OBX vs BL conflicted

[stm378]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, but new to posting so please forgive any unwritten rules I may be violating and not knowing about.

I'm conflicted between the OBX and the BL. I really like the wash out interior aspect and ultimately the cooler look (imo) of the stance of the badlands, but on the OBX side I probably like the roast interior better and much as it seems that it might be sacrilege around here, I actually like the color matched pieces (mirrors, door handles, and yes even fender flares) (oh yeah and the fact that it's cheaper, but I suppose you only live once). I'm waiting for 22 to (hopefully) get a color matched mod top either way, so that may be a non-issue. I guess my questions at the end of the day are
1. If I decide to ultimately go BL what's the likelihood of being able to swap out the MIC parts (mirrors, handles, fender flares)?
2. If it's even possible how ungodly expensive would it likely be?
3. Would swapping the fender flares even wind up being legal assuming that the 33's would probably wind up sticking out from the flares that were meant to go with the OBX 32's?

Thanks to all for any assistance,
Sean

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[jaruss01]

I went through a similar dilemma

I have a thread about paintable handles, i am sure it will come up if you search. It'll be very expensive to do the handles.

 

[Sandbergo]

I went with the OBX 4 door because I could get the High Package and the 4.27 gear ratio so at a later point when I put larger tires and a lift on I would be set. They way I justified it is I was getting everything that I wouldn’t be able to get aftermarket, like the 12” monitor and the 360 camera setup, also not sky rocketing the cost for me. I figured that there are going to be a tremendous amount of aftermarket parts that I can install later. The few things that didn’t matter to me were the painted fender flares, tube steps, painted handles, and painted mirrors. I saw a post that had the stock flares with Sasquatch and I thought it looked decent, just wish I could have seen it with the painted ones. Oh and the wheels on the OBX are not a bigger seller for people, to be honest I don’t like them but figure maybe they would look better with different tires. Anyway, that is what I did, my advice would be to go with the option that has more of the options that you want or can’t live without.

 

[Broncodave]

I don’t have any good comment on what to do, but man, this surprises me that people are vacillating between these two trims. To me, these are the two vehicles that are the least like each other of any in the Bronco lineup.

 

[stm378]

I went through a similar dilemma

I have a thread about paintable handles, i am sure it will come up if you search. It'll be very expensive to do the handles.

I Am in EXACTLY the same boat as you....Antimatter Blue and all. I really think that if it were some of the other colors I could probably just move on and deal with it (again just my opinion, but I think the MIC actually looks great with A51, Rapid Red, Iconic Silver and maybe a few others) but I love the look of AMB and I just don't like the way that the MIC contrasts with it. For what it's worth, I did actually get to see the AMB black diamond that was floating around the northeast dealers a few weeks ago and I do think that in person the MIC with the AMB does look better than it seems to in the pictures, so maybe I"ll just suck it up.

Then again, maybe i'll just stumble on an AMB OBX buyer on here that hates the color match parts and wants to switch...I suppose one never knows.

 

[VelocityBrew]

I have been led to believe that all fenders (sansquatch) are the same width.

 

[stm378]

I went with the OBX 4 door because I could get the High Package and the 4.27 gear ratio so at a later point when I put larger tires and a lift on I would be set. They way I justified it is I was getting everything that I wouldn’t be able to get aftermarket, like the 12” monitor and the 360 camera setup, also not sky rocketing the cost for me. I figured that there are going to be a tremendous amount of aftermarket parts that I can install later. The few things that didn’t matter to me were the painted fender flares, tube steps, painted handles, and painted mirrors. I saw a post that had the stock flares with Sasquatch and I thought it looked decent, just wish I could have seen it with the painted ones. Oh and the wheels on the OBX are not a bigger seller for people, to be honest I don’t like them but figure maybe they would look better with different tires. Anyway, that is what I did, my advice would be to go with the option that has more of the options that you want or can’t live without.

I think that's good advice....my pro's cons list has gotten out of control! I could give or take the wheels on the OBX, the stock wheels on the BL seem relatively similar to me and I'm not sure I can justify $1,000 extra for the upgraded BL wheels. FWIW, I saw a video on here at some point of the OBX wheels going down the road and they looked really cool.

Would the larger tires be an issue with gearing? I'd be happier with 33's on an OBX than the 32's it comes with but would be nervous that it wouldn't ride at the right RPM at highway speeds.

I forgot about the Tube steps, I'm not crazy about those either, I had steps on my previous SUV, which admittedly wasn't as high as this one is going to be and found myself never using them and occasionally banging my leg on them getting in.

 

[dcmdon]

I'm getting a badlands. I'm ok with the non color matched bits. But I want a nice leather interior. I'm pretty confident that Katzkins will have something out for the Bronco soon. I'm sure there is a market for MGV seat covers.

 

[bajabronco57]

I'm going with the badlands but I jumped back and forth between the BL and WT because of interior options. The BL is just very limited.

 

[jaruss01]

OP, you've brought up all the same concerns I went through. 33s on OBX, may not ride great, speedo is thrown off, they may be E Load rating and not ride well. Then on the BL, i dislike the spartan interior, the fact that the handles and mirrors clash with AMB. And personally, I think the OBX grille will look amazing with AMB. I eventually just came to my senses and decided to stop cutting corners (custom painting mirrors, or swapping tires) and just go to an OBX AMB sasquatch. We're certainly waiting long enough for it. Just rip off the band-aid and go for it

 

[stm378]

I don’t have any good comment on what to do, but man, this surprises me that people are vacillating between these two trims. To me, these are the two vehicles that are the least like each other of any in the Bronco lineup.

10 points for use of the word vacillating correctly in a sentence! That's one of those great words that whenever I read or hear it I wind up subconsciously increasing my opinion of the user's intelligence. (and just because it's impossible to read tone in text, I'm being serious here and not trying to be a smartass)

I think in my case, there are a couple of general reasons and a couple of more specific ones.

For general reasons I think it's because they're both sort of the gateway trims to the higher end option packages. My current car has all of the bells and whistles (at least that were available on it) from 2016 when it was made, and I know myself well enough to know that I would have a hard time going backwards on some of those "quirks and features".

For specific reasons...I think I like the overall look of the OBX matching paint body parts better because it reminds me more of my Uncle's old Bronco that I remember fondly riding with him in when I was a kid. Also and this is really, really specific, for the BL I was intially thinking oh that's kind of cool washout interior and then right after that I vacuumed out the dog hair that refused to come up from the carpet in my current ride and thought...ok maybe washout interior is cooler than I thought and then my buddy's daughter threw up in his wife's new car and then I thought...ok washout interior is WAAAAY more useful than I realized.

 

[stm378]

OP, you've brought up all the same concerns I went through. 33s on OBX, may not ride great, speedo is thrown off, they may be E Load rating and not ride well. Then on the BL, i dislike the spartan interior, the fact that the handles and mirrors clash with AMB. And personally, I think the OBX grille will look amazing with AMB. I eventually just came to my senses and decided to stop cutting corners (custom painting mirrors, or swapping tires) and just go to an OBX AMB sasquatch. We're certainly waiting long enough for it. Just rip off the band-aid and go for it

I like your gusto! I think in my case I've just got such a hard time with that $2,000 band-aid (I just built up both of them all other things being equal and it came up $57,510 for the BL and $59,460 for the Squatched OBX). Granted that's only a small percentage of the total vehicle price, but I feel like when I started this process I felt like I was going to be happy with the totally reasonably priced Big Bend and now here I am like $20,000 higher. Also, FWIW I think I've still got dreams that I'm going to actually use that wash out interior (I'm rational enough to know that I probably won't but, you only mid-life crisis once).

What are some of the differences between that BL MGV and OBX Leather interior? Is there more to it than just the BL MGV being kind of monotone and missing the power seats (and rear armrest cupholder, but don't get me started on that)?

 

[Broncodave]

10 points for use of the word vacillating correctly

I had to ask my wife if I was spelling it correctly.

 

[Old Guy]

I think you should look at it more as a use case decision. If you don't Rock Crawl, or want to do "extreme" four wheel driving, I would get the OBX. Opposite to maybe the majority here, I don't see the huge value in the Badlands, except for a small minority. I think for most its a bragging rights thing, than a need thing. Now there is nothing wrong with that, I have things for bragging rights also.

You can make them all look cool, as I think they all look cool. Put some more aggressive 32" tires on the OBX, and it looks rugged enough. If it will see more town, fire roads or beach, I would go OBX.

 

[Bronco4lyfe85]

I don’t have any good comment on what to do, but man, this surprises me that people are vacilating between these two trims. To me, these are the two vehicles that are the least like each other of any in the Bronco lineup.

Not really. Outer banks is the first vehicle to allow the addition of all the packages so it’s the cheapest “entry” when it comes to the fully loaded Broncos and it comes standard with the mid package. It’s direct comparison is a fully loaded Wildtrak but the Badlands is in the middle and offers all of that plus the very neutral and nice looking MGV. Many have struggled with this comparison, me and my wife included. We bought a Badlands that we don’t fully need because the Outer Banks had options or colors that we didn’t like at all.

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