this is not a true 4x4. It is an AWD suv. True 4x4 needs to have a low range gearing set up. Bronco sport can go off road despite not being 4x4.
Excellent review. As noted, the overheating seems to be a "natural" result of over-badassing and not overheating from normal use. This is good to know. I still don't mind the interior; when chasing, the interior is often covered in dust, so the less "fancy" the better as long as it's functional with no fake wood. My Xterra has one of the most boring, simple interiors... but it's held up well over 140k miles w/o failures.
My question to you is what do you intend to do with it? The type of off-roading I do is mostly sightseeing along easier 4x4 trails, and reaching remote lakes for fishing, so I don't need something like a Jeep Wrangler. However I do need something better than the base Bronco, my Subaru wasn't cutting it. Which is why I was looking the Badlands. If you're not going to go be going on moderate/hard Jeep trails just for the sake of jeeping and going on a really long climbs of obstacles, I don't see most people overheating that rear dual clutch.
Yo! That would be so cool if you used the bed of the ridgeline by bolting in a tripod and mounting a remote-controlled cam to it! Full unobstructed view of the action while chasing!
I am a cinematographer that travels all over the country, often to pretty remote places and I just don't want to get stuck. My 2015 Forester obviously can't deal with it and it has stranded me twice now, overheating both times. Before I got my InReach, some of the areas I traveled to could be labeled as dangerous, not for their terrain per say, but for their sheer remoteness and environmental temperatures. I'm based out of Los Angeles but am often shooting in remote desert and mountain environments, down along the border and into Mexico. 90% of the time I wouldn't be pushing the vehicle, but there is always the chance that I might. I honestly don't go seeking out trails to rock climb. But on my way to a location, I might run into a situation where I need to get tactical for a bit.
Yeah that's a tough one, on paper I think the Badlands is the better choice for you. It's more compact than the Trailhawk and has more storage. I think the active cooling on its transmissions should be enough for your purposes, Subarus don't have these. You don't need a full time diff lock. However, it's a first gen vehicle and we don't have any real stress testing of it.
The Ridgeline appears to be nixed on my list. It has the dreaded engine-auto-off cancer than cannot be cured. Although the "off" push button can be overridden by a third party "eliminator," the engineers at Honda decided to add a very bright, distracting yellow warning light on the dash anytime the auto-engine-stop is deactivated.
That's disappointing, in FE.
For the record...I usually keep a vehicle for 5+ years. I AM getting a BS. I have a list of reasons, but mostly it's that I am sick of having to visit the dealership. Maybe I got a lemon, but look at what I drive.
The transmission and rear drive coolers are very welcome additions. I'm really glad they added those. But in my opinion, the jury is still out whether you need to drive it like a rally car to overheat things. I want to see how it fares in 100 degree summers, out in SoCal desert, while performing basic/light duty offroading all day. And I especially want to see how it fares after it's got 50k miles on it. My 2015 Subaru has failed this test miserably. It's started overheating in hot summer temps and I do not trust the vehicle anymore. I'm not saying this is indicative of how the Bronco Sport will fare at all, and I really do expect it to be the best of these little 4 cylinder CUVs when going offroad. In fact, I really want it to be amazing, because I do want to buy one eventually. But after my experiences with my Subaru, I'm a little skeptical over how much you can push these little crossovers when the environmental temps start to creep up. I get the sense the marketing departments for these cars are over promising their capabilities quite a bit.
