The 2021 Ford Bronco is armed and ready to go Jeep hunting

[BLANK_AUDIO] Sometimes icons have to go away and be reborn in order for the world to learn to appreciate them again. It's been around 25 years since Ford offered a bronco and now it's back. This is it and believe it or not. But this is two, but we'll get to the unibody bronco sport in another video, because it's this guy that I'm most excited about. That's right, I can't lie, I'm absolutely pumped. But I'm also genuinely nervous because I have one rule when it comes to icons. If you're an automaker and you're lucky enough to stumble into creating a legend, you have one job. Do not piss away that icon. What I want to know is, has Ford followed my rule, let's make the most of this early look and see what we can't find out. For my money, Ford has one shot against the Wrangler to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, it looks like they've come guns blazing. You won't find any Sophos here. This is all purposeful, upright body work. Big fender flares and round headlights. I particularly like the way the bronco script and trim bisect the daytime running lamps. Look is retro but not cartoonishly. So. The new Broncos visual is definitely skewed towards the first generation from the mid 60s. Far more than the oj spec models from the 90s. Or something entirely different and that, that's all good with me. Like the Wrangler there are both two and four door versions. I'm partial to the shortie and Ford is planning on rolling out a whole series of trims with different looks and playful names. There's a First Edition model plus Big Ben, Black Diamond, Badlands, Wild Track and there's even a Sasquatch package with, you guessed it, Big feet. And also like the Wrangler? Yes, the doors come off, but unlike the Jeep, No, you won't lose the side mirrors in the bargain. And yes, you can choose from different removable tops, but you can't fold down the windshield to let your COVID-19 hair fly. Now, I don't have time here to get into all the nitty gritty specs and compare everything to the Wrangler. We'll cover that in a separate roadshow video. What I can tell you is that versus the jeep. The two door Bronco rides on a longer wheelbase, and the folder rides on a shorter wheelbase. However, overall dimensions are pretty similar for this touting best in class, ground clearance, suspension travel, crawl ratio, and a whole bunch of other stuff that should really grind jeep lovers gears. Clearly Ford has taken a long hard look at the Wranglers template. They'll even cost about the same. A base tuner Bronco will run just under 30 grand including delivery fee that's within a couple hundred bucks of the Jeep. And yet this Bronco is far from a copycat. There are significant differences including an independent front suspension. The biggest differences though, arguably with the power train, for one, Ford is going with an all EcoBoost lineup. No naturally aspirated engines. As you'd expect four wheel drive is mandatory. The base engine is a 2.3 liter turbo for borrowed from the Ranger. Putting out an estimated 270 horsepower and 310 pound feet of torque. That is the same horsepower as the jeeps optional two liter turbo, but slightly more torque. Then there's the 2.7 liter twin turbo V six. Good for 310 horsepower. That's more ponies than you'll get in any Wrangler engine, but it's 15 fewer than the same motor in the F150. More importantly though torque is 400 pound feet and that figure positively houses the Jeeps, gas engines, which only manage up to 295. Yes, the Jeep has the optional eco diesel with more torque, but it's seriously expensive and so is the fuel. We'll have to wait and see if the blue book comes through with a power stroke offering, let alone a hybrid option with or without a plug. The Broncos transmissions are pretty wild as well. You can get a seven speed manual on the 2.3 T. And what's unique is that it's a six speed box with a dedicated crawler gear. The latter is available with a 95 to one crawl ratio which sounds insane. It wouldn't surprise me if that's low enough that you can get out of the truck and walk alongside as it climbs over everything. Ghost ride the Rubicon anyone. Most buyers will probably opt for the 10 speed automatic. However, those extra ratios over the jeeps eight speed unit mean that overall efficiency will hopefully be at least comparable. Even with the Broncos larger available 35 inch tires, [MUSIC] there's a bunch of interesting new off-road tech too, including an available new terrain management system with Goldman's greatest of all time. No goes over any terrain. There's also trail control which is like a low speed cruise control for the rough stuff. Plus there's trail turn assist, which uses brake based torque vectoring on the rear axle to enable Tighter turns off road. Finally, there's trail one pedal control, which does away with left foot braking when you're using the vehicle over steep objects and trying not to backslide. All right, that's it. I'm ready to hop in and get this thing money. tossed me the keys, guys. Guys? All right, Ford is not willing to let me drive this one yet, but let's check out the inside anyway. Taking a peek in the cabin reveals a purposeful chunky interior with appropriately harboring surfaces and a big meaty shifter. These two doors off trucks feature a bunch of accessories that are in development. But even stripped down to stock, there's a lot here to appreciate. Since we're part of CNET we'll start with the infotainment. Ford's new Sync4 features twice the processing power and it runs on screens up to 12 inches. The latter gets you get over the air updates for the whole vehicle, plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Another novel feature trail mapping which allows you to plan record and share your off-road excursions via smartphone app. And you can project those off road trail maps onto the screen. There's a lot of other smart cabin touches to including unbelievable, Customizable grab handles on both the dashboard and tabs and the transmission tunnel. Plus there's a unique desktop Bring Your Own Device mounting system that gives you a convenient place to mount everything from your phones to your GoPros and offroad GPS handheld. There's even a 12 volt outlet up there. And there's rubberized flooring with removable drains so you can hose out the whole works. While you can get leather or cloth, Ford will also sell you this marine grade vinyl fabric. It's both mould and water resistant. One other nifty thing, you can get the traditional side hinge rear door but there's also a drawer style slide out tailgate to sit on or organise your gear. When everything is buttoned up, I'll be curious to see and hear if it's as loud as a Jeep, especially with those big old Sasquatch feet, but right now, I'm pretty psyched about what I see, so that is our first look at the 2021 Ford Bronco. But even before we get the chance to drive it, we know that there's still a ton more to talk about from a full deep dive into the specs to the hundreds of new accessories that Ford is promising. And there's even plans for new dirt focused driving schools called off rodeo. Yeah, I don't know why they called it that either. But I'm still excited because upon first look at this new Bronco, it's apparent that Ford has not pissed away their icon. However, they may have pissed off a few Jeep fans. Now before you leave a comment or check out this video on the smaller Bronco sport, do me a solid. If you like this video, please let us know with a thumbs up and consider subscribing to the road show channel. 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