Escape. The Mexican plant is where Ford previously built Focus and other small cars, but also the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ and the latter two vehicles had great quality from what I know.

We're on our 2nd Forester; I had a stripper '09 with a stick from new that was my car, and my wife now has a '17 with a CVT. They're endearing cars but are not problem free.

 

For what it is worth:
If vin starts with a 3 vehicle is assembled in Mexico.

1 for United States.

I believe 2 is Canada

I believe 4 is a Lincoln Mercury product made in USA

 

@marksman, it's way more complex than that but your basic numbers are OK although the US uses numbers 1, 4, 5, and 7.

There is a huge table in this Wiki article with worldwide build codes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicl...r_region_codes

 

Not surprised you like it on winding roads. Our Escape shares the same chassis and it is fantastic on windy paved roads... it's just not very off-road worthy.

 

Just had the same failure with my brand new 2023 Badlands. Had it two weeks, only has 1,166 miles on it. I'm going to make a new thread. Thanks for making this one.