Does anyone prefer the Bronco Sport over the regular Bronco? (Or vice versa)

[Bamsi]

I like the looks of the 2 doors full size, but prefer the convenience of the Sport for my life.

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[Jdiditz]

I too am a big fan of the sport. Although the big Bronco Started to grow on me. But as it stands right now. I will not be purchasing any new Ford or big 3 vehicles for that matter. Hard for me to support the big 3 after this latest strike.

 

[jofer]

I've often said that the sport is the perfect vehicle for our lifestyle. I.e. living in a city with only room for one car, needs to do a fair bit of moderate offroading, needs to haul a dog and camping gear, needs to still fit in a parking garage even with a roof rack on it, needs to be able to handle really nasty sand down in Matagorda for surf fishing, etc...

But our lifestyle just changed -- my wife's job was relocated to Utah. And while the sport is more than capable enough for most of what we can do in Texas and Arkansas, things get bigger out west. So we bought a 2dr 6th gen bandlands sasquatch. We still have the sport, but for right now, it's actually back in Houston hooked up to a battery tender. That will be changing in the near future, but we wanted the big bronco out here initially for a trip we have planned around Christmas.

So yeah, I'm lucky and get to have both. With that said, the sport is honestly a better vehicle for a lot of things. It's remarkably thoughtfully designed as a camping + outdoor-gear-hauling vehicle without a lot of aftermarket odds and ends. The big bronco is basically a bare box on the inside. There's a ton of not-easily-used vertical space, but not a ton of horizontal space. The cargo volume stats make things seem larger than they are due to how tall the interior is, but that doesn't translate to "packability". There are a lot of aftermarket ways to better use that vertical space, but the sport is better at that as-is from the factory. Honestly, for an extended camping trip with a lot of driving, the sport is a lot easier to live out of and is nicer as a road trip car (e.g. the true lane centering in the sport blows away the equivalent in the big bronco). But of course, it's not as capable, and yeah, the big bronco gets more of the "cool" factor (taking the top off really is nice).

Honestly, our plan right now is to do more "base camp" like trips. Play around in the big bronco on the harder stuff and use the sport as the main car camping/"overlanding" vehicle (really, it will get a _lot_ farther than most folks think, and most of the places you're camping aren't _that_ technical to access).

The sport replaced a 10 year old, well-loved Subaru Forester. It's a strictly better Forester. And that's what we mostly need. The big bronco is a toy. An awesome toy, but it's not practical. E.g. the first thing I did was take the rear seats out. If you ask me to pick one, I'd actually pick the sport. (I think my wife might disagree, though, so take that with a grain of salt.)

But yeah, all this is pricey. Two incomes, no kids, relatively low cost of living. Otherwise it wouldn't be an option.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

I've often said that the sport is the perfect vehicle for our lifestyle. I.e. living in a city with only room for one car, needs to do a fair bit of moderate offroading, needs to haul a dog and camping gear, needs to still fit in a parking garage even with a roof rack on it, needs to be able to handle really nasty sand down in Matagorda for surf fishing, etc...

But our lifestyle just changed -- my wife's job was relocated to Utah. And while the sport is more than capable enough for most of what we can do in Texas and Arkansas, things get bigger out west. So we bought a 2dr 6th gen bandlands sasquatch. We still have the sport, but for right now, it's actually back in Houston hooked up to a battery tender. That will be changing in the near future, but we wanted the big bronco out here initially for a trip we have planned around Christmas.

So yeah, I'm lucky and get to have both. With that said, the sport is honestly a better vehicle for a lot of things. It's remarkably thoughtfully designed as a camping + outdoor-gear-hauling vehicle without a lot of aftermarket odds and ends. The big bronco is basically a bare box on the inside. There's a ton of not-easily-used vertical space, but not a ton of horizontal space. The cargo volume stats make things seem larger than they are due to how tall the interior is, but that doesn't translate to "packability". There are a lot of aftermarket ways to better use that vertical space, but the sport is better at that as-is from the factory. Honestly, for an extended camping trip with a lot of driving, the sport is a lot easier to live out of and is nicer as a road trip car (e.g. the true lane centering in the sport blows away the equivalent in the big bronco). But of course, it's not as capable, and yeah, the big bronco gets more of the "cool" factor (taking the top off really is nice).

Honestly, our plan right now is to do more "base camp" like trips. Play around in the big bronco on the harder stuff and use the sport as the main car camping/"overlanding" vehicle (really, it will get a _lot_ farther than most folks think, and most of the places you're camping aren't _that_ technical to access).

The sport replaced a 10 year old, well-loved Subaru Forester. It's a strictly better Forester. And that's what we mostly need. The big bronco is a toy. An awesome toy, but it's not practical. E.g. the first thing I did was take the rear seats out. If you ask me to pick one, I'd actually pick the sport. (I think my wife might disagree, though, so take that with a grain of salt.)

But yeah, all this is pricey. Two incomes, no kids, relatively low cost of living. Otherwise it wouldn't be an option.

Good write up! Like others have said, depends on your major use case. There are plenty of places to go off roading that suit the Sport just fine.

What part of Utah are you in? Not that it matters, there is excellent off roading in most areas of the state. I like the Moab area and Hurricane/St. George area.

 

[jofer]

What part of Utah are you in? Not that it matters, there is excellent off roading in most areas of the state. I like the Moab area and Hurricane/St. George area.

We're in salt lake, but definitely planning to explore a lot of different places now that we're out here. The Christmas trip I mentioned is actually down to the hurricane/st George area. Definitely excited about that!!

 

[Escape2Bronco]

We're in salt lake, but definitely planning to explore a lot of different places now that we're out here. The Christmas trip I mentioned is actually down to the hurricane/st George area. Definitely excited about that!!

Great place! I’m sure you will be checking out Sand Hollow State Park. Lots of good ORV trails there.

 

[Escape2Bronco]

Here’s a good video of the Chicagoland Bronco Group including Jake with his Sport. He made it through almost everything!

 

[Summit]

I could have bought a regular Bronco but ended up buying 2 of the Bronco Sports. A Big Bend and a Badlands. The Big Bend surprises me the most. That thing is super peppy and has been lifted up front with 235 65 17 AT trail tires. We spend a lot of time in the mountains and It just goes and looks great doing it.
Just recently sold my Ford Ranger cause I liked my Wife's Bronco Sport so much. Bought the Badlands or myself. So yeah I like the Bronco Sport better for us. Next week back to the mountains - this time with the Badlands and Big Bend.

 

[B-Dog15]

Here’s a good video of the Chicagoland Bronco Group including Jake with his Sport. He made it through almost everything!

This video is awesome. Does anyone know where Jake (BS guy) got his roof rack with the side molle from? I’ve seen them on people’s BS but can’t seem to find them online.

 

[supaDean]

When I was Bronco / Bronco Sport shopping I did test drive a 2023 Bronco Black Diamond 2-door manual. What a blast. Tons of fun.

BUT...

IMHO, over-priced (as most vehicles now are). Though I would say the base option when the Bronco was first released was competitive. The full-size Bronco is less economical to drive and less practical as a daily driver, for my needs. I use one vehicle for city, country driving and light off-roading. Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge full-size Bronco fan. I love its look, it's sexy as hell, and has plenty of customization options. I admire that Ford brought it back and it is a huge hit. I love that the roof comes off, and of course how off-road capable it is. I find, however, that the full-size Bronco 4-door is too large, and the 2-door too small. Again, this is my personal opinion for my lifestyle. The Sport falls perfectly in the middle.

The Sport is practical and well equipped from the factory. The 1.5 3-cylinder engine gets great fuel economy for a gasoline engine. 8.4 liters per 100km highway. That equates to roughly 640km per tank city / highway combined. It's fun to drive, though not as fun as the full-size. There are good customization options. If the Sport was available with a manual transmission I'd be thrilled.

 

[Jake10080Guy]

When I was Bronco / Bronco Sport shopping I did test drive a 2023 Bronco Black Diamond 2-door manual. What a blast. Tons of fun.

BUT...

IMHO, over-priced (as most vehicles now are). Though I would say the base option when the Bronco was first released was competitive. The full-size Bronco is less economical to drive and less practical as a daily driver, for my needs. I use one vehicle for city, country driving and light off-roading. Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge full-size Bronco fan. I love its look, it's sexy as hell, and has plenty of customization options. I admire that Ford brought it back and it is a huge hit. I love that the roof comes off, and of course how off-road capable it is. I find, however, that the full-size Bronco 4-door is too large, and the 2-door too small. Again, this is my personal opinion for my lifestyle. The Sport falls perfectly in the middle.

The Sport is practical and well equipped from the factory. The 1.5 3-cylinder engine gets great fuel economy for a gasoline engine. 8.4 liters per 100km highway. That equates to roughly 640km per tank city / highway combined. It's fun to drive, though not as fun as the full-size. There are good customization options. If the Sport was available with a manual transmission I'd be thrilled.

And people get upset over the fact that ford opted to use a 3 Cylinder engine, i've test driven those motors, they feel just like any other vehicle. It actually runs smooth for an in-line 3. I only found that it likes to rev up quite high in normal driving sometimes.

its output is 181HP and190 Lb-ft, nothing to sneeze at.

I heard a bunch of negatives and positives, so i had to go and experience the 1.5L myself.

 

[JerryC]

The engine is too small for the use case. The displacement isn't enough compared to the weight and aerodynamics, so the turbo is constantly in boost. I believe I saw an article about how it actually gets worse gas mileage highway than city to keep that mass moving

I have 2dr Bronco 4cyl with the manual transmission. I thought it would always be in boost, but it's not. It has a boost gage that you watch.

You can pretty easily drive it without using boost except from a stop where it will use a little boost to get you going, unless you to want make everybody behind you angry by crawling your way up to speed.

I get 19-20 in town and about the same on the hwy if I stay at 70mph or less. Above 70mph mpg starts to decline pretty rapidly.

My old BS Badlands would run outrun the Bronco in a drag race but the Bronco isn't slow. The v6 Bronco is faster but also gets less mpg and I don't like the automatic it uses.

When I get tired of pushing the third pedal I may go back to a Bronco Sport or I might get a Bronco with an auto. If I had the money, I'd get one of each.

 

[Horse n Buggy]

This video is awesome. Does anyone know where Jake (BS guy) got his roof rack with the side molle from? I’ve seen them on people’s BS but can’t seem to find them online.

If i had to guess from a glance, its probably from Yuccamfg, they have a Roof Rack system that modifies the stock rails and they sell a bunch of accessories for their system including their "Zombie Guard" which is the rear window Molle system

 

[CableXJ]

Sometimes i'm not sure, maybe it's equal. There's literally times where i think the Big Bronco is cooler, while other times i think the bronco sport
is just enough/preferable design.

Then again, the big broncos are so costly, i actually went to test drive one. It was better than i expected, But the hard top roof was leaking air in. That bronco only had 22.7 miles. I don't know if that's "normal"? but once we got near 70 MPH, you can feel air above you on your body a bit.

The big Bronco is cool but I love, love, love getting 28+ mpg. Bonus fact, when parked next to a 92 Jeep XJ, I noticed the BS and the XJ were about the same size.

 

[MJE]

I love the big bronco! Totally want one. But. I expect with the removable roof (even the hard top, nevermind the soft top) that the highway noise isn’t ideal. I need to take one out to see though.

The sport is probably a better option for many:
- better economy (but 75mph & above mileage drops like a rock down to full size truck territory)
- smaller size for city use (my use case, but It’s proving to be a bit small for me overall)
- lower cost (the BSBL tops out about where the full-size starts)

The sport’s capabilities off-road will exceed many drivers’ skill levels. I can see a reason for both. I plan to check out a Ranger next, as close to a fixed roof Bronco as is offered here. It’d be nice if we could get something like an Everest here to compete in the fixed roof non-family crossover market.

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