TFL: 2021 Bronco vs Wrangler vs Defender - Off-Road Trail Comparison Video

[ReimundKrohn]

TFL has posted their comparison video showing what I think is the first real world comparison of the Bronco, Wrangler, and Defender on a challenging trail.

No surprise the Defender failed to Defend itself against a rock. I think this is Defender #4 for team TFL. It really is a beautiful vehicle we WANT to like it, but LandRover made way too many concessions to the mall crawling crowd for this entry to genuinely be considered an off-roader rather than the pavement Princess it is.

Sponsored

 

[mds5917]

Had a guy tell me he was getting 1700 miles per tank of gas in his 4xe...

Funny (but could be true in a very unique use case). As I've stated elsewhere, my wife's RAV4 Prime gets about 40miles on electric only. That is her daily commute miles. If she diverts to a store, or for some reason to drive longer than her 40 mile electric range, she then uses gas, but otherwise is virtually always electric. Over one stretch of 1440 miles she only use 4.5 gallons of gas. So, if he has a commute within or near the electric range, this could be possible. But useless, as you have already surmised, in real-world long trip driving...

 

[JTBros]

It seems like a lot of people on here are missing the whole point of the 4XE Wrangler. Yes it won’t get the best range off road, no one ever thought it would. But when I was commuting it would be a perfect vehicle for me. Drove less than a few miles to the train station, parked all day, then drove home. On weekends could take it wheeling or on ski trips and would basically use less than half my battery in my commute throughout the week. For those commuting to offices that have mildly longer commutes, often times offices are installing chargers there now so you can plug it in there and then have battery to go home. The only real detriment to these is apartments where you don’t have access to 240v plugs or EV chargers but plenty of the new buildings around me are incorporating them.

As far as repair costs go, EVs are super important to be allowed to have right to repair. A lot of the time it’s just a few cells that went bad and not the whole pack. Yank it out & pull out the bad ones and replace just those. Unless you’re really adamant about never driving a hybrid, have no easy access to chargers, or have super long commutes, these are a great option IMO.

 

[Al Cowlings]

It seems like a lot of people on here are missing the whole point of the 4XE Wrangler. Yes it won’t get the best range off road, no one ever thought it would. But when I was commuting it would be a perfect vehicle for me.

The problem is the extra 800 lbs you're carrying around when you're not using the electric power. I agree it makes some sense for commuting. But for long wilderness trips, the battery is a very heavy anchor.

 

[1st4rd]

2. Ford screwed up by claiming it had more articulation , if not just lied. Even in that one shot where you can clearly see that jeep has them beat , you can tell the jeep is planted to the ground and truely "crawling" along even with smaller tires. Where as the bronco is often on 3 wheels.

To be fair- Ford says max articulation is with the Badlands- non-squatch. On all Squatch trims they limit travel because of the 35s. Jeep may still win the comparison with a Badlands, but we have never seen a head to head.

 

[Razorback]

The problem is the extra 800 lbs you're carrying around when you're not using the electric power. I agree it makes some sense for commuting. But for long wilderness trips, the battery is a very heavy anchor.

Sounds like they wouldn't need to worry about clearance...they could just crush the rocks with their weight. Just kidding.

 

[ReimundKrohn]

I really don’t get the hate @TFLtruck gets on here, I’ve watched them on and off over the years and yeah, they make mistakes. But every reviewer does to some extent. But I’ve literally never had cause to say they’re biased because by and large they do some of the most comprehensive testing of vehicles out there and they specifically have segments where one will argue pros and the other will argue cons.
People need to chill with their hate. Like seriously who else has bought a brand new bronco and immediately taken it out for torture testing? I haven’t seen it. The Canadians guys did some but it was piece of cake stuff.

Why the hate? Because for the Ford-fanboys, anything less than a stellar, smack-down the competition, review of the Bronco vs ANY contender (Jeep, LandRover, Chevy… hell, even McDonnell Douglas) is just “sacrilegious”. One should not “review” the Ford Bronco as much as one should worship it, goes the thinking of that crowd…. And we have a number of folks here like that.

 

[MDbeachguy]

To be fair- Ford says max articulation is with the Badlands- non-squatch. On all Squatch trims they limit travel because of the 35s. Jeep may still win the comparison with a Badlands, but we have never seen a head to head.

I still think its just fiction

if you look at the video there is like a 6-10 inch difference in articulation

 

[_jeff]

Very helpful video from the fine folks at TFL, and informative analysis provided by the great members of B6G.

I think the 17% comment is more "lawyer-approved marketing" than anything. That being said, the side by side isn't (as was pointed out already) a truly equal comparison although I think watching the video clearly shows SFA has a larger arc, duh. The video also shows that larger arc wasn't a differentiating factor in navigating the obstacle, lockers FTW.

I'm just glad to see the Bronco finally on their appropriate channel, no more of this TFL Cars nonsense please.

 

[Deleted member 3063]

I wouldn’t get so excited about a Ford Hybrid. I owned an Escape Hybrid and never again. The Hybrid battery runs out of warranty at 10 years and costs way too much to replace (over 10k).
The thing nobody talks about is you can’t run the ICE without the Hybrid battery. It relies on the hybrid battery to start the ICE. So dead in the water if your hybrid battery fails.

Yep 10yr warranty. That's not an expiration date as there are plenty of early hybrids with well over 100K miles still getting the job done.
If you base life span on warranty I suppose any gas only car/truck is considered dead at 5yr/50K miles.
In either case would you use a new part or a rebuilt engine/battery? Currently an Escape rebuilt battery is $1800 from Dorman with a core replacement. 2yr warranty much like you would get with a rebuilt engine.

 

[JTBros]

The problem is the extra 800 lbs you're carrying around when you're not using the electric power. I agree it makes some sense for commuting. But for long wilderness trips, the battery is a very heavy anchor.

I definitely get that as well, it seems like the most ideal option for those people who are almost never going to take their car off road or do light off roading. They won't care about the added weight with trying to get over rocks, etc because beach cruising is most likely what it'll see at worst.

 

[L8apex]

Very helpful video from the fine folks at TFL, and informative analysis provided by the great members of B6G.

I think the 17% comment is more "lawyer-approved marketing" than anything. That being said, the side by side isn't (as was pointed out already) a truly equal comparison although I think watching the video clearly shows SFA has a larger arc, duh. The video also shows that larger arc wasn't a differentiating factor in navigating the obstacle, lockers FTW.

I'm just glad to see the Bronco finally on their appropriate channel, no more of this TFL Cars nonsense please.

Let's make it very clear - the 17% was more wheel travel for B.I.C. (1). Wheel travel doesn't equal articulation.

A better measure of articulation is RTI. Ford rates the 2dr/4dr at 700/620 with the Badlands. Jeep doesn't release their RTI but another site tested a 4dr JL Rubi at 693 - so yes as expected 4dr to 4dr the Jeep has better articulation (2).

(1) https://jalopnik.com/2021-ford-bronco-the-long-awaited-official-info-dump-1844370158
(2) https://jalopnik.com/an-extremely-detailed-look-into-the-ford-broncos-engine-1844389830

 

[Panaran]

Had a guy tell me he was getting 1700 miles per tank of gas in his 4xe...

That might be accurate if his commute is like 15 miles or whatever the range of the batteries are. If you just scoot around within that radius and not use gas often....maaaaaaaybe?

 

[Bronco4lyfe85]

Nathan's reaction is pretty experienced-cool. That's what bash plates, rash rings, and ABS fenders are for (also sliders with stand-off protection).

I know but it sounds awful lol

Sponsored