Bronco vs Wrangler Research Study: conquest, defection, market share and customer profile comparison

[CJtoJLU]

That last bracket includes millionaires and the Bronco has a 7 point lead in that category; that's a lot of 50K to 75K people, not just 10x but could be a 100x. There are communities (plural) near me, but not mine, where the mean income is in the millions (5 to 10 million dollar homes and higher) and my dealer and another dealer 10 or so miles up the road and every other OC dealer, get a lot of those people coming in and paying big ADM to get their Bronco now.

While guys on the lower end are the ones that have to walk away, NOT because of ADM, but other reasons such as job loss or gas prices or bad credit, couldn't swing the loan, bit off more than they can chew, ordered a build above their ability to pay and etc...

Lot's of reasons, but someone else is paying a nice ADM and for options like window etching, with wheels and lifts greatly marked up and more.

So yea right now that income figure is higher.

again, not understanding what the graph shows.

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[Omarius]

The über rich only want the Bronco because it's the new thing. Once it's as ubiquitous as a V6 Mustang rental (which it inevitably will be), it will lose all luster, and they will go back to their G classes.

 

[trenttrizzy]

45, white, male, 6 digit income, purchased, have a suburban next to my bronco.

2 door bronco to me is just a play toy to replace my x3 buggy. I love my bronco. I love working on my bronco. It’s fun in the city, shit ton of top end on the Highway. But it’s a useless ass vehicle besides that. It’s just me and the dog so it works out perfect for weekend trips, she loves it with the roof off. Will be ordering a Turtleback expedition in the fall so we can start traveling.

I use to like jeeps as 2 doors and still do. Then they released the female version which is the 4 door jeep. Same with the bronco. If I see a 4 door around Detroit 9 out of 10 times it’s a woman driving it. Have not seen a woman driving a 2 door bronco yet.

“the female version”. lol weird to tie your masculinity to a vehicle but whatever helps you feel like a big strong man i guess.

 

[Arrowbear Rider]

again, not understanding what the graph shows.

again?? that was my first response. What are you talking about? What exactly am I missing?

• Bronco buyers have marginally higher incomes than Wrangler customers

It doesn't say the average buyer, it's a total number and the graph shows a higher amount in the last category, the "higher bell curve" of the 50k to 75k that your referring to for Jeep, but it's that last group on the graph that skews it back to the Bronco.

It only takes one person with a $500 million income to wipe out 10,000 average joe's with 50K. And with the Bronco being a hot commodity that's happened at the auctions already. The first one for charity and etc.

Some really rich people have bought one... Or two.

 

[Omarius]

again?? that was my first response. What are you talking about? What exactly am I missing?

• Bronco buyers have marginally higher incomes than Wrangler customers

It doesn't say the average buyer, it's a total number and the graph shows a higher amount in the last category, the "higher bell curve" of the 50k to 75k that your referring to for Jeep, but it's that last group on the graph that skews it back to the Bronco.

It only takes one person with a $500 million income to wipe out 10,000 average joe's with 50K. And with the Bronco being a hot commodity that's happened at the auctions already. The first one for charity and etc.

Some really rich people have bought one... Or two.

No.

• Bronco buyers have marginally higher incomes than Wrangler customers

i.e. the Gaussian distribution is very relevant here.


Just a though experiment:

Which is the more useful statistic for Ford, or other stakeholders? The net combined yearly income of all bronco owners, or the average income of a bronco owner? You're currently asserting the former, and quite frankly, I can't really think of a more comically ridiculous metric.

 

[Ground_zero298]

“the female version”. lol weird to tie your masculinity to a vehicle but whatever helps you feel like a big strong man i guess.

I’m gonna guess you owned a 4 door jeep or “the female version”. It’s cool man. It’s 2022.

 

[pfd799]

This actually surprises me.

I figured Bronco buyers would skew older, as they were most likely to have Broncos in the garage back in the 70s/80s/90s, and old people typically have higher incomes.

The rest of them are fairly common sense imo.

A lot of us millennials had parents who drove 4th/5th gen broncos, then as we got our licenses in the late 90s and 00s those same Broncos were cool and pretty affordable used vehicles which made good first cars. Plus now most of us are in our 30s and even early 40s so we’ve got some expendable income now.

 

[indio22]

All I know is after taking delivery of my Bronco, I can’t believe how many Jeep Wranglers I now notice. They were pretty much invisible before, but now I constantly am amazed at the number of Wranglers in every version I see. I am amazed Ford, and GM have not been involved in this sector of the vehicle market.

This. It's amazing the other manufacturers had seceded the open top 4x4 category to Jeep for so long.

Still now we only have two old school type rugged open-top 4x4s (Bronco and Wrangler). I wonder eventually if any other manufacturers will get involved. Was hoping Land Rover would have re-entered, but the new Defender went fixed top.

 

[Arrowbear Rider]

Which is the more useful statistic for Ford, or other stakeholders? The net combined yearly income of all bronco owners, or the average income of a bronco owner? You're currently asserting the former, and quite frankly, I can't really think of a more comically ridiculous metric.

I'm not arguing which is better or worse, I'm simply refuting that the graph in it's entirety would be skewed that much by the two categories, the $50k to $100k mentioned, compared to the last category, above $250k, two categories if including above $200k.


Saying "that's not what the graph represents" is incorrect.

BUT, it is also correct that one can extract the data a company wants for various purposes. You want to know what number of "average joe's" in category $50k to $100K only that are buying your vehicle, then those are the two you would look at, and the statement made regarding Jeep buyers is correct.

If you want extract that lower income people with less down payment lease more Jeeps than Broncos you can thru multiple data points get that info. But to simply say the graph in it's entirety shows the top two categories out weight the middle of the bell curve is correct, and to simply say that's not what the graph represents just because a 2 point lead in the bell curve is simply not correct.

You can extract correct date from various date points to answer different questions. That doesn't change what the initial statement of the report is referring to; so for that statement the report represents.

My TQM professor (a prior Dr. Deming student & associate) preached you can skew the data in various ways depending on what question you are answering, the goal is to ask the right questions to extract the correct data needed.

You want to build a high end performance car (GT500) or truck and how many you can build and at what price or how high you can push prices on upper end models you look at the cats at the end on the graph. Want to know how many "average joe's" (AJ) buy your units you look at those two categories.

But then you can make adjustments for other variables, i.e. ADMs which may kick a few percentage points of "AJs" out of the Bronco market until demand comes down and they can walk in and buy right off the lot. Or, people at small dealerships that can't get their ordered filled due to allotments that gave up and then go over buy a Jeep moves the needle in that direction.

You have to know the right questions and the variables before you can make decisions on what changes are needed to close that gap.

The information is only as accurate as the questions are valid. The fact that an AJ can't walk in and buy at MSRP hurts the amount of buyers in those two cats; lots of different data there... If your asking the right questions.

 

[RBF 1401]

No, that is not how market research firms operate. It is also not how market research works. Given the company who performed the research is an oft-used company in automotive, the company will have a base with which they compare to adjust survey responses based upon key filters. The insights are then derived from the weighted survey responses.

For example, in consumer product good research companies (e.g., stuff you buy at the Grocery store), new product survey responses are adjusted based upon demographic as Hispanics often respond more favorably than all other racial identifiers. So, a score of 4.56 out of 5.00 may hold a different weight dependent upon demographic in my example.

Now, a more accurate thing to say would be that measurement of consumer behavior passively would have been more accurate than survey response. But, not all industries have easily accessible consumer behavior data so surveys still serve a wider purpose.

Full disclosure, if not evident: I work for a large CPG manufacturer as the global director of consumer and market insights, a.k.a., market research.

Any data can be skewed. Plus data can be presented to compare items that aren't exactly comparable.

Take the Ford in the garage data. How many different vehicles are available from Ford? Does Jeep make a Van? A sports car? Work trucks?

But the biggest flaw in the presentation of the data is in the case of comparing sales of Wranglers and Broncos at all. No data will be completely accurate until the backlog of Bronco reservations and orders have been cleared. Once that happens, you can look at if people continue to buy them and surpass Jeep sales, or if once the backlog is cleared, everyone who wanted a Bronco has one, and sales drop below Jeep.

Plus, MANY future Bronco buyers have bought an interim Jeep. And the age demographics may not be accurate if you take into account that the biggest backlog is for 2-door Broncos. It may be possible that many of the older nostalgic buyers are waiting for 2-doors.

The easiest Bronco to get your hands on was a lower trim level 4-door. And who needs the 4-doors the most? Young couples with kids who are in carseats.

 

[Whinney 2112]

Okay, admit it. Who planned on buying a Nissan Rogue but got a Bronco instead? This is a safe place.

OK... technically I fit this comment... If Nissan hadn't discontinued the Juke... that is what I would have gotten. The Kicks they replaced it with looks like every other boring SUV and no MT... Deal Breaker!!
Saw an ad for the Bronco... it checked all the boxes with the added bonus of taking the top off... reserved and never looked back!

 

[Pressurized]

A quick review of the "Key Takeaways" and I find that only a few of them align with me... Other than the Western European part, which is accurate. I am older... I am higher income. While I do have a pickup in the garage, I do not have any other Fords and I do have multiple Jeeps.

I find the data interesting though.

 

[RagnarKon]

Ignore the 'ratings' of the vehicles in this list. Just look at what comprises the 'Compact Utility Segment'.

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/rankings/compact-suvs

Two of these are not like the others.
Seriously, the Wrangler is in the same catagory as a CR-V and a Tuscon? A Ford Escape? Hell, they have the Bronco Sport and the full on Bronco in the same category!
It -and in many ways, the Bronco as well - is purpose built to prioritize off road capability. They really - along with the 4Runner and a very few others- deserve a segment to themselve's.

Figures don't lie, but liars figure....

Yeah traditionally these market segments are based off of the starting configuration of the vehicle… which for the Bronco and Wrangler would be the 2-Door configuration. So the argument I suppose is that the 2-door Bronco and Wrangler are compact SUVs. I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think it should be based off of the most popular configuration, which would obviously be 4-door, and it’s pretty clear in my mind that the 4-door is a mid-sized SUV.

I don’t know why we don’t just follow the European model and have distinct vehicle segments… but for whatever reason we don’t and here in America we have a bunch of categories that haven’t really evolved to make sense in the era of modern crossover vehicles.

 

[Shane78]

Curious on the age thing. I wish there was quantitative data on actual age for bronco buyers to this point, form Ford or something. From my viewpoint in my area, I’d say probably 95% of the Broncos I’ve seen are driven by middle aged guys, or girls in their 30s. I’m a guy in his late 20s and feel like I’m an outlier, but I’d be curious as a whole.

 

[Arrowbear Rider]

Your making way more speculation about the middle of the bell curve than I am regarding income of upper end buyers, this is one year's production, so where do you get,

That last “uncapped” category might only have a few hundred to a few thousand total people in it, while each of the other categories under the bell curve may have 100,000+

There was only about 50k Broncos produced? Again, there are way more on that upper end if the firm is saying there is, they're the ones adding it up and putting out the report; you're making assumptions... 100,000 plus in ONE year each bought both the Bronco AND the Jeep, during the supply shortage? You can't compare years the Bronco wasn't made and Ford hasn't even made much over 100,000 for two model years.

You're already greatly skewing those numbers with that assumption. I'm just going by what the firm that did the research says; but your right and their wrong!

Take your biases and agenda (a Jeep owner that recently joined 6 months ago, who can't decide which Bronco to buy?) out of the equation and read the report, don't speculate. As a flooring auditor, I've talked to insiders and I audits the dealerships for the banks and I'm not into speculation.

At my local dealer abandon orders and dealers stock units account for over 25% percent of sales, most abandon by people who ordered more than they could buy and are all being sold locally for great ADMs to a lot of very wealthy people. I see the sales files when I audit! I see the CASH deals for $76k and more!

Believe me, there are a lot of reservation holders that ordered BL, WT mostly loaded or BD & OB completely loaded units that can't afford them when it comes time to buy; so the dealer gladly sells those to the highest bidder. And that wait list goes in order of how much they are willing to spend, not when they got on it.

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