Mildly optimistic...
 

Okay so the Ranger gets a 2.3L EcoBoost as the initial engine offering. I'm cool with that and would like to see the same engine offered in the new Bronco as well.

Then this....

"On Tuesday Ford said that, over the next couple of years, it expects utility-vehicle mix will increase 10 percentage points, while its car portfolio will shrink about 10 percentage points.

"We have a rock solid foundation and we have seen growth in key areas, but we know we must evolve to be even more competitive, and narrow our full line of nameplates in all markets, to a more focused lineup that delivers stronger, more profitable growth, with better returns," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, said in a statement.

Farley said that means focusing on performance SUVs and “authentic off-roaders.” He said that’s a space Ford can get higher profits even in a crowded utility field."

It sounds like they really want to be a player doesn't it? Give us a removable top and two door / four door options and people will be beating down your door. I really hope that is the case! If it is - Ford Performance better be well prepared for MASSIVE accessory sales.

So there it is - I am mildly optimistic.

https://www.autonews.com/article/201...-2017-earnings

Some of those quotes are promising for a genuinely capable Bronco. It would sound as if Ford is actually focused on taking a big bite out of the lucrative segment Jeep has had all to itself for a while with the Wrangler and other Trailhawk / Trail Rated models.

It is still hard to tell when we don't know how serious Ford is about the objective capability of the Bronco.

For anyone wanting a removable top stop dreaming. Start reading. Unless ford spends huge money on roll bars and meets current standards and complies with the law it will not happen.

49 CFR S571.3: "...a vehicle having no occupant compartment top or an occupant compartment top that can be installed or removed by the user at his convenience

I'm going to cross my fingers and interpret that phrasing as Ford making a point to distinguish the Bronco from so many other things claiming to be SUVs, which are really just big unibody crossovers, which lack a traditional "sport" or "utility" capability. The average person going down the road is going to look at them and see the same thing, a largeish, high center of gravity, wagon shape, and be unaware of the different underpinnings and the effect they have on capability.

Think of what Chevy did to the Blazer. Ford probably wants to make sure everyone knows they didn't do the same thing to the Bronco nameplate. Heck, they have been calling the Explorer an SUV too, even though that has been a unibody crossover for a long time. Maybe now that they're dropping sedans, they'll start making a better/bigger distinction between the crossovers and few remaining body-on-frame SUVs in their lineup.

I guess we'll find out Wednesday when they launch the new Explorer, and see/hear what they call it.

Creating any vehicle from the ground up requires "huge money" and every model sold "meets current standards and complies with the law". Do you think the roll/crash protection hidden behind the sheetmetal of most cars requires substantially less engineering than what is in a new Wrangler? They seem to design, manufacture, market, and sell their units with little in the way of "dreaming".

In the grand scheme of things, it is simply another design element and engineering issue - none of it even remotely insurmountable. If their market research indicates that the cost of a particular design element is worth the reward, they'll make the investment. If not, we get another Explorer with lipstick.

We can't change today's standards, but it's a bunch of horse manure. We've got local street rod clubs running around in T-buckets and other topless vehicles with no seat belts. Some of them aren't much more than a seat and an engine mounted to a frame.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/53/d5/db/5...0d493c7012.jpg

I think it's going to be better than the pessimists hope for and worse than the optimists expect.

It'll be a Ranger. With an SUV body instead of a bed. Same engine, same tranny. Maybe some styling differences. But it's going to be a Ranger. It will be 4 doors. It will not have the removable top like the Broncos of old.

Hopefully I'll be wrong, but the realist in me is pretty certain that it's just going to be a Ranger.

If it is going to be a ranger with a suv body! How in the world is that going to compete with the Wrangler like they said???????

I am getting sick of waiting.

I could definitely see Ford saying that it will compete with the Wrangler even if it is a Ranger. Marketing always seems to talk with their head up their own ass.

In that same vein, the Colorado is selling like hotcakes. I would guess a similar market for the Ranger. Making a Ranger SUV (same design, just with rear doors and a liftgate) could see some action, particularly if it's a replacement for the Explorer. Making it somewhat more capable than a camping/mild offroad machine in the form of a trim option could give it a niche, but it would fall well short of the retro-styled hardcore-capable vehicle Ford has teased.

The clock ticks.