Your 2022 Bronco Buyers Guide

Let the following serve as your 2022 Bronco Buyers Guide before heading down to your local Ford Bronco dealership to purchase one. Yes, as everyone knows the Ford Bronco is back! And it is the hottest SUV on the market. Ford cannot make these things fast enough due to its overwhelming popularity.

Marketed as the direct competitor to the legendary Jeep Wrangler, the Bronco has been completely redesigned from the ground up. We’ll cover trim levels, engine choices, drivetrain, tech, and off-road capability. Sound good? Let’s get going!

Back to Take on Mt. Wrangler

Announced in a press release on July 13, 2020, the Bronco was billed by Ford to be: “ready to deliver thrilling off-road experiences with their heritage-inspired style, rugged engineering and smart off-road technology.” It delivered a clear message: “We’re coming after you, Jeep.”

The Wrangler has gone virtually unchallenged for nearly 30 years. Sure, other companies have made some attempts to make dedicated off-road vehicles appeal to the masses, but none of them ever really caught on the way Jeep did. Heritage, combined with a cool factor and a loyal customer base, made the Wrangler the best seller it is today. Not to mention the near-endless configurable features and that you can literally take the thing apart.

With the market trending towards SUVs, Ford decided to make a bold move in 2018 by almost killing its car lineup and choosing to focus on trucks and SUVs instead. In 2019, we got a brand new Ranger, and now, we have a brand new Bronco.

But what, you may ask, is the big deal? Well, we’ll tell you. The original ’60s Bronco, which the new one is adoringly modeled after, was a legend in its own right. It was Ford’s first SUV, and it was a compact, no-frills, rugged utility vehicle that could go anywhere. The Bronco was an immediate hit. However, success later waned in the late-’90s, and Ford decided to end production in 1996. Now that it’s had a year to chip away at Mt. Wrangler, let’s see what the Blue Oval has to offer us.

Bronco Trim Levels

To begin with, Bronco comes in multiple trim levels. From the bottom up you have: Base, Big Bend, Black Diamond, Outer Banks, Badlands, Wildtrak, and, new for 2022, Everglades and Raptor. That’s a lot to choose from. And, to make things even more complicated, all trims above the Base can be outfitted in either Standard, Mid, High, or Lux packages.

We’ll dig into the Base model since that’s what all the other models take after. In the Base, you get the standard package, which includes selectable 4×4 engagement, cloth seats, and Terrain Management System with 5 G.O.A.T modes. More on those later.

Upper trims will get you leather or vinyl seats, rubberized floorboards with drain plugs for easy cleaning, additional G.O.A.T modes, upgraded engines, and beefier suspension. We won’t go into each trim individually, but we will go a little in-depth into the one performance package available across the lineup: the Sasquatch.

With the exception of the Raptor, all Broncos can be upgraded with the Sasquatch package. Sasquatch provides off-road capability with 35″ tires, electronic-locking front and rear axles, HOSS 2.0 suspension, fender flares, and up to 11.6″ of ground clearance.

Power and Drivetrain

Several different engines power the Bronco across the various trim levels. The standard engine is a 2.3L EcoBoost inline 4-cylinder, which produces 275 hp/315 lb-ft of torque on regular, and 300 hp/325 lb-ft of torque on premium. Next up is the 2.7L EcoBoost V6, only available on the Wildtrak, makes 315 hp/410 lb-ft of torque on regular, and 330 hp/415 lb-ft of torque on premium.

Finally we have the 3.0L EcoBoost V6, which only comes on the Raptor. We don’t have hp and torque numbers for the 3.0 just yet, but if it’s coming on the Raptor, we can almost guarantee the numbers will be up there.

A 10-speed automatic transmission is optional for all models, but we’d like to point out the availability of the 7-speed manual. This manual transmission can be had on nearly every model in the lineup and comes with a unique crawl gear, which works with the 4×4 system to create a lower gear ratio that’ll help propel Bronco over rough terrain. The SelectShift feature on the automatic transmission provides a similar low gear ratio, but it doesn’t provide nearly as much grip and torque vectoring crawl-power as the manual.

Comfort Tech

We can’t give as complete a guide as we can for a modern vehicle without talking about the available onboard tech. We’re gonna split this into two categories: comfort tech and off-road tech. The comfort tech are those things that provide the creature comforts we’ve come to expect in our vehicles. One such amenity is the touch screen.

The Standard Package on the Bronco comes with an 8″ LCD touch screen, with syncs to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The screen also houses the HD rearview camera. All Broncos’ climate and volume controls are big, easy-to-use knobs-no fumbling with the touch screen to adjust the radio volume.

A step up to the Mid Package gives you Ford’s safety tech, which includes a Lane-Keeping System, a Forward Sensing System, Automatic Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Information System with Cross-Traffic Alert, and Auto High-Beam Headlamps. You’ll also get heated front seats and a 110V/150W AC power outlet.

Step back into the High Package, and you’ll find all the amenities available on the Mid, but with the upgrade to a 12″ center stack touch screen, which houses a 360-degree camera. A Forward Sensing System, which uses front-end radar to locate road hazards you might not be able to see, is included in this package, as well as LED approach lamps integrated into the side mirrors.

Finally, the Lux Package will get you a combination of Mid and High with the addition of Adaptive Cruise Control, Evasive Steering Assist, a B&O 10-speaker sound system, built-in navigation, USB ports, and a wireless phone charging pad.

Off-Road Tech

The off-road tech is where the Bronco is truly in its element. We mentioned earlier the availability of the Terrain Management System with G.O.A.T modes, and now we’ll explain them to you.

The Terrain Management System will quite literally manage the terrain you’re driving on through the use of onboard computers, which are connected to sensors in the drivetrain and wheels. The “Go Over Any Terrain” modes on the Bronco are a way of selecting the kind of driving you expect to encounter on your journey and adjusting traction accordingly. The standard 5 G.O.A.T modes are as follows: Sport, Eco, Normal, Slippery, and Sand. Further modes, like Mud/Ruts, Baja, Rock Crawl, and Tow/Haul, are available on higher trim levels.

Of course, tech isn’t the only thing making Bronco an off-road beast. Numerous features, such as four different levels of High-Performance Off-Road Stability Suspension (HOSS), front and rear locking differentials, approach and departure angles above 40 degrees and a break over angle of 30.8 degrees, 5 skid plates protecting the engine, fuel tank, and transfer case, tow hooks, electronic-disconnect for the front stabilizer bar, 6 hero switches incorporated into the dash, and 6 more auxiliary switched mounted above the windshield create a fully-loaded off-roading machine.

Insane Configurability

If everything we’ve listed so far hasn’t convinced you enough that the Bronco is one of the most loaded and configurable off-roaders you can buy, then perhaps telling you that you can take off the doors and roof will. Yes, you heard right. Doors and roof off, or folded back in the case of a soft top.

Bronco comes in 2-door and 4-door configurations, each available with either a hard or soft top. The hardtop consists of 3 separate plates, two in the front and one stretching the length of the back. These can be removed with relative ease, as can the doors, which also come with their own storage bags to keep them in the rear cargo area while you’re out driving. Roof rails can also be added to increase cargo capacity, though adding these will make removing the hardtop panels marginally more difficult.

These features, along with the 8 trim levels, performance and tech packages, 12 available colors, and room for aftermarket accessories, may make the Bronco the most configurable, capable, off-road SUV today.

Conclusion

So there’s our guide to the 2022 Bronco. Ford has gone all out with this vehicle, honoring its heritage with vintage style looks and original Bronco easter eggs hidden throughout the exterior. As always, reach out to your dealer with any additional questions, though obviously, your next logical step will be to get behind the wheel and head for the hills.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »