- First Name
- Ray
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2025
- Threads
- 11
- Messages
- 222
- Reaction score
- 551
- Location
- Brockville, Ontario, Canada
- Vehicle(s)
- 2024 Bronco Sport
- Thread starter
- #1
When I was faced with the prospect of buying a new vehicle I actually sat down to give it serious thought and made a list. The list was based on things I liked, things I wanted, and vehicles I had at least some passing interest in for one reason or another.
Most of the vehicles I considered I crossed off the list in short order. My reasons were based on being reasonably familiar with the existing market and what was out there as well as weighing how much I liked or was interested in a vehicle more or less than another on the list.
My existing car, a 2004 CrownVic with upgrades, was not something I likely would have chosen myself if I hadn't inherited it when my father passed away. And as much as I liked the car and how I had personalized it I questioned whether I really wanted something similar to replace it. For what it was my CrownVic wasn't bad on gas, but I would certainly appreciate something more economical. Largely to that end I wasn't going to seriously consider a Dodge Charger or Challenger--cool cars, but off the list. Furthermore I have little faith in Stellantis quality control.
The car market has changed a lot over the decades and interesting (to me) small to midsize cars have become few and far between. When I was younger I could rattle off a respectable list of cars I liked, but not now. What I found sporty and interesting when I was younger just doesn't resonate the same way today. Maybe there has always been a lot of me-too-ism in the market, but it seems really bad today. I generally like Mustangs, but I don't like the 2024 version. And Mustangs are largely one-dimensional--looks really cool and is fun to drive, but not that flexible as a daily driver. I have always liked the Volkswagen GTI and I still do to some extent, but VW evolved it into something that just doesn't quite click for me the way it used to. The GTI is now just way too techie for my tastes. And while a Mazda MX-5 is as close to purity for driving enjoyment it's just too small and impractical as a daily driver.
When I boiled everything away I was left with one car: a Volkswagen Jetta with Sport Package. It was the closest thing I could see that was modern yet still largely fulfilled what I'd like in a car. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close--a reasonable sports sedan that wouldn't break the bank.
Other vehicles on my list skewed more to SUVs and trucks. By trucks I mean pickups, and candidly those didn't stay on the list for long. Pickups today are way oversized, in my opinion, and make zero sense as a daily driver unless you really need a pickup bed. They're also expensive as hell. So F-150s and Dodge Rams were off the list as I didn't need a cargo ship on land. Smaller pickups were also scratched primarily because I simply don't need a pickup bed--for me it's wasted space.
That left SUVs. There are a helluva lot of SUVs of various forms on the market. There is also a lot of me-too-ism to those vehicles. And most of them I found too meh or too weird for my liking. That effectively removed all imports from my list. With the exception of the Mazda MX-30 that left a handful of domestic vehicles to weigh: Chevrolet Blazer, Jeep Wrangler (2dr.), Ford Bronco (2dr.) and Ford Bronco Sport.
I like the look of the Blazer, but in the end it still came across as a soccer mom wagon. And it was bigger than I needed or really wanted. Wranglers have long had a counter-mainstream appeal to them, but in the end you have to judge how much compromise you can live with. Additionally there is that Stellantis quality issue again and the fact that an affordable Wrangler is near non-existent.
I like the Bronco 2dr. But all the Broncos on dealer lots are loaded and expensive. And there was no Base model Bronco in 2024. It's been brought back for 2025, but last October I had no idea that was going to happen. If I had known I might have held off until I could consider what a 2dr. Base model equipped as I liked would cost me. Knowing that now makes me feel better about what I eventually bought because a Base Bronco would still have cost me several thousand dollars more and I would be sacrificing features and equipment.
My list was finally whittled down to two: VW Jetta or Bronco Sport. Two rather disparate vehicles.
Way back I was never a fan of the big sized Bronco. It was just too big and didn't click for me. To me they were jacked up station wagons. And the Explorer always struck me much the same way. But back in the day I quite liked the Bronco II. I liked the look of it and the concept. Circumstance prevented me from considering buying one, but in retrospect it's just as well given the issues Ford had with the Bronco II. Flash forward to 2021 and Ford resurrected the concept in a smart and properly modern way. This one caught my attention and I liked it.
So it was always in the back of my mind that whenever I would consider a new vehicle I would take a close look at the Bronco Sport. Over the years I kept tabs on it with online reviews written and on video. Occasionally I even asked people I met who had one how they felt about it--the response was overwhelmingly positive. So now I had to go see it myself.
At our local ford dealership, Riverside Ford in Brockville Ontario, I looked over the Bronco Sport thoroughly. And I eventually test drove it twice over a few weeks. I then weighed how much I wanted to go out of town to Cornwall, Ontario to take a closer look at the Jetta. There was also the matter of, well...age and perspective. If I were twenty or so years younger I probably would have leaned more toward the Jetta. But at 65, even though I still feel youthful inside, I just see some things differently. I thought about it for two weeks and I never worked up enough interest to go see the Jetta firsthand. I found myself liking the Bronco Sport that much. It just clicked for me and checked off many things I liked or wanted. Also, as much as I liked the Jetta I reasoned it would be essentially a smaller version of what I already had, a sedan with a trunk. That meant I still had to lower myself into the car and bend over to load or unload the trunk. That wasn't paramount in my mind, but it was there. I simply liked how easy it was for me to (at 5'-7") to get in and out of the Bronco Sport as well as the ease of loading or unloading the rear cargo area.
The final thing was I really liked how the Bronco drove. Yeah, it was a bit trucky in feel, but not in a bad way partly because it wasn't oversized.
Looking back I wonder if maybe I had been leaning mostly toward the Bronco all along and I went through the elimination process to mostly justify what I was already interested in. Who knows.
Anyway, I've rambled enough. Anyone else on why you chose the Bronco Sport over other vehicles?
Most of the vehicles I considered I crossed off the list in short order. My reasons were based on being reasonably familiar with the existing market and what was out there as well as weighing how much I liked or was interested in a vehicle more or less than another on the list.
My existing car, a 2004 CrownVic with upgrades, was not something I likely would have chosen myself if I hadn't inherited it when my father passed away. And as much as I liked the car and how I had personalized it I questioned whether I really wanted something similar to replace it. For what it was my CrownVic wasn't bad on gas, but I would certainly appreciate something more economical. Largely to that end I wasn't going to seriously consider a Dodge Charger or Challenger--cool cars, but off the list. Furthermore I have little faith in Stellantis quality control.
The car market has changed a lot over the decades and interesting (to me) small to midsize cars have become few and far between. When I was younger I could rattle off a respectable list of cars I liked, but not now. What I found sporty and interesting when I was younger just doesn't resonate the same way today. Maybe there has always been a lot of me-too-ism in the market, but it seems really bad today. I generally like Mustangs, but I don't like the 2024 version. And Mustangs are largely one-dimensional--looks really cool and is fun to drive, but not that flexible as a daily driver. I have always liked the Volkswagen GTI and I still do to some extent, but VW evolved it into something that just doesn't quite click for me the way it used to. The GTI is now just way too techie for my tastes. And while a Mazda MX-5 is as close to purity for driving enjoyment it's just too small and impractical as a daily driver.
When I boiled everything away I was left with one car: a Volkswagen Jetta with Sport Package. It was the closest thing I could see that was modern yet still largely fulfilled what I'd like in a car. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty close--a reasonable sports sedan that wouldn't break the bank.
Other vehicles on my list skewed more to SUVs and trucks. By trucks I mean pickups, and candidly those didn't stay on the list for long. Pickups today are way oversized, in my opinion, and make zero sense as a daily driver unless you really need a pickup bed. They're also expensive as hell. So F-150s and Dodge Rams were off the list as I didn't need a cargo ship on land. Smaller pickups were also scratched primarily because I simply don't need a pickup bed--for me it's wasted space.
That left SUVs. There are a helluva lot of SUVs of various forms on the market. There is also a lot of me-too-ism to those vehicles. And most of them I found too meh or too weird for my liking. That effectively removed all imports from my list. With the exception of the Mazda MX-30 that left a handful of domestic vehicles to weigh: Chevrolet Blazer, Jeep Wrangler (2dr.), Ford Bronco (2dr.) and Ford Bronco Sport.
I like the look of the Blazer, but in the end it still came across as a soccer mom wagon. And it was bigger than I needed or really wanted. Wranglers have long had a counter-mainstream appeal to them, but in the end you have to judge how much compromise you can live with. Additionally there is that Stellantis quality issue again and the fact that an affordable Wrangler is near non-existent.
I like the Bronco 2dr. But all the Broncos on dealer lots are loaded and expensive. And there was no Base model Bronco in 2024. It's been brought back for 2025, but last October I had no idea that was going to happen. If I had known I might have held off until I could consider what a 2dr. Base model equipped as I liked would cost me. Knowing that now makes me feel better about what I eventually bought because a Base Bronco would still have cost me several thousand dollars more and I would be sacrificing features and equipment.
My list was finally whittled down to two: VW Jetta or Bronco Sport. Two rather disparate vehicles.
Way back I was never a fan of the big sized Bronco. It was just too big and didn't click for me. To me they were jacked up station wagons. And the Explorer always struck me much the same way. But back in the day I quite liked the Bronco II. I liked the look of it and the concept. Circumstance prevented me from considering buying one, but in retrospect it's just as well given the issues Ford had with the Bronco II. Flash forward to 2021 and Ford resurrected the concept in a smart and properly modern way. This one caught my attention and I liked it.
So it was always in the back of my mind that whenever I would consider a new vehicle I would take a close look at the Bronco Sport. Over the years I kept tabs on it with online reviews written and on video. Occasionally I even asked people I met who had one how they felt about it--the response was overwhelmingly positive. So now I had to go see it myself.
At our local ford dealership, Riverside Ford in Brockville Ontario, I looked over the Bronco Sport thoroughly. And I eventually test drove it twice over a few weeks. I then weighed how much I wanted to go out of town to Cornwall, Ontario to take a closer look at the Jetta. There was also the matter of, well...age and perspective. If I were twenty or so years younger I probably would have leaned more toward the Jetta. But at 65, even though I still feel youthful inside, I just see some things differently. I thought about it for two weeks and I never worked up enough interest to go see the Jetta firsthand. I found myself liking the Bronco Sport that much. It just clicked for me and checked off many things I liked or wanted. Also, as much as I liked the Jetta I reasoned it would be essentially a smaller version of what I already had, a sedan with a trunk. That meant I still had to lower myself into the car and bend over to load or unload the trunk. That wasn't paramount in my mind, but it was there. I simply liked how easy it was for me to (at 5'-7") to get in and out of the Bronco Sport as well as the ease of loading or unloading the rear cargo area.
The final thing was I really liked how the Bronco drove. Yeah, it was a bit trucky in feel, but not in a bad way partly because it wasn't oversized.
Looking back I wonder if maybe I had been leaning mostly toward the Bronco all along and I went through the elimination process to mostly justify what I was already interested in. Who knows.
Anyway, I've rambled enough. Anyone else on why you chose the Bronco Sport over other vehicles?
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