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The day finally arrived for our family and our Race Red 7MT Badlands finally arrived from Dirt Mountain this past week. We picked her up in the old 96 (since I foolishly had sold my daily driver back in July when I got a build notice the first time). Took her out for some light wheeling yesterday, my wife commented "well, she ain't no princess" after we powered through some some moderate mud like it was nothing. I'll have to find some more challenging terrain.
Overall we are very impressed and we love it as our new family daily driver. For us, this 16 month journey was worth the wait but we know we were fortunate to have gotten it already.
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First impressions:
-For anyone who enjoys stick shift, I don't think you will be disappointed. It is peppy in first through third and when you get into boost it will put a smile on. I drove the v6 at the off rodeo; I still think they should offer the v6 (or bigger) with the 7 speed, but this will be great until that day comes. No Regrets whatsoever choosing the stick shift.
-Crawler gear is awesome. Be careful, you can launch yourself in 4L
-I had a cactus grey order-holder approach us unsolicited telling us she is changing her order to Race Red. Color really Pops in direct sun and I have yet to see another one in my color. I think there is enough black on the vehicle to make it work well.
-33" BFG A/T (AKA at the Off-Rodeo as "The Small Tires") on the Badlands are fantastic offroad, grippy and quiet on road. I've had these on my other trucks so I had no concerns. I think proportionally when you see in person the 33s look great.
-FYI the Ford spare tire covers do fit on stock Badlands tires but I doubt if you could go much bigger. Let me know if anyone wants pics or info
-MIC top 2.0 is nice. Front coming off is great for little kids to be in shade in the back while we have the open air. It is a little tricky to get in and out of the roof rails TBH. Kind of have to close the main latch and then shift it a bit towards back to get it out. The rooftop bag I recommend, slides right in the back and protects the panels.
-Got seat covers for under the kids' carseats. I think i would also recommend these because the MGV is so nice I'd hate to have the carseats damage them when you tighten them down
-Bike Rack; my dealer ordered both the Yakima and the Thule from the Bronco accessories catalog and said we could pick one since he didn't know which one would work to open the back gate with the rack on. Well, short answer is neither at the moment, even with the accessory hitch extension in the catalog; the tire on the back hits it before you can open the glass (even with rack folded down). We took the Thule rack home because we can use it on our 96 if we can't get it to work, but if anyone has any suggestions or has figured this out let me know. I am thinking about getting a longer hitch extension than the one in the catalog may work, I have to take some measurements. Overall this is kind of a fail IMO. I will post update when I mess with it some more.
-Feels smaller inside than my 96 but still very comfortable
-I ended up getting the high pkg as a last min impulse buy. All the tech is a little overwhelming sometimes TBH but I can see how most of it might be useful. It will take a while to get used to.
If anyone has any questions, let me know, but I want to thank my dealer for absolutely no BS and answering/putting up with all my questions for this long process. I also want to thank this community for all the info and pics to help make this journey a little easier. Been waiting 25 years for a new Bronco, and it was worth the wait!
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