- Thread starter
- #1
Hi
This is more of a "Why I decided to buy/settle on the Bronco Sport vs the Outback Wilderness" post and some other misc thoughts.
I currently have a 2014 Ford F-150 4x4 with the 3.5L twin turbo and the electronic locking rear end. It's been very reliable so far - just over 200,000 miles and no engine work other than maintenance items like plugs/coils and super minor things like that...still on the original timing chain too, that is well known to stretch and cause issues...and I think mine is on the way there (I've heard the dreaded startup rattle several times, but it's still rare and very inconsistent...but 'rare' is the keyword here, so I'm still good for now). I change the oil every 4k miles with good synthetic oil and also use Hot Shot's Secret stiction eliminator as well to keep everything clean (turbo bearings, etc) and that also has some friction reducer in it. Anyway...
I had been researching wagon-like and small but capable SUVs for a while now, thinking about when I am ready to buy a new car in about 3 years (yeah, I know that's a ways off). I want something fully loaded for my 'retirement car'...retirement comes in about 5 years, but I want a new car within 3. The plan is to buy something small enough to park easily in small spots, parking garages and also get reasonable MPGs. I originally narrowed my choice down to the Outback Wilderness because I like the wagon style, the great full time AWD, nice power (from the 2.4L turbo), but a few things still bothered me about the Outback Wilderness, such as...
1. The CVT. From various reviews I've seen, the Outback Wilderness will go a lot more places than you'd expect (offroad), but I've also seen too many videos where someone is trying to climb up a steeper hill and get over a rock that the car would easily go over otherwise, but due to the steep grade added to the mix, the CVT just refuses to move the car. That really bugged me. My son has a 2023 Subaru WRX which I've driven and in that car, the CVT feels good and will rocket you off from the stop light and I've been impressed with it really, but that's on-road, not off-road on a steep grade. While I don't expect to find myself on steep grades trying to get over or up something, I also don't want to limit myself if there's a better option and an option I still like.
2. The looks. I was OK with the looks of the original Wilderness, but the new version (and who knows what comes after that) just doesn't sit too well with me.
I originally dismissed the Bronco Sport when I learned it's on the same platform as the Escape and the ground clearance bothered me too (9.5" on the Outback Wilderness vs 8.8" on the Bronco Sport Badlands with the Sasquatch package if I'm researching this correctly).
But then...
I started watching more videos and also checking out the 'build and price' tool on Ford's website and I started to come around to the idea of buying the Bronco Sport instead of the Outback. To be clear, I can afford to buy the larger Bronco, another full size truck or some other larger, more capable expensive beast than the Bronco Sport, but that's not what I WANTED. I'm frankly sick of driving around a full size truck and the limits it puts on me for parking garages (very tight in many cases) and other tight spots when I don't even need a full size truck in the first place. It's nice to have, and I'll probably keep it and put minimal insurance on it and only drive it when I need it, but yeah...I don't need or want another large vehicle with bad gas mileage and not easy to get into (or impossible) certain parking areas (I plan to take this many places, from crowded cities with tight parking to forests with unlimited parking space).
So back to the Bronco Sport. Some of these off-roading videos I've seen are crazy. I mean, people taking the Bronco Sport up what is basically rock crawling trails and making it up many of the same sports larger vehicles go (within reasonable limits of course...if you don't have the clearance, you don't have the clearance)...but it was the ability to 'lock' the rear end (yes I know it's a twin clutch, but it essentially means each rear wheel can be locked, unlike the Outback which relies only on braking of a certain wheel to get over obstacles when the wheel loses traction.
I'd love more ground clearance from the factory, but from what I've seen people do with these already is very impressive and honestly a lot more than I'd ever want to do myself...but again, I like to have options, just in case I find myself in a situation I didn't plan for.
Now a question...
I haven't researched it much and I don't want the 1.5L engine anyway (and it wouldn't be in the Badlands Sasquatch), but am I correct in saying that the majority of the problems have been with the 1.5L engine and the 2.0L engine has mostly been trouble-free other than any one-off gotchas that happen with any mass produced product and there's not a long list of recalls or other well known failures that people talk about regarding the 2L turbo (Ecoboost)?
The only major flaw with my current F-150 is the timing chain stretch issue, but I've been fortunate to avoid that so far with over 200,000 miles on the engine and I think I'll chalk that up to my regular maintenance (oil changes) and the Hot Shot Secret keeping things clean (that product was developed for International truck/big rigs to fix a problem they had with 'stiction' on the oil side of the diesel injectors and then later they started selling it to consumers...I've been a big fan of it).
That being said, I'm counting the days down until I can finally order a Bronco Sport Badlands Sasquatch or whatever they have available when I order one. The reason I'm waiting is because that's when the finances will work out, after my son gets out of college. He'll be debt free (no college debt) and we'll still be debt-free overall. I could buy it right now, but like I said, we want to stay away from debt as much as possible. The only debt we have right now is the payment on my son's WRX, so we don't want 2 car payments plus college out of pocket (because even though our state gave him a full scholarship for college due to his grades in high school and the college courses he took while in high school, the other nearby state where he's going to school for chemical engineering wouldn't give him jack squat for a scholarship because you know, he didn't fit in the right categories, so we pay all out of pocket for his college now...and like I said, not doing the loan because we don't want the debt).
This is more of a "Why I decided to buy/settle on the Bronco Sport vs the Outback Wilderness" post and some other misc thoughts.
I currently have a 2014 Ford F-150 4x4 with the 3.5L twin turbo and the electronic locking rear end. It's been very reliable so far - just over 200,000 miles and no engine work other than maintenance items like plugs/coils and super minor things like that...still on the original timing chain too, that is well known to stretch and cause issues...and I think mine is on the way there (I've heard the dreaded startup rattle several times, but it's still rare and very inconsistent...but 'rare' is the keyword here, so I'm still good for now). I change the oil every 4k miles with good synthetic oil and also use Hot Shot's Secret stiction eliminator as well to keep everything clean (turbo bearings, etc) and that also has some friction reducer in it. Anyway...
I had been researching wagon-like and small but capable SUVs for a while now, thinking about when I am ready to buy a new car in about 3 years (yeah, I know that's a ways off). I want something fully loaded for my 'retirement car'...retirement comes in about 5 years, but I want a new car within 3. The plan is to buy something small enough to park easily in small spots, parking garages and also get reasonable MPGs. I originally narrowed my choice down to the Outback Wilderness because I like the wagon style, the great full time AWD, nice power (from the 2.4L turbo), but a few things still bothered me about the Outback Wilderness, such as...
1. The CVT. From various reviews I've seen, the Outback Wilderness will go a lot more places than you'd expect (offroad), but I've also seen too many videos where someone is trying to climb up a steeper hill and get over a rock that the car would easily go over otherwise, but due to the steep grade added to the mix, the CVT just refuses to move the car. That really bugged me. My son has a 2023 Subaru WRX which I've driven and in that car, the CVT feels good and will rocket you off from the stop light and I've been impressed with it really, but that's on-road, not off-road on a steep grade. While I don't expect to find myself on steep grades trying to get over or up something, I also don't want to limit myself if there's a better option and an option I still like.
2. The looks. I was OK with the looks of the original Wilderness, but the new version (and who knows what comes after that) just doesn't sit too well with me.
I originally dismissed the Bronco Sport when I learned it's on the same platform as the Escape and the ground clearance bothered me too (9.5" on the Outback Wilderness vs 8.8" on the Bronco Sport Badlands with the Sasquatch package if I'm researching this correctly).
But then...
I started watching more videos and also checking out the 'build and price' tool on Ford's website and I started to come around to the idea of buying the Bronco Sport instead of the Outback. To be clear, I can afford to buy the larger Bronco, another full size truck or some other larger, more capable expensive beast than the Bronco Sport, but that's not what I WANTED. I'm frankly sick of driving around a full size truck and the limits it puts on me for parking garages (very tight in many cases) and other tight spots when I don't even need a full size truck in the first place. It's nice to have, and I'll probably keep it and put minimal insurance on it and only drive it when I need it, but yeah...I don't need or want another large vehicle with bad gas mileage and not easy to get into (or impossible) certain parking areas (I plan to take this many places, from crowded cities with tight parking to forests with unlimited parking space).
So back to the Bronco Sport. Some of these off-roading videos I've seen are crazy. I mean, people taking the Bronco Sport up what is basically rock crawling trails and making it up many of the same sports larger vehicles go (within reasonable limits of course...if you don't have the clearance, you don't have the clearance)...but it was the ability to 'lock' the rear end (yes I know it's a twin clutch, but it essentially means each rear wheel can be locked, unlike the Outback which relies only on braking of a certain wheel to get over obstacles when the wheel loses traction.
I'd love more ground clearance from the factory, but from what I've seen people do with these already is very impressive and honestly a lot more than I'd ever want to do myself...but again, I like to have options, just in case I find myself in a situation I didn't plan for.
Now a question...
I haven't researched it much and I don't want the 1.5L engine anyway (and it wouldn't be in the Badlands Sasquatch), but am I correct in saying that the majority of the problems have been with the 1.5L engine and the 2.0L engine has mostly been trouble-free other than any one-off gotchas that happen with any mass produced product and there's not a long list of recalls or other well known failures that people talk about regarding the 2L turbo (Ecoboost)?
The only major flaw with my current F-150 is the timing chain stretch issue, but I've been fortunate to avoid that so far with over 200,000 miles on the engine and I think I'll chalk that up to my regular maintenance (oil changes) and the Hot Shot Secret keeping things clean (that product was developed for International truck/big rigs to fix a problem they had with 'stiction' on the oil side of the diesel injectors and then later they started selling it to consumers...I've been a big fan of it).
That being said, I'm counting the days down until I can finally order a Bronco Sport Badlands Sasquatch or whatever they have available when I order one. The reason I'm waiting is because that's when the finances will work out, after my son gets out of college. He'll be debt free (no college debt) and we'll still be debt-free overall. I could buy it right now, but like I said, we want to stay away from debt as much as possible. The only debt we have right now is the payment on my son's WRX, so we don't want 2 car payments plus college out of pocket (because even though our state gave him a full scholarship for college due to his grades in high school and the college courses he took while in high school, the other nearby state where he's going to school for chemical engineering wouldn't give him jack squat for a scholarship because you know, he didn't fit in the right categories, so we pay all out of pocket for his college now...and like I said, not doing the loan because we don't want the debt).
Sponsored
