New Bronco

D

Deleted member 9101

Guest
Dyno sheet from a 2.3L Ranger...which is the same drivetrain as the 2.3 Bronco. The truck had an aftermarket exhaust, intake, and was running a 91 octane tune from BCB. Pretty impressive for a 2.3l four banger.

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emulous74

Well-known member
I spent 4 hours today, riding trails, going over slip rock, through flooded creeks and some light mud in a 2.3l Badlands 4 door automatic with the Luxe package (33” BFG KO2 tires). First impressions, with the sway bar disconnected this thing is sprung and the shocks are calibrated perfectly, I have never been any vehicle that is this smooth in slow off-road conditions. Unfortunately I did not get to drive it at speed or on-road. I thought the DSSV shocks in my Bison were amazing off-road compared to other vehicles, but I think the badlands bronco has it beat for moderate rock crawling. I know this is a limited test, but needles to say I was impressed, the good thing about the DSSVs is they are amazing in all conditions, so fast off-road, washboards, and on street driving will be needed for a real comparison.

They do look better in person IMO, much smaller than I imagined and driving it, it felt it had more interior room in the front seats than my extended cab Colorado, but drove much narrower than it. The interior is a great design, but a major let down in materials (with the exception of the marine grade vinyl, which I really liked). The Colorado isn’t known for a good interior, but the quality of materials in the Bronco interior have no place in a 50K+ vehicle. I would not expect them in any vehicle sold in the US, it’s a good thing they look good, but I imagine a ton of scratches everywhere down the road just don’t touch them, none of the plastics feel good to touch or of quality. The small door arm rests and the center console arm rest are covered in the marine grade vinyl, with very little padding, but my arms didn’t hurt resting on them, but when you are going down trails, you very rarely touch anything other than the steering wheel and the locker switches. The only things that felt good to touch, where the rubber? covered knobs and buttons. The 12” infotainment system was very responsive and I was able to connect apple car play wirelessly without any trouble the first time through, interestingly when I placed my iPhone 12 pro on the wireless charger, the infotainment system said it wasn’t compatible but my phone indicated it was being charged. I also was able to the indicated steps to connect via Bluetooth and play music from my phone. Most of the time the infotainment system was on the cameras (they automatically enable and show in certain GOAT modes. The cameras were good quality, but not great as the color representation was not very accurate. However the camera system is complete and was a game changer off-road, I used the forward camera (that even points down when cresting a hill) and the overhead view, which the system displayed on a split screen. For someone who usually drives alone, this system is impressive in what you are able to see and determine the perfect line to take. It was a little strange of not looking out the windshield, or the windows to figure out your line. The system did beep at me quite a few times, when the vehicle was at angle and it thought I was going to hit something, it didn’t try to stop me, it just beeped at me, usually from the rear when I was going up a slope. The one I drove had a softop and I moved the seat as high as it could go (I’m 5’11”) and there were at least 4 inches above my head. Overall, despite the poor quality of materials (even the seatbelts, felt not as wide as every other seatbelt I’ve used) the interior is packaged and laid out really well. The window switches in the center console took some getting used to as the fronts are on the bottom.

Visibility is decent out the front, the trail guides are supposedly positioned in the center of the front tires and they really do help in placing the vehicle, considering how the overall design is a slab, it’s easy to learn where the vehicle ends, side view is also decent and rear view is only fair, the opening is small and the tire does obscure a good portion. I would really need to drive it on a highway to see what the visibility is really like. The side view mirrors are decent in size and give a good view, especially when the workers were walking alongside the vehicle.

I really like the way these look, the 2-door with Sasquatch package is my favorite, but the space in the 4-door is just more practical, the 2-doors did a much better job in rock crawling. Overall, I’m glad I ordered one and can’t wait to get mine and spend a lot more time in it.

Things I didn’t like or care for:
The rear bumper is plastic on the badlands or the thinnest steel I ever felt.
There is only one stalk on the steering wheel, it operates the turn signals and the wipers, I don’t know why they didn’t do the standard two, because you loose the ability to have a single pass of the windshield by pulling up or down on the stalk, which is really helpful when going off-road.
As mentioned prior, the biggest let down was the quality of materials for the interior.
The manual door locks on the door, it was impossible to lock the drivers door manually from the inside, you had to use the power locks (which are located on the door), it just seemed strange that I couldn’t manually lock the door.
I get that the doors are designed to be light to make them easy to take off, but the feeling of opening and closing the door feels cheap, trade off that I get, but loss of a firm, robust door closing is noticeable.

This is by no means a thorough review, but hopefully my first impressions give you some insight to what the vehicle is like.
 

jpat30

Adventurer
Thank you for taking the time to post up the review. You stated that you ordered one, 2 or 4 door and what package and did your test yesterday give you any reason to second guess yourself? Thanks in advance.
 

toddz69

Explorer
I appreciate the review! A good friend of mine got his last week (4 door with Sasquatch) and was 'wheeling it at Rausch Creek in PA the next day. Ended up with a ton of scratches on the control arm brackets, shock mounts, etc. on a fairly mild trail and he's an experienced 'wheeler. I'm sure some underbody armor will be a popular aftermarket product on these rigs.

Todd Z.
 

watrboy

Observer
After seeing the 4WD Bronco at Outdoor Adventure Expo in SLC, I went and changed my Bronco to a Badlands in Race Red with a soft-top to maybe get it sooner rather than MY 2023.
 

emulous74

Well-known member
Thank you for taking the time to post up the review. You stated that you ordered one, 2 or 4 door and what package and did your test yesterday give you any reason to second guess yourself? Thanks in advance.

I have a 4 door Badlands, manual with the hardtop, tow package and luxe package in antimatter blue on order.

The only things I second guessed was the color, I really liked the cyber orange as with my colorblind looks yellow to me. The soft top was really nice quality and the rain didn’t drive me crazy with noise.

A few things I forgot to mention was the gas pedal was perfectly calibrated in 4lo and even though you can’t get one pedal driving with the 4cyl, it’s not something I wish it had. You also don’t get turn assistance with the 4cyl, and that feature was very impressive and wish I could get it on mine.

I probably won’t get mine until 23, but I think it will be worth the wait and I doubt my employer GM, will bring out a competitor before then and they don’t pay me enough to afford a Hummer SUV.
 

emulous74

Well-known member
I am pretty sure you can get the trail turn assist with the 2.3, it is automatic only though.


That's what I thought too, but it wasn't in the 2.3 badlands auto I was driving and we had a Bronco engineer in our leads for our group and I asked specifically about that and he said it was only available in the 2.7
 
Huh? They are being shipped to customers, albeit slower than most would like (myself included). It's the so called "Mod" top that is painted, Black or body color that is not available till MY23. The "MIC" top which is a plastic similar to the Jeep Wranglers is a current constraint that is slowing things down (amongst a few other things). 2dr are only available with the MIC top, 4 drs do have the option of a softtop.
 

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