One brief look at the specs immediately reveals that the big-brother Bronco two-door, and to a lesser extent the Bronco four-door, provides a more capable off-roading experience than the Bronco Sport. Things like mega approach and departure angles, deep water fording capability, and available 35-inch diameter tires show that Ford takes this seriously and wants the Bronco to go head to head against vehicles like the Jeep Wrangler.
But the Bronco Sport, not the Bronco, will spend more time away from pavement. Let’s face it, a lot more people buy into the image of venturing way off-road than actually do it. Off-roading is hard. First of all, there’s no Starbucks on the Moab trail, at least not yet. And while fresh air and the idea of disconnecting from the modern world sound wonderful, it takes effort and planning to actually do it. Still, people like looking the part and several well-equipped Broncos will spend their days in suburbia.
What Ford promises the Bronco Sport to offer, on the other hand, is an easy path to a wider variety of outdoor activities. Be it mountain biking, kayaking, camping, or some rides on a trail, the Bronco Sport is better equipped to pursue such endeavors.
To start, the Bronco Sport is also all-wheel-drive and also has a respectable off-roading spec sheet, including an 18:1 ratio crawler gear. Then Ford deliberately made the cargo area tall enough for two mountain bikes with 27.5-inch tires to stand side by side behind the driver and passenger. Or, if you’d rather, throw a couple kayaks or pairs of skis, or a tent on the roof.
In addition to that, Ford made something called the cargo management system for the Bronco Sport, which includes five different ways to configure the cargo area as well as a slide-out working table. This also includes a 400-watt inverter and liftgate floodlamps that will light 129-square feet of ground, according to Ford.
Furthermore, Badlands and First Edition versions of the Bronco Sport will come with a washable rubber floor fitted to both the cabin and cargo areas, for easy clean-up of whatever muck you got yourself into. Finally, there’s a storage bin behind the second row to keep dirty things away from your clean clothes, or whatever.
At 172.7 inches long, the Bronco Sport is nearly eight inches shorter than an Escape, but also two-inches taller. Clearly, this is a little ute. But a versatile, user-friendly one that will make it easy to take a day or weekend trip to “get away from it all.”
In today’s world, people want things to make their lives easier. And the Bronco Sport will make it easier for more people to do more things than the Bronco. Expect to see more mud caked on the quarter panels of the Sport than the full-size Bronco, mark my words.
