Distance: 912km
Location: South Carolina, Georgia
Date: May 16-19, 2025
Up front: The junior Bronco is spacious, but the belt line is much too high for elbows to rest comfortably on it, so the leather-padded armrests do the job instead. The radial gear selector is familiar from the Ford Escape as is the steering wheel. This is what happens when you let marketing design a car: you just get a more expensive Escape.
Just like the Escape, it has a large screen that pairs with Apple CarPlay seamlessly and is wide enough to show music and navigation at the same time. It’s just too bad the designers didn’t bother putting in physical climate control knobs, so changing the cabin temperature obscures the on-screen map.
In the back: The Bronco has almost the same dimensions as the Honda Element from over a decade ago and has just two more cubic feet of space. Like the Element, the Bronco has a rectangular cabin that makes it easy to load large items into its compact body size. But the doors on the Element open wider and the Element’s interior is almost ten inches taller, which means you can fit a dirt bike inside the Element but not in the Bronco.
The rear seats are nothing to write home about. The original Bronco only came in two doors, the rear seats act more as storage space for children so the car can sell to young families. Since the car can’t really go off-road, the Escape would be better value and the Element has a better storage layout. I don’t know who the Bronco is for.
Driving: Three cylinder engines have come a long way, this 1.5L turbo-three feels like a turbo four of a decade ago. It can reach highway speeds comfortably and enjoys passing heavy goods vehicles in the middle lane, and it won’t goad you into chasing that Camaro down the left. The comfortable cruising characteristics help with fuel economy. I managed to get about 10km/l on the highway while having the air conditioner on full blast in 30-degree weather.
The blocky shape might help its retro feel, but hurts real world safety. A small child could be hidden in front of the high bonnet and the centre rear view mirror can’t see things that are close to the car when backing up. Lower belt lines and a sloping bonnet would all improve pedestrian safety. Wait, the Escape has both of those things. Just buy the Escape.
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