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Got to scoot up to Capital Ford in Raleigh today to get some seat time behind the wheel of a 4dr Cyber Orange Badlands with the 2.3/7MT. First time seeing a Bronco in person and obviously my first time behind the wheel. This particular one had the leather interior, soft top and the Lux package. First off, the 12” screen is *huge*. Holy crap! Looks perfect in the Bronco though.
Seats are comfy, I didn’t even adjust the seat before I started the test drive. Was too excited! Guess the previous driver was around 5’10 or so.
Backing out of the parking spot I used very little throttle, maybe 1000-1200RPMs. Clutch engages fully when the pedal is almost all the way out. Took me about 20 seconds to get used to that and I haven’t driven a manual in ~8 years. Got up to 4th gear heading to the highway and the shifts are short and crisp. Perfect throw length IMO. We ended up on I-540 for a few and I got to get the Bronco up to 75mph. Soft top noise was unremarkable; you can hear some wind noise but it isn’t bad at all. No noticeable tire noise to report although BFG ATs are pretty quiet. Did not get to play with the adaptive cruise or lane keep assist or any of that driver assist stuff.
Payed attention to the RPMs in 6th gear and they were roughly ~1900 @ 60mph, ~2200@ 70 and ~2300 @ 75. Not high revving at all with the 4.70 rear end.
On the way back we took a service road and I got to get it into 4-Low to try out the Crawler gear & off-road cameras. I was on the fence about High/Lux and this might have pushed me over the edge...that camera tech is sweet. We were doing about 1mph @ idle in 4-Low/Crawler gear.
Finished up the test drive and regretted that I didn’t even try out the stereo. I was too busy checking out the rest of the stuff on the vehicle. Whoops.
Some thoughts: Badlands ride was smooth but firm. Hit some speedbumps at ~10mph and suspension soaked it up easily, no dash rattles or cabin creaking. Soft touches on the doors were nice. Seats were comfy, great visibility.
Power was adequate although I wouldn’t call the 2.3/7MT fast by any stretch. To get the most out of this engine around town you really need to be in the powerband which is mainly from 2500-5K RPMs. I didn’t wind it all the way to 6K because it only had ~200 miles on it but don’t try to short shift this thing and expect good acceleration. Let it rev to 3-4K and then shift. Slight turbo lag when I floored it after shifting into 3rd merging on the I-540 on-ramp, maybe a second or so. But once the boost built it pulled well.
Shifts were smooth for the most part, slight notchiness going into 3rd and 4th but that’s probably more due to the fact that I only had a whopping 15 minutes in the thing and haven’t driven a manual in forever.
Didn’t come close to stalling it out, and had the clutch basically all the way out before I added any throttle leaving stoplights. No issues there.
I will say I hope Ford goes to 4.88s with the 7MT/Sasquatch package next year. I don’t personally want 4.70s and 35s with this powertrain combo. I think it would be undergeared. 4.70s and 33s were a good match, but I don’t recommend 35s and definitely don’t recommend 37s with the stock 4.70s. The 2.7/7MT (wishful thinking) would be awesome.
I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, didn’t even crawl underneath but all in all I was very pleased with my test drive today. I wish I would have tested the B&O stereo but oh well. Might give me an excuse to do another test drive soon! This test drive definitely sealed the deal for me going with the manual. Way more engaging drive experience, I can only imagine how much fun it will be rowing through the gears with the top and doors off. I’m glad I 99’d my order so I can hold out for ManSquatch (please put 4.88s in the ManSquatch Ford!)
Seats are comfy, I didn’t even adjust the seat before I started the test drive. Was too excited! Guess the previous driver was around 5’10 or so.
Backing out of the parking spot I used very little throttle, maybe 1000-1200RPMs. Clutch engages fully when the pedal is almost all the way out. Took me about 20 seconds to get used to that and I haven’t driven a manual in ~8 years. Got up to 4th gear heading to the highway and the shifts are short and crisp. Perfect throw length IMO. We ended up on I-540 for a few and I got to get the Bronco up to 75mph. Soft top noise was unremarkable; you can hear some wind noise but it isn’t bad at all. No noticeable tire noise to report although BFG ATs are pretty quiet. Did not get to play with the adaptive cruise or lane keep assist or any of that driver assist stuff.
Payed attention to the RPMs in 6th gear and they were roughly ~1900 @ 60mph, ~2200@ 70 and ~2300 @ 75. Not high revving at all with the 4.70 rear end.
On the way back we took a service road and I got to get it into 4-Low to try out the Crawler gear & off-road cameras. I was on the fence about High/Lux and this might have pushed me over the edge...that camera tech is sweet. We were doing about 1mph @ idle in 4-Low/Crawler gear.
Finished up the test drive and regretted that I didn’t even try out the stereo. I was too busy checking out the rest of the stuff on the vehicle. Whoops.
Some thoughts: Badlands ride was smooth but firm. Hit some speedbumps at ~10mph and suspension soaked it up easily, no dash rattles or cabin creaking. Soft touches on the doors were nice. Seats were comfy, great visibility.
Power was adequate although I wouldn’t call the 2.3/7MT fast by any stretch. To get the most out of this engine around town you really need to be in the powerband which is mainly from 2500-5K RPMs. I didn’t wind it all the way to 6K because it only had ~200 miles on it but don’t try to short shift this thing and expect good acceleration. Let it rev to 3-4K and then shift. Slight turbo lag when I floored it after shifting into 3rd merging on the I-540 on-ramp, maybe a second or so. But once the boost built it pulled well.
Shifts were smooth for the most part, slight notchiness going into 3rd and 4th but that’s probably more due to the fact that I only had a whopping 15 minutes in the thing and haven’t driven a manual in forever.
Didn’t come close to stalling it out, and had the clutch basically all the way out before I added any throttle leaving stoplights. No issues there.
I will say I hope Ford goes to 4.88s with the 7MT/Sasquatch package next year. I don’t personally want 4.70s and 35s with this powertrain combo. I think it would be undergeared. 4.70s and 33s were a good match, but I don’t recommend 35s and definitely don’t recommend 37s with the stock 4.70s. The 2.7/7MT (wishful thinking) would be awesome.
I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, didn’t even crawl underneath but all in all I was very pleased with my test drive today. I wish I would have tested the B&O stereo but oh well. Might give me an excuse to do another test drive soon! This test drive definitely sealed the deal for me going with the manual. Way more engaging drive experience, I can only imagine how much fun it will be rowing through the gears with the top and doors off. I’m glad I 99’d my order so I can hold out for ManSquatch (please put 4.88s in the ManSquatch Ford!)
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