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We hit the one year mark with the car today so thought I'd get some thoughts out after 12 months of ownership. We picked up a Cactus Gray Badlands last April and were torn between grabbing this car (250 miles away) a few months earlier than necessary or placing an order that our local dealer assured us would be in by June. So glad we went with this one given everything I read about delays as the year went on. Using x-plan pricing we actually got it for under msrp. Purchase price was 36.5 and sticker was 38.3.
We originally purchased it to replace my wife's 2001 Ford Escape in advance of our first child (born last september) but ultimately it became our only vehicle as the used car market "forced" me into selling my car in November when carmax offered me over msrp for my VW and I couldn't justify keeping it given how little we drive.
We live in downtown Chicago, so mostly city driving mixed with 3 longer road trips (Chicago to Delaware 1x (1700 Miles) and Chicago to Kansas City 2x (1100 miles)). So of the 7300 miles we've put on it, 4150 are from 4 road trips including the trip driving it home. We got the badlands solely for the 2.0 and it will never be taken offroad. I didn't enjoy the NVH from the 3 cylinder on test drives and in my opinion it doesn't have enough power.
The only "mods" are the factory thule roof rack and a thule box. Was planning on a JB4 but with gas prices where they are, the requirement for premium once installed, and some concerns with the tranny I've held off.
The good:
The 2.0 is plenty powerful around town and doesn't feel overmatched on the highway until you get into speeds you shouldn't really be trying to pass people at anyway. I've had it cruising at 95-100 for long stretches no issues other than watching the gas gauge decrease in real time
Sport mode is legitimately sporty.
Awesome in the snow, even with the stock all seasons. Garages in Chicago are typically detached behind the house and the entrance is off the alley. Chicago doesn't plow them so things can get dicey in the winter. Even without putting it into "Slippery" we never had an issue getting in and out and we got a lot of snow this winter (including yesterday...). We've had neighbors get stuck what feels like weekly.
Still love the looks and that it's different than all of the generic crossovers. Get a ton of compliments on it.
The 360+ features are really nice on long road trips (minus the steering wheel vibrating as a lane departure alert)
A couple of features we like from the badlands that are great for city living:
The front facing camera. We have a really tight garage and the front facing camera has let my wife basically kiss the front wall when she pulls in, ditto for parallel parking tight spots.
Love having the 17s over the 18s from the OB. My wife would have curbed the sh*t out of the 18s by now between parallel parking and pot holes and the extra sidewall is nice on shitty broken pavement and potholes. I'd be worried about cracking the 18s.
Having no interior carpet is really nice. Being able to wipe everything down is great. We've had some bottle spills that would have been nasty with carpet that are no big deal.
The Bad:
Mostly minor complaints or issues I just need to have the service department deal with, with the exception of the transmission and child seat fitment.
The trans (or the transmission tune) is not very good. It doesn't shift smoothly around town/has trouble deciding when to shift. It will either hold gears too long, or shift way too soon and you end up lugging the engine with no real logic that I can figure out tied throttle input. It often feels like someone learning to drive a stick shift when we're at lower speeds. Sport mode is great if you're driving it with a little more aggression but it holds gears too long for real city driving. It does take care of the early shifts in normal mode. Given Ford's track record with recent transmission recalls this is the one area that has me considering extending the warranty, and so far has kept me from modifying the engine. I've had some flashbacks to the transmissions in a bunch of my coworkers fiesta company cars that basically fell apart.
Child seat fitment. Putting in a rear facing child seat renders the front passenger seat basically unusable. Obviously not an issue for everyone but we're pretty disappointed in this considering they fit into the back of a Taos without a problem. It fit better in the back of my Golf as well. Would never get one behind the drivers seat in a million years. if we have a second kid before this one graduates to a front facing seat we will probably have sell the car.
Short wheel base can follow grooves on the highway and it feels less stable in high winds than I'd like.
Rear dif leaks oil.
Rear hatch keeps failing to detect the key and wont open if the car is locked (glass works fine).
Not sure if there is a software update but there are times where the screen just goes black and the only way to get it back on is to restart the car.
Sporadically it becomes impossible to fill the tank without the shutoff valve triggering multiple times.
Rear brakes squeak like a mother f*er backing up.
The big flat hood reflects sunlight if you're going the wrong way at the wrong time.
The personal annoyances:
The engine doesn't feel all that refined. Makes some weird noises when you start moving from a stop. I've got a lot of experience with turbo 4 cylinders and this one just makes some flat out strange noises when you step on the gas. Loud injectors are part of the problem but there are some others I can't quite pin down.
Not being able to adjust the angle of the seat bottoms even with the power seats sucks. The seat bottoms are too flat and on longer drives it becomes uncomfortable with the lack of thigh support. On a car with a sticker of almost 40k (now over 40k based on the latest price hike) you should be able to adjust pitch of the seat bottoms
Cheap plastics. There are some reaaaaaaally cheap interior plastics. The plastic surrounding the cluster feels like its the same material as a coke bottle
Light colored headliner. They inevitably just get dirty over time. Black is the way to go, wish it had been an option, or standard. We've got black smudges in the back from the sealant that is inside the rubber seals around the hatch.
Watching the hood flex at highway speeds can be a little unnerving.
The under-seat storage in the back is under the passenger side, which is where you have to put a child seat, making accessing it impossible without removing the seat and the base.
My Ford dealer has no Saturday hours for service and with a baby I've had no free time to get it to them m-f to have some of the above problems looked at.
The stock tires are reaaaally skinny. They look ridiculous from the front or behind.
Not an annoyance just an observation. It doesn't like it above about ~105-110 (to be expected) and its not a fun place to be at those speeds.
What's next:
Tinting the front windows either 35 or 50%
JB4 once gas prices go down or I can finally get the car into the shop to have some of the issues sorted. Then obligatory trip to the dragstrip.
Make a second baby, sell bronco sport, profit, buy rs6 avant (or a Taos) for dual baby seat space.
And since words aren't fun without pics. (We all know what a stock bronco sport looks like so I'll keep it light.)
Where's the beef? Never considered the Golf's tires particularly wide but they sure look it by comparison.
We originally purchased it to replace my wife's 2001 Ford Escape in advance of our first child (born last september) but ultimately it became our only vehicle as the used car market "forced" me into selling my car in November when carmax offered me over msrp for my VW and I couldn't justify keeping it given how little we drive.
We live in downtown Chicago, so mostly city driving mixed with 3 longer road trips (Chicago to Delaware 1x (1700 Miles) and Chicago to Kansas City 2x (1100 miles)). So of the 7300 miles we've put on it, 4150 are from 4 road trips including the trip driving it home. We got the badlands solely for the 2.0 and it will never be taken offroad. I didn't enjoy the NVH from the 3 cylinder on test drives and in my opinion it doesn't have enough power.
The only "mods" are the factory thule roof rack and a thule box. Was planning on a JB4 but with gas prices where they are, the requirement for premium once installed, and some concerns with the tranny I've held off.
The good:
The 2.0 is plenty powerful around town and doesn't feel overmatched on the highway until you get into speeds you shouldn't really be trying to pass people at anyway. I've had it cruising at 95-100 for long stretches no issues other than watching the gas gauge decrease in real time
Sport mode is legitimately sporty.
Awesome in the snow, even with the stock all seasons. Garages in Chicago are typically detached behind the house and the entrance is off the alley. Chicago doesn't plow them so things can get dicey in the winter. Even without putting it into "Slippery" we never had an issue getting in and out and we got a lot of snow this winter (including yesterday...). We've had neighbors get stuck what feels like weekly.
Still love the looks and that it's different than all of the generic crossovers. Get a ton of compliments on it.
The 360+ features are really nice on long road trips (minus the steering wheel vibrating as a lane departure alert)
A couple of features we like from the badlands that are great for city living:
The front facing camera. We have a really tight garage and the front facing camera has let my wife basically kiss the front wall when she pulls in, ditto for parallel parking tight spots.
Love having the 17s over the 18s from the OB. My wife would have curbed the sh*t out of the 18s by now between parallel parking and pot holes and the extra sidewall is nice on shitty broken pavement and potholes. I'd be worried about cracking the 18s.
Having no interior carpet is really nice. Being able to wipe everything down is great. We've had some bottle spills that would have been nasty with carpet that are no big deal.
The Bad:
Mostly minor complaints or issues I just need to have the service department deal with, with the exception of the transmission and child seat fitment.
The trans (or the transmission tune) is not very good. It doesn't shift smoothly around town/has trouble deciding when to shift. It will either hold gears too long, or shift way too soon and you end up lugging the engine with no real logic that I can figure out tied throttle input. It often feels like someone learning to drive a stick shift when we're at lower speeds. Sport mode is great if you're driving it with a little more aggression but it holds gears too long for real city driving. It does take care of the early shifts in normal mode. Given Ford's track record with recent transmission recalls this is the one area that has me considering extending the warranty, and so far has kept me from modifying the engine. I've had some flashbacks to the transmissions in a bunch of my coworkers fiesta company cars that basically fell apart.
Child seat fitment. Putting in a rear facing child seat renders the front passenger seat basically unusable. Obviously not an issue for everyone but we're pretty disappointed in this considering they fit into the back of a Taos without a problem. It fit better in the back of my Golf as well. Would never get one behind the drivers seat in a million years. if we have a second kid before this one graduates to a front facing seat we will probably have sell the car.
Short wheel base can follow grooves on the highway and it feels less stable in high winds than I'd like.
Rear dif leaks oil.
Rear hatch keeps failing to detect the key and wont open if the car is locked (glass works fine).
Not sure if there is a software update but there are times where the screen just goes black and the only way to get it back on is to restart the car.
Sporadically it becomes impossible to fill the tank without the shutoff valve triggering multiple times.
Rear brakes squeak like a mother f*er backing up.
The big flat hood reflects sunlight if you're going the wrong way at the wrong time.
The personal annoyances:
The engine doesn't feel all that refined. Makes some weird noises when you start moving from a stop. I've got a lot of experience with turbo 4 cylinders and this one just makes some flat out strange noises when you step on the gas. Loud injectors are part of the problem but there are some others I can't quite pin down.
Not being able to adjust the angle of the seat bottoms even with the power seats sucks. The seat bottoms are too flat and on longer drives it becomes uncomfortable with the lack of thigh support. On a car with a sticker of almost 40k (now over 40k based on the latest price hike) you should be able to adjust pitch of the seat bottoms
Cheap plastics. There are some reaaaaaaally cheap interior plastics. The plastic surrounding the cluster feels like its the same material as a coke bottle
Light colored headliner. They inevitably just get dirty over time. Black is the way to go, wish it had been an option, or standard. We've got black smudges in the back from the sealant that is inside the rubber seals around the hatch.
Watching the hood flex at highway speeds can be a little unnerving.
The under-seat storage in the back is under the passenger side, which is where you have to put a child seat, making accessing it impossible without removing the seat and the base.
My Ford dealer has no Saturday hours for service and with a baby I've had no free time to get it to them m-f to have some of the above problems looked at.
The stock tires are reaaaally skinny. They look ridiculous from the front or behind.
Not an annoyance just an observation. It doesn't like it above about ~105-110 (to be expected) and its not a fun place to be at those speeds.
What's next:
Tinting the front windows either 35 or 50%
JB4 once gas prices go down or I can finally get the car into the shop to have some of the issues sorted. Then obligatory trip to the dragstrip.
Make a second baby, sell bronco sport, profit, buy rs6 avant (or a Taos) for dual baby seat space.
And since words aren't fun without pics. (We all know what a stock bronco sport looks like so I'll keep it light.)
Where's the beef? Never considered the Golf's tires particularly wide but they sure look it by comparison.
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