Sponsored

Some Pics/Observations from Detroit Dealer Event

Used2jeep

Banned
Black Diamond
Banned
Banned
First Name
Dave
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
46
Messages
6,191
Reaction score
12,813
Location
Massachuvian
Vehicle(s)
2007 Crown Vic P71
Your Bronco Model
Black Diamond
Clubs
 
Quite frankly I didn't expect to get much information out of this, but I was pleasantly surprised. As a full disclaimer I am a picky SOB and notice a lot of things others never would. Like every time you meet a hero, there is some good, some bad. That's just reality, so keep that in mind. Also this is a pre-production unit of course, built in January, so some of these things can be fixed.

The Good:

1. The Roast interior is gorgeous. Almost makes me want to switch to an OBX. Everything is far more subtle in person than in pictures I've seen. I don't know if they made changes, or previous pictures were not accurate, but the seats and dash are much darker than what I assumed. The VB accents are hardy noticable and did not bother me one bit. To the contrary I actually like them quite a bit. One of the main reasons I bailed on my original OBX build was the accents not matching my preferred color, but it wouldn't bother me at all now having seen it in person.

2. The OBX looks quite substantial. The tires and painted flares are still an abomination, but this does not look like a Ford flex. Even the OBX would make a 4runner look like a mall crawler in comparison. It looks much larger than a Wrangler and has way more presence.

3. The seats themselves are mostly leather, not a MGV leather mix. The seatbacks and armrest felt like a thinner material, and maybe faux leather, but are not MGV. The door soft points and center console are MGV. Why they are describing them likr that I have no clue.

4. Interior space is generally tight, but very comfortable and I had zero issues finding a good seating position or sitting behind myself (I'm 5'11 for reference). I spread my knees out as wide as I could and they did not touch any part of the console or doors. Ford clearly squeezed every last inch out of this though, so like I said it's tight, but my friend who is 6'6 found a comfortable seating position. The back seats were tight with him in the driver's seat, but a woman who was 5'4 sat behind him with no issues, but I will say it may have been an issue with the molle grid on the MGV interiors though. It seems "cozy" not like a similar sized crossover, but Ford has done a great job of making what space it has work.

5. The pinch weld between the floor pan and rocker panels looks much better on this one. I was thinking I would need the rock rails just to cover it, but it looks fine to me. Still a bit "industrial" but it is clean looking and finished with a thick textured paint.

6. The interior is for the most part of very good quality. I have a 2019 F-150, and my biggest disappointment with it is the very cheap, flimsy, and poorly fit plastics. The plastics are mostly hard, but are generally thicker and of good quality. The one major exception is the lower trim around the 12in screen. You could easily push down on it (see pic) and the cut quality was poor. The vents, and most of the touch points were shocking good quality. Far superior to my F-150 and very Toyota like. The steering wheel and leather are were soft and good quality as well. Perhaps too soft, I might be worried about the long term durability, but it felt nice. There were panel gaps that could have been better, but overall this is much better than what I expected from a Ford interior.

The Bad/Meh...

1. I've had a few heated steering wheels in my day, some great, some useless. This one is somewhere in between. Only the upper part of the wheel got hot(10,2 and everything in between), and it was "warm" at best. I'd take it it, but if you are moving up to Lux for it I think you'll be disappointed.

2. There is way less aluminum on this truck than I expected. The hinged surfaces and front fenders are the only aluminum parts. Everything else is steel. Living in Michigan and battling rust on every vehicle I've had for more than 3 years, this is a disappointment. I was hoping to keep this for 10+ years, but 10 michigan winters will do some damage to this truck. I'm sure you southern folks could care less.

3. It's hard to see with the black paint, but the front bumper was as crooked as a summer day is long. One of the tow hooks was also misaligned. Looked like it was in an accident. Hopefully just a pre production issue.

4. The frontal offset collision tusk looks pretty bad with the mod. bumper. Why they didn't make it cover the tusk, especially when that part is removable, is beyond me.

5. The gauge cluster, while very cool looking and with lots of info, was very laggy and frustrating to use. I really hope this is a pre-production issue. It would be very annoying to live with that on a daily basis.

6. The 12 in screen looks great and sync 4 is a huge improvement over 3, but it definitely looks like a TV on your dash. Some people will love it, some will hate it. I don't know myself, I tried to imagine myself driving it and it was always in my peripheral vision and kind of distracting. I think I might get used to it tough. There is also a calm setting that just displays the time. It's white in the daytime, black at night, so that may help.

7. I thought I had heard Husky was making the floor mats, but that is definitely not the case. They are more of a hard weather tech type material, and the rear is in 3 pieces. They do look cool with the Bronco logo, but I had my dealer take them off my order and will go with huskies.

8. The wiring for the rear camera and CHMSL looked sketchy as hell. Again I hope this is a pre-production issue. If not I can see corrosion being a problem.

9. I was hoping they would have the autohold feature like on the F-150. It's the only good thing about an E parking brake, but I couldn't find it in the settings anywhere.

10. The brake rotors look small, much smaller than my F-150. I've seen sas driving around before and the rotors looked larger than what I saw on the OBX, but that could be an illusion because of the wheel size on OBX.

Other thoughts

1. During their presentation the guy said the lift on sas. was 3 inches not 10mm as we have heard. After the event I was the last one there and asked the guy if he was sure. He showed me the binder with all their talking points and it indeed said 3 inch lift. I asked to take a picture of it, but he declined. His presentation was filmed by a woman from BN, so hopefully they will post that up. Overall I still question that. It doesn't look like 3 inches to me, but also it doesn't look like 10mm, so I have no clue.

2.The rear door they were doing their removable demonstration on was badly chipped from banging it into the hinge while taking it off. I would look into some sort of door edge guards.

3.Payload was almost 1200 lbs on this OBX Lux with the 2.7 and HD bumper. Not bad IMHO.

4. Like I've experienced on the Tacoma the running boards were so high they only made it more difficult to get into the truck. My head felt like it was 3ft above the roof, And I had to crouch to get down. Unless you are very short I would pass.

5. High level IP? Not a damn clue. I got to check out a much earlier base two door in person months ago (admittedly a bit of a franken bronco). I looked it up and down and couldn't find anything different.

20210320_140431.jpg


20210320_140539.jpg


20210320_142955.jpg


20210320_143432.jpg


20210320_143509.jpg


20210320_143730.jpg


20210320_144837.jpg


20210320_144956.jpg


20210320_145020.jpg


20210320_145458.jpg


20210320_145538.jpg


20210320_145736.jpg


20210320_150010.jpg


20210320_145649.jpg


20210320_140638.jpg


20210320_145941.jpg
I'm a pessimist and took your "overall" vibe as "meh". Is that accurate?
Sponsored

 
OP
OP
Rayder

Rayder

Big Bend
Well-Known Member
First Name
David
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
2
Messages
435
Reaction score
1,409
Location
Brighton,MI
Vehicle(s)
F-150
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
I'm a pessimist and took your "overall" vibe as "meh". Is that accurate?
Not really. It's not perfect. Nothing is though and it's just a bit of a reality check vs what I built up in my head. Overall it's a fantastic vehicle.
 

Razorbak86

Badlands
Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2020
Threads
41
Messages
3,201
Reaction score
12,116
Location
Northwest Arkansas
Vehicle(s)
Ford Bronco, BMW R1150 GS
Your Bronco Model
Badlands
Clubs
 
3. The seats themselves are mostly leather, not a MGV leather mix. The seatbacks and armrest felt like a thinner material, and maybe faux leather, but are not MGV. The door soft points and center console are MGV. Why they are describing them likr that I have no clue.

... it may have been an issue with the molle grid on the MGV interiors though.
Outer Banks trim does not have a Marine Grade Vinyl (MGV) option available for the interior.
 

Used2jeep

Banned
Black Diamond
Banned
Banned
First Name
Dave
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
46
Messages
6,191
Reaction score
12,813
Location
Massachuvian
Vehicle(s)
2007 Crown Vic P71
Your Bronco Model
Black Diamond
Clubs
 
Not really. It's not perfect. Nothing is though and it's just a bit of a reality check vs what I built up in my head. Overall it's a fantastic vehicle.
Thanks for the input and especially putting your height (same ballpark as me). You mentioned that when you did the knee spread thing that you didn't touch any parts of doo/console but it generally felt "tight". Were you able to reach across to the other door? If you didn't try - I get it. But did it seem like you could or couldn't?
 
OP
OP
Rayder

Rayder

Big Bend
Well-Known Member
First Name
David
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
2
Messages
435
Reaction score
1,409
Location
Brighton,MI
Vehicle(s)
F-150
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
The High level IP is the upgraded top of the dash. Lower models get a smooth/light textured top and upper trims gets a higher textured top.
Both the 'Base" I saw and this one had the same texture and were as hard as a priest at an boy scout meeting. The only difference I noticed was the Anodized color, the USB and the BO speakers. Again though that one was a franken bronco.
 

Sponsored
OP
OP
Rayder

Rayder

Big Bend
Well-Known Member
First Name
David
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
2
Messages
435
Reaction score
1,409
Location
Brighton,MI
Vehicle(s)
F-150
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
Thanks for the input and especially putting your height (same ballpark as me). You mentioned that when you did the knee spread thing that you didn't touch any parts of doo/console but it generally felt "tight". Were you able to reach across to the other door? If you didn't try - I get it. But did it seem like you could or couldn't?
I did, If I stretched over the console, but not while seated normally. If I was buckled I probably couldn't.
 

Toccoa

Big Bend
Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2020
Threads
82
Messages
6,002
Reaction score
30,401
Location
USA
Vehicle(s)
Isuzu Rodeo Sport
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
Both the 'Base" I saw and this one had the same texture and were as hard as a priest at an boy scout meeting. The only difference I noticed was the Anodized color, the USB and the BO speakers. Again though that one was a franken bronco.
Interesting. I remember an old thread about it, but it looks like the Search is not working like it used to. They may have changed the dash to all be the same (which makes sense from a production standpoint), so what you saw could be correct. If we see “High level IP” disappear from their website, we’ll know for sure. Thanks for the honest write up!
 

Beach_Bum

Black Diamond
Well-Known Member
First Name
Ken
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Threads
28
Messages
6,143
Reaction score
19,264
Location
St. Augustine, FL
Vehicle(s)
2022 Black Diamond Bronco, 2023 Outerbanks Bronco
Your Bronco Model
Black Diamond
Clubs
 
I was in there so long it shut off on the max idle too, which was set at 30 minutes. It was idling for probably 40 minutes while I was there and I assume most of the day. I should have checked the engine idle hours I believe I saw that as an option on the display.
Curious was the heater on? The outside temp reads 24 degrees and the temperature setting on the heat was 77 degrees. The roof was open, but did they have the heat pumping?
 
OP
OP
Rayder

Rayder

Big Bend
Well-Known Member
First Name
David
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
2
Messages
435
Reaction score
1,409
Location
Brighton,MI
Vehicle(s)
F-150
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
Interesting. I remember an old thread about it, but it looks like the Search is not working like it used to. They may have changed the dash to all be the same (which makes sense from a production standpoint), so what you saw could be correct. If we see “High level IP” disappear from their website, we’ll know for sure. Thanks for the honest write up!
I work for Yazaki NA, and while I have no specific info on this relative to the Bronco, many early prototype interiors are made of a thin, smooth, vacuum formed plastic for rapide prototyping. Perhaps that would account for the appearance.
 
OP
OP
Rayder

Rayder

Big Bend
Well-Known Member
First Name
David
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
2
Messages
435
Reaction score
1,409
Location
Brighton,MI
Vehicle(s)
F-150
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
Curious was the heater on? The outside temp reads 24 degrees and the temperature setting on the heat was 77 degrees. The roof was open, but did they have the heat pumping?
It was almost 60 degrees, so that's quite odd actually
 
Last edited:

Sponsored

NC.BigBronco

Big Bend
Member
First Name
Collin
Joined
Feb 16, 2021
Threads
4
Messages
21
Reaction score
22
Location
Wilson NC
Vehicle(s)
2020 Honda Accord 2.0T
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
With your statements about the OBX being substantial do you feel Sasquatch models will be overkill?
 

MaXberN

Badlands
Well-Known Member
First Name
Eric
Joined
Aug 31, 2020
Threads
1
Messages
70
Reaction score
144
Location
Billings, MT
Vehicle(s)
Chrysler Pacifica / Mazda 3
Your Bronco Model
Badlands
Clubs
 
OP
OP
Rayder

Rayder

Big Bend
Well-Known Member
First Name
David
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Threads
2
Messages
435
Reaction score
1,409
Location
Brighton,MI
Vehicle(s)
F-150
Your Bronco Model
Big Bend
With your statements about the OBX being substantial do you feel Sasquatch models will be overkill?
Of course, but that's half the fun. From pictures I was expecting OBX to look like a big Bronco Sport or a Ford Flex or something. However the height of it and stance reminds me more of a Rubicon.
 

Mattwings

Badlands
Well-Known Member
First Name
Matthew
Joined
Jul 29, 2020
Threads
43
Messages
2,692
Reaction score
8,385
Location
Northville, MI
Vehicle(s)
2021 Badlands Bronco
Your Bronco Model
Badlands
Clubs
 
Overall yes. Not the perfect vehicle if I was in charge of development, but it's as close as anything out there. I've considered a Wrangler before, and my father in law and step father both have them, but they were always to much of a compromise to me. This is significant y less so, even if the driving experience is the same.
Just wait, it’s not the same 👍🏽 The IFS is light years ahead of the SFA Jeep and the ride quality is too. Great write up and thanks for your insights! I have been pumped from the beginning, being a life long Ford fan boy and multiple Bronco owner. It’s definitely not perfect, but probably one of the last of its breed in terms of piston powered, completely superfluous fun machines. And it will still serve as reliable and well mannered daily transportation.
Sponsored

 
 


Top