BRONCO GOES ROUGH AND REFINED

Eagerly awaited Bronco to be launched for off-road and soft-road

Following a sea of sneak images, teaser promotions, and information leaks, Ford has finally whipped the covers off its Bronco line-up.

The Bronco is available in two key flavours; a body-on-frame version made to take on the Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Defender, and a more mainstream unibody version called the Bronco Sport, designed to take on the likes of the Toyota RAV4 and Mazda CX-5.

The Sport is only available in five-door; the more traditional self-titled Bronco will be available as a three and five-door.

Ford says the hard-core Bronco’s off-road capabilities were benchmarked against not just the Wrangler, but also specialist enthusiast vehicles like the Polaris RZR.

There are two available engines: an EcoBoost 2.3-litre and a 2.7-litre EcoBoost V6.

Ground clearance and water wading depth are best in class, at 294mm and 851mm respectively. Breakover and departure angles have maximum values of 29 degrees and 37.2 degrees.

There are seven drive modes available; Normal, Eco, Sport, Slippery, San, Baja, Mud/Ruts and RockCrawl.

Options are a big part of the more adventurous Bronco package, with more than 200 accessories available from the factory.

Other decisions owners can make include choosing between a seven-speed manual and a 10speed automatic, soft top or hard top and two different four-wheel drive systems.

We cannot forget the customisation and off-road trinkets. The Bronco comes fitted with all sorts of clever nooks for tools and other peripherals to reside. As per the sneak images, the roof has numerous options . . . to the point where the Bronco can have all its doors stripped clean off and the roof deleted in a process Ford says can be carried out by a single person.

And no, there are currently no plans to produce Bronco in righthand drive. Sorry.