- First Name
- Michael
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2022
- Threads
- 10
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- 719
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- 1,004
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Vehicle(s)
- MBZ E350, supposed daily driver
- Your Bronco Model
- First Edition
- Thread starter
- #1
I've now had my 2021 2D CG FE for 10k miles, and I'm still in love with it.
After another user posted a TSB on the alternator, I took mine in to the dealer and within a few minutes, I had a new alternator ordered and was on my merry way. New alternator arrived at dealer so I dropped my Bronco off and was shuttled to the rental location, upon which I thought would be a great time to drive a Wrangler.
The one I ended up with was a 2021 Wrangler Sahara Unlimited. Having never owned a Jeep, it seemed to me that, by the badging, most of the bells and whistles that come with a higher end Wrangler would be present minus the off road capabilities of the Rubicon.
The following are my thoughts on my experience with the Wrangler compared to my Bronco.
Seats: The first thing I immediately noticed are how bad the seats are. I spent a lot of my younger days in modified sports cars and having modified seats in most of them, I'm most comfortable driving with the back set at almost 90° to the seat bottoms. The Bronco seat back goes almost to 90°, but this Wrangler goes only sets to what feels like 45° to the seat bottom. The cushioning on the seats were terrible as well, and for the past 100 miles or so, it's been a pretty bad experience for me.
Interior: Coming from a First Edition Bronco, nothing about the Wrangler interior was appealing to me. Everything felt rubbery, cheap, and extremely crammed. The thing that really stuck out to me was how outdated the infotainment system seemed, but that's been my experience with every Dodge vehicle I've been in. The materials of the bare removable hard top were also very undesirable to look at. It definitely needs a coat of paint or a liner.
Audio system: This particular jeep seemed to have the basic system, and I realized during the first 2 songs that I was happier with the audio system completely off. WOW, it was bad. My B&O sounds like a competition system compared to whatever is in this Wrangler.
Drive: Without having opened the hood, I can only assume this is a 4 cylinder motor because it is so sluggish. However, it has enough power to push itself along, so it does suffice. What was most noticeable was how much it drifted to the right, and it really kept me on my toes. It is nearly impossible to drive straight, and there was almost no feedback from the steering wheel. I also noticed that after a turn, the wheel doesn't really spin back to normal, and I had to manually turn it back to OG position, which I thought was extremely odd and dangerous.
Noise: Surprisingly, the hardtop Wrangler seems noticeably more quiet than my hardtop Bronco, but then again, I have a lot of stuff attached to the Bronco hardtop, so it's hard compare the two, but it seemed a lot quieter, even with the sound system turned off. I guess I'm not the right person to comment on this, but I noticed that within the first 5 minutes of driving.
Design: Obviously, I love the way my Bronco looks. The white Wrangler is handsome, too, though I can't get over the fact that it looks small on the outside, and feels even smaller on the inside. By numbers alone, it shouldn't feel so different but everything in the Wrangler just feels really cramped. I can't say that it felt pleasant to be inside this car.
Overall, I think what the Bronco will do for the Wrangler will be amazing. It feels like the Wrangler has had no reason to change for the last 30 years and decided that if it wasn't broken, it had no desire to change. Competition promotes innovation, and the re-release of the Bronco will push each other to be better than the other, and in 50 years, we'll have flying cars and none of this will matter to most, but it will to the few of us that are still trying to find the hardest way over a hill.
In hindsight, although it may seem that I'm Jeep bashing, it is only a comparison between 2 very similar vehicles, and my experiences with each. I do think the Bronco is better in every way when it comes to the above aforementioned qualities, but the off road experience, I'm sure, will be very different as well.
The kicker? I just went to snap a picture of the Jeep for this post and saw 7 goggley eyed girls standing in front of the Jeep, asking if it was my Jeep. Haven't had that happen in my Bronco yet.
Thanks for reading.
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