Why did you choose a Bronco Sport?

[Quashish]

Reasonably priced, have had a few fords already in the family, only car out there that isn't trying to look like a spaceship or something crazy. Wife needed something her size and either awd/4wd

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[KidWiff]

2023 Bronco Sport Heritage trim

Needed a new vehicle right away (2011 GTi, blew a rear main). Several other items (new headliner among them) added up to a big number to repair a 12 yr old car with nearly 150k miles - no thanks.

I wanted:
Something on the dealers lot
AWD
4-door SUV style vehicle.
Room for 4, plus some gear
Light towing
Under 40k

It was tail end of Covid and while I wasn’t thrilled with the final sale price, there wasn’t much negotiating happening at that point. I needed a vehicle asap. My only consolation was a decent amount for the trade-in even with the known issue so, it felt like a win.

 

[Jillrm]

2023 Bronco Sport Heritage trim

Needed a new vehicle right away (2011 GTi, blew a rear main). Several other items (new headliner among them) added up to a big number to repair a 12 yr old car with nearly 150k miles - no thanks.

I wanted:
Something on the dealers lot
AWD
4-door SUV style vehicle.
Room for 4, plus some gear
Light towing
Under 40k

It was tail end of Covid and while I wasn’t thrilled with the final sale price, there wasn’t much negotiating happening at that point. I needed a vehicle asap. My only consolation was a decent amount for the trade-in even with the known issue so, it felt like a win.

Me too...I had a 14 year old car with 250+k on it and at my age, figured this would be my last car. SO, I went with what I've wanted for awhile...a big old "boxy" ride! Thankfully, Ford seemed to be the only affordable car maker to catch on that a lot of people like that vintage boxy look...have you seen how they've taken over the roads?

 

[NMhunter]

I had a Jeep Liberty diesel that I loved, but it was getting old, so I was looking for something off-road capable that gets good mileage. The Badlands fits the bill just right. It is more capable than my Liberty was (once I lifted it and added skid plates).

 

[Schuelady]

I had a 2015 Mazda CX5. I loved that vehicle. Only problem was, I could no longer update the navigation. It was on a chip and we couldn't find a updated chip for the size of the screen we had. We decided to trade in the Mazda as it only had about 82k on it and get a different vehicle that the navigation could be updated. Like mentioned above, I figured this would be my last vehicle with my age. I liked the vintage look of the BS. We did look at others, like the new CX5 and others. But I still was leaning towards the BS. I told the salesman what I was looking for, and he pointed to the BS Outer Banks and the Edge. We test drove both. Though the Edge was fancy and checked all my boxes, including cooled front seats and heated back seats, it was too long for me to sport around in, and wasn't as comfortable seats as the BS. We ended up ordering the 2025 BS Outer Banks and we love it!! Also, my husband loves the fact that the Ford app is free. All the others had a yearly fee after a certain amount of time. We love the heated seats and steering wheel, the 360 cameras, the adaptive cruise the wireless Android Auto and wireless SYNC4 and wireless phone charger. We also got an incentive for purchasing my husband's 2014 F150 pickup from them! We also ended up selling the Mazda to a friend of ours and got more from them than doing a trade in!

 

[AHSport]

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?

 

[AHSport]

I’ve previously had 3 of the older Explorers in the family. I did not like the redesigned “aerodynamic” Explorers and Escapes.
I had a 2004 Honda Pilot that had 219,000
Miles. On the way to the Honda dealership
to maybe get another one I stopped at the Ford dealership across the street.
I test drove a Big Ben that was loaded.
I pointed to another Sport and said
“what’s that?” .. it was 2023 Badlands.
I test drove it (on the freeway too)
loved it, got approved for a Ford Motor Credit loan and signed the papers within a hour. My test drive reaction:
I felt safe ( like driving a small light pick up truck which no one makes anymore)
Great visibility (I like to take photos)
Good handling and maneuvering,
and acceleration, zippy, classy looking but cute and solid at the same time,
short wheel base, AWD/4WD. I did not need serious off road capability but the larger engine sold me. I am also older and this probably will be my last car. I have over 18,000 miles on it now. My Badlands is just the basic trim and stock Perelli tires. I wished I had the tow package on it
and was disappointed to learn that adding towing later was not as capable.

 

[Ridgerider]

My decision to buy was part rational and part not. The rational part: my previous car, an Escape, was about 11 years old. I wanted the safety features and better fuel economy the Bronco Sport offers. I got 0% for 60 months and a decent discount, making this purchase a sound financial decision. We have owned three Escapes previously, but the new Escape left us cold. The interior especially was a let down. I wanted something more than a generic transportation appliance. The Bronco has style even my four-year-old grandson appreciates! (He loves the start-up animation and the big Bronco letters on the grill.)

 

[Paradocks]

The BS reminded me of my Dad’s Bronco II which I was allowed to drive during my early college years. I had a blast driving that thing. It was red/white on the outside with a red interior. Bare bones…AM radio, manual crank windows, manually locking front hubs, no air conditioning. Just an automatic transmission. I remember having to get out, unlock the front hubs by twisting a small dial in the center of each wheel, and backing up a few feet to make sure the 4WD was disengaged. No touchscreen, no computers, no multiple airbags. Simplicity with a fun to drive factor that appealed to the college kid in me.

Granted, the BS is light years more advanced than the Bronco II, but the square, upright stying just brings back a lot of fond memories.

 

[Robins21]

The Bronco Sport is my wife's, in the past she had an 85 Bronco II, & has had 3 Explorer Sports so it just seemed a good replacement for the Explorer Sport & she liked it.

 

[Dannyp56]

I wanted a smaller vehicle as I was driving a 2015 RAM 2500 4x4 long bed and I kept hitting things. The RAM only had 37,000 miles on the Cummins diesel. So I went to the Ford dealer just down the street from us and traded it straight across for a 2024 Bronco Sport Outer banks. I test drove it and was surprised how the little 3 cylinder performed.

 

[bstn rnr]

Previous two vehicles were Hyundai Tucsons which I liked very well. I live in Tennessee and don't off road but two years ago I got the chance to work as a volunteer for a month at Arches National Park. I had been in that area before and loved all the hiking available. I took my Tucson on some rough roads and it did well but I was limited on where I could go and which trails I could hike. Got the position again the following summer and decided to get something a bit more capable.

Even though my very first car was a 66 Mustang, I never considered myself a Ford person, but when the Bronco and Sport came out, I really liked the looks of them. I had some money saved up so when I started shopping for a Sport last year, I found a 21 Badlands that I could trade my Tucson for and pay cash for the difference.

Last summer I took that Bronco Sport all over the Southwest and it performed really well. This summer I'll be returning to Arches for my third stint and hope to make it a yearly occasion until I retire in a few more years when I can volunteer at various parks for longer periods. For me the BS is a great compromise between being a nice daily diver and getting me to places most SUV's other than Jeeps couldn't.

Pic is of my BS on the White Rim Rd, Canyonlands.

 

[KidWiff]

Me too...I had a 14 year old car with 250+k on it and at my age, figured this would be my last car. SO, I went with what I've wanted for awhile...a big old "boxy" ride! Thankfully, Ford seemed to be the only affordable car maker to catch on that a lot of people like that vintage boxy look...have you seen how they've taken over the roads?

I see tons of Sports on the road these days…. While I do worry about the longevity of the 3-banger, it’s been a solid vehicle so far.

Speaking of older cars… My wife drives a ‘07 Tahoe we’ve had since new. It’s got 321k miles on it. A couple of small issues (a tear in 1 seat and a wonky front seat control that I’ll take care of when the weather gets a little better and I can work outside) but overall it looks and runs great. No compelling reason to get rid of it.

 

[Larryjaquins]

Added window stickers. Santa in honor of my dad who passed away last year. He was Santa for over 15 years. He and I always wore Hawaiian shirts. The turtle is a very beloved animal in Hawaii and it’s Christmas attire it’s wearing. It has a grumpy look on its face like my wife says I always look grumpy. With my new sport being green In color I named it Tommy the turbo turtle

 

[RidingTheBronco]

I spent a good bit of time justifying what I liked from the start.

I drove a f150 Larriat for 20 years. I needed it for work. I retired and was ready for a next phase vehicle that got better than 14mpg.

I had to like it. I had to fit in it. I stilled needed some hauling capacity. It had to feel good to drive it. AND it had to be under 40k.

I liked the Rav4, but availability and dealer mark ups put most of them out of range. I liked the Subaru outback. But it is smaller. Then the 25 came out with the bigger screen and as silly as it sounds. That was enough of an improvement over the 2024, that I was ready to really shop the BS OB.

I had one lapse when I found a 2022 Sante Fe for 10k less than the 2025 Bronco. I thought I might try saving some money, but that thought didn't last. One always has to wonder why the previous owner is offing a car after 2-3 years. It was also shorter.

In the end, I was pretty sure I wanted a Bronco Sport when the 2025 models arrived. Then I shopped. My local dealer was kind of a jerk about 2024 prices at the end of the year. They had plenty on the lot and never really got below the 2025 prices. So, I drove out of town to the next dealer, found a BS I liked and bought it there.

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