New 2024 Bronco Sport owner...

[bronco68halfcab]

Welcome to the club, I think you will continue to love your BS, we just hit a year with our '24 Robins Egg blue Heritage and can't say a bad word about it. I have a Hot Pepper Red Ranger and the color is awesome, nice choice.

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[Warped9]

We just hit a year with our '24 Robins Egg blue Heritage and can't say a bad word about it.

Time seems very much to pass faster as you age. It’s hard to believe it’s been five months already since I bought my Bronco Sport.

If I hadn’t gotten Hot Pepper Red I likely would have gone for the Velocity Blue.

 

[Jillrm]

Welcome to the club, I think you will continue to love your BS, we just hit a year with our '24 Robins Egg blue Heritage and can't say a bad word about it. I have a Hot Pepper Red Ranger and the color is awesome, nice choice.

That was the color I wanted! Our little towns charged quite a bit more for that color IF they could get it

 

[Quashish]

if you u could get those enkei would be better than some knock off wheels. but i know its almost impossible to find nice wheels in 5x108.

 

[Paradocks]

If I hadn’t gotten Hot Pepper Red I likely would have gone for the Velocity Blue.

Made you look!

 

[Warped9]

It’s funny. When the Bronco Sport was first introduced you could get Rapid Red, which was the same red on the Mustang—really nice colour. Then they changed it to Hot Pepper Red which at first I wasn’t sure about until I saw it in person and I love it. Now the 2025 gets Ruby Red and…it’s okay.

Maybe it’ll grow on me, but I’m glad I bought the 2024 with Hot Pepper Red.

 

[Warped9]

Second guessing myself?

I’m torn to choose between these two wheels.

 

[Quashish]

I think you'll be happier with the dish. The second one's spokes stick out and will get rock chips eventually

 

[Warped9]

Fair point. The silver wheel is also a half inch wider (18x8.5) so will stick out another quarter inch than the dark wheel (18x8). They both have the same 35 offset. So it's a difference between the new wheel poking out 5/8 or 7/8 in. further than the factory wheel.

 

[Quashish]

I've always like my wheels closer to flush with the fenders. Not past them

 

[Warped9]

They'll still be flush with the 18x8. The Bronco Sport's offset is 37.5 so it's only a 2.5mm difference in offset. The present tires are 225/60R18 and the new tires will be 235/55R18.

I am keeping my winter tires on the factory wheels so it's easier to swap them with the change of the seasons.

 

[Warped9]

I decided. I went ahead and just ordered the Vors SP1 18x8 Hyper Black.

 

[White Geist]

I have liked and been intrigued with the Bronco Sport since it was first introduced. But at the time I had no need for a new vehicle so I basically admired it from afar.

That changed four months ago when I was faced with needing a new vehicle. I considered a short list of candidates--a varied collection--but, admittedly, the Bronco Sport was pretty much what I was most interested in.

So last October, after going to take a close look and test driving it twice, I pulled the trigger on a 2024 Bronco Sport Big Bend. I lucked out, too, because my local Ford dealer (Riverside Ford in Brockville, Ontario) had one not only equipped almost exactly as I wanted, but also in the very colour I wanted, Hot Pepper Red Metallic.

The one piece of equipment it had I wasn't looking for was the trailer-towing package, but everything else was spot one including the optional 18in. alloys wheels.

Now it's been four months, and while I expected to like my new Bronco Sport I was a bit surprised I like it even more than expected. It has not only been pretty much what I had hoped for, but in some respects it has exceeded my expectations.

I won't go into all the things I like because they would no doubt be familiar to so many of the Bronco Sport owners here. But there are few key things that really resonate for me.
- I really like the size of this vehicle, not too big or too small--just right.
- I like the easy of entry and exit and the comfortable upright seating.
- I like the good visibility outward all-around.
- I like how the dash is clean and not over-designed.
- I like how the info screen isn't oversized like so many other vehicles.
- I love how I can control the most used everyday things without going through the screen (which I only use for music)
- A subtle and silly thing, but I really like the view forward over the bulges on the hood.
- I like the steering and I really like the tight maneuverability.
- I really like driving my Bronco Sport and I always look forward to taking it on the highway.

This was a bit of an adjustment for me as I was coming from a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria which I had modified over the years. A very nice, clean and very cool car, but its time was done and I had to move on. I still think about my CrownVic, but you can't ignore a forty year difference in engineering and technology. My CrownVic was great in so many ways, but my Bronco Sport feels like a sportscar in comparison.

I had considered the other Bronco Sport models, particularly the Badlands. But in the end my choice fell to a silly thing perhaps--I simply like the look of the body-colour roof of the Big Bend better. I think it just looks more finished. I would have liked body-colour door handles, but whatever. And I have zero complaints about the 1.5 litre--I never feel it lacking for power. Around town it feels quick, agile and very maneuverable and on the highway it gets up to speed easily and feels very stable and composed.

The day I brought it home.

I admit I didn't buy this for off-roading. I like the look of it, its comfort, convenience and flexibility, and it's fun to drive. And I'm looking to make a few upgrades.
- Upgraded 18x8 or 18x8.5 wheels with stickier 235 tires.
- Upgraded sport exhaust for a sportier sound.
- K&N air filter
- Redline hood struts instead of the manual prop rod.


I do have a few minor nitpicks. On the Big Bend the audio controls on the steering wheel doesn't have a control to go to the next song selection on the info screen. While the rear hatch isn't heavy and is easy to use it might be nice to have a remote feature for when your hands might be full. I mentioned the manual hood prop rod, which a lot of vehicles have, but in this day and age it's ridiculous and doesn't save much weight to not have pneumatic hood struts.

The one thing I thought I might have some issue with turned out to be a complete non-issue: the rotary dial gear selector. Years ago I had driven a Ford Fusion 2.0L with AWD (very nice car) that had the rotary gear selector and I had found it odd to get used to. But in my Bronco Sport I've found it falls readily to hand, easy to use and I never give it a thought.


I'll be sure to share pics when I do the upgrades.

Nice ride and colour. 1.5 engine delivers decent fuel milage. Congratulations!

 

[Warped9]

I was just thinking about buying an entry level model today.

My, my how things change. My first car was a 1979 Volkwagen Rabbit L 2dr. in Diamond Silver Metallic. It had a 4spd. manual transmission, nice black cloth interior, a woodgrain appliqué to the dash, fuel injection, power brakes, tinted glass, electric rear window defroster, 2 stage intermittent wipers, a right-hand mirror, front & rear splashguards, VW Rabbit floor mats, a Blaupunkt AM/FM stereo/cassette and wider Scirocco style wheels. It was a very nice car, economical, a helluva lot of fun to drive, and I loved it.

But today that same car would seem stripped of features. It had manual wind-up windows, no power steering or power locks and no air conditioning.

It did have a couple of things rather rare to find in contemporary cars. It had excellent outward visibility—you could see everything around you. It had good driver feedback in steering and road feel, all accomplished through direct mechanical means and without electronic assists. There was one driving mode and your fuel economy depended much on how hard or how frugally you drove.

Today’s vehicles are certainly more efficient in how they use their fuel, but overall they are not really more economical in real world practical terms because that increased efficiency is offset by ever increasing weight. My Rabbit could get 38-40 mpg (Imperial) on the highway if I didn’t push it too hard, which at the age of 19-21 I wasn’t likely to do because I wanted to go. But it could do it.

Honestly getting 40 mpg today is still considered pretty damn good if you can get it. But it strikes me we really haven’t made any real progress here. We’re paying more for gas, but we’re not really getting more for our money.


At any rate you (probably) couldn’t sell a car like my Rabbit today. It would seem almost archaic and ludicrously bare-bones.

My Bronco Sport would be impossibly luxurious and even exotic by 1979 standards for an entry level vehicle. There are even features that even if imagined back in the day the technology simply wasn’t there to deliver them mass market and reliably.

My Bronco Sport has some loose similarities with my old Rabbit. They are both fun-to-drive, but the Rabbit had better road and steering feedback. They both have good outward visibility, but the Rabbit still gets the nod here primarily because it was smaller. They’re both nice on the highway where Ford has things nicely sorted out and the Rabbit was designed to handle the Autobahn and European roads. The front-wheel drive Rabbit was excellent in snow while the Bronco Sport has AWD and GOAT modes so I think the Bronco gets the nod here. And they’re both space efficient for their respective sizes. They both have cloth interiors.

These thoughts were prompted by a growing sense of attachment/affection for my Bronco that feels similar to how I felt about my old Rabbit despite them being very different vehicles separated by forty-five years of automotive advancement. For some reason my Bronco reminds me strongly of my old Rabbit. Strange, particularly when I know there was really no equivalent to today’s Bronco Sport back then. 4x4’s back then were nowhere near as refined as they are today. 1970’s Broncos, Bronco II’s and AWD Subaru‘s were tractors compared to today.

So whats my point? Maybe it’s just, “My, my, how things have changed…”

 

[Warped9]

I have one minor nitpick of my 2024 Big Bend: the door handles.

I chose the Big Bend partly because I like the Body-colour roof which I think looks more finished. I would have liked if I could have had body-colour door handles as well like on the Outer Banks.

I'm wondering if it's at all possible to get body-colour door handles without getting ridiculously expensive. I suppose the cheapest way would be to find a wrecked Outer Banks or Badlands in the right colour in a scrap yard and salvage the door handles. But that seems rather a long shot, but not impossible.

I'm sure you can order the actual factory door handles, but I'm not sure you can order them already painted. Most likely you would have to get them painted yourself.

I know it's a minor thing, but it would have been nice.

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