First Bronco Sport Road Trip - Our Feedback and Experience

[broncoben]

Hello everyone!

My wife and I recently took our first road trip in our Bronco Sport BL + BL. I thought I’d share a few thoughts after spending about 1,000 miles in the vehicle.

Hits
- For it’s size, the BS is extremely roomy and offers a ton of storage. We had no issues fitting 6 days of supplies in it along with 2 bikes on a Thule rack. The interior is cavernous for such a small vehicle.

- We had an opportunity to drive the BS over some challenging roads repeatedly. It did fantastic. Most of these were gravel or dirt mountain roads that had very washed out areas, large holes, and steep inclines. We used the 4WD lock and the mud ruts goat mode and never once felt like we were in over our heads.

- 360 copilot is amazing. It’s the perfect highway companion.

- The Pirelli Scorpion tires strike a great balance between on-road comfort and off road ability. I’m sure the Falken Wildpeaks are better off road, but the Pirellis were solid.

- The 2.0L is small beast of an engine. Whether passing, going up a steep incline, or driving around town, it impressed in all situations. This thing is downright fun.

- The level of attention this thing gets is unreal for a compact SUV. Nearly every place we stopped, people commented on how great the car looked and how impressed they were with it. This was unexpected, but lead to lots of fun conversations.

- I may only think this because I came from a car, but the ruggedness aspect of this car is fantastic. The washout floors are super easy to clean, along with the all weather mats and rear cargo area. If you hike, bike, throw your muddy dog in it or just love to spend time outside, this is the perfect vehicle for it.

Misses
- I may be the only one to say this, but the shifts from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd seem a bit rough. It’s better under harder throttle, but under half throttle they can be clunky.

- I’d love to get better MPG. Currently averaging 24.9. I know I’m probably biased coming from a car. Feel free to roast me on this.

- The passenger seatbelt loves to lock itself into place. This can be very annoying when you’re trying to adjust and it locks you into place. I’m going to have the dealer take a look.

- Sync 3 is fine, but it just looks a bit dated. Sync 4 would be a big improvement here.

Final Thought
My wife and I love this vehicle. It does a great job fitting into our life: lots of cycling, hiking, taking our dog all over town, and getting off the beaten path. I’d rank it a 9/10. Ford did a great job.

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[13MikeH]

Great to hear sounds like the sport is living up to many expectations.

 

[DMEARC]

A little more on your 360 please, is it the regular 360 or the+ version .I have the regular 360 ,exactly what can it do on highways . Thanks. Jim

360+ has active cruise control with stop and go and lane centering, voice activated navigation, evasive steering assist, and speed sign recognition.

 

[jhbass]

We're heading out next week ourselves to a couple of national parks and the plan is to hit up at least one OHV trail.

 

[Meglynnie]

Thank you for your feeback! I enjoyed reading it. I can't wait until I can do more adventures in my sport other then just the daily drive to work!

 

[T-81 Badlands]

Misses
- I may be the only one to say this, but the shifts from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd seem a bit rough. It’s better under harder throttle, but under half throttle they can be clunky.

This is the exact complaint that I have right now. Love pretty much everything else about my Badlands but I came from a Nissan Maxima V6-CVT that was completely smooth. I find that shifting is MUCH smoother in Eco mode and still has sufficient power for normal driving.

I have always hated the lane-keep features on other cars that I have driven but we recently took a long highway trip and it was awesome. Not overbearing like others I have driven where I'm always fighting them.

The same thing with the Advanced Cruise Control where it adjusts following distance. In other cars I have used this and almost get whiplash as it brakes to adjust to the vehicle in front of you and then accelerates hard when that vehicle moves over. Not so with the 360+. It braked gradually and smoothly as it approached, then accelerated smoothly again.

On our trip, going up big mountain passes on cruise control and in eco mode, I never felt it shift down to a lower gear. Shifting down when you're in CC is a huge pet peeve of mine in general on other cars (especially Chevy/GM) where you'll have the CC set at 75 and it'll start going up the hill, slow down to about 72 and then upshift 2 or 3 gears to try and bring you back to your set speed. The Badlands just cruised right at the set speed which is what I have loved about CVT's that I've owned (Subaru, Nissan).

 

[WarHorse1B]

I’m not sure if the eight speed has adaptive learning like the 10 speed. It might go away over time. Dose it happen all the time even after warmed up? Have you checked the fliud maybe a low from factory. If it has adapted learning the dealer can do a reset.

 

[christopheru]

360+ has active cruise control with stop and go and lane centering, voice activated navigation, evasive steering assist, and speed sign recognition.

I quite like it on my Big Bend. The lane centring nanny is a pain - it doesn't look ahead enough and jerks the car through bends on the highway so I never use it. I find that using the lane departure warning system set to active is more that enough to prevent those slack jaw knuckle dragging mouth breather moments from going south.

 

[christopheru]

...
The same thing with the Advanced Cruise Control where it adjusts following distance. In other cars I have used this and almost get whiplash as it brakes to adjust to the vehicle in front of you and then accelerates hard when that vehicle moves over. Not so with the 360+. It braked gradually and smoothly as it approached, then accelerated smoothly again.
...

I find that if someone takes your space ahead and you have the adaptive cruise on, as long as they are still moving ahead relative you you, the BS doesn't brake. If they stay there in your space, it slows but not harshly. Not bad.
What I do NOT like about the adaptive system is that it has tunnel vision. If I have it set to 120kmph, and am behind someone doing 100 and move to change lanes, it does not speed up to match speed on the lane change. It only does it after the change is done. I therefore ignore adaptive cruise when changing lanes and adjusting speed as it is incapable of doing both at the same time. This is ok, but the first couple of times it gave me pause. Thankfully, I test things like this when there is no traffic about so it didn't affect anyone.

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