The two trucks we have here are in some ways a mismatch: A Ford Bronco Outer Banks
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Hi there, I'm Johnny Lieberman from Motor Trend.
00:10 This is Sean Hollman from 4-Wheeler
00:11 and we are standing between a Jeep Wrangler
00:14 and the all new Ford Bronco.
00:17 And we're gonna compare these two,
00:19 just not in the way that you're thinking.
00:21 (dramatic music)
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00:30 Yeah, we understand that these are two
00:33 completely different versions of the vehicle,
00:35 different trim levels that cater to a different audience.
00:37 Over here we've got the Bronco Outer Banks,
00:39 which is a little bit more street oriented.
00:40 Yes, it's still capable off-road,
00:41 but over here we've got the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
00:44 4xe Hybrid with the full off-road package.
00:47 So, instead of comparing these vehicles head to head
00:50 for off-road capability,
00:51 we're actually gonna look at a bunch of the features
00:53 that make them usable in everyday life.
00:55 So we're gonna be looking at all the panels
00:57 that come off, the open air experience,
00:59 as well as the seals for dust intrusion.
01:01 And we'll take a look at the interior
01:02 and see how these vehicles compare
01:04 and contrast with each other.
01:05 And we're gonna start with the doors and the mirrors.
01:08 I want you to notice two things about the Wrangler door.
01:11 One is, it has a frame.
01:13 That means when this door is off,
01:15 this is the size of the object that you have to deal with.
01:18 The other thing is, look where the mirror's mounted,
01:20 it's on the door.
01:21 And that means when the doors come off,
01:23 you lose your mirrors.
01:25 So what you wanna notice on the Bronco
01:26 is that there's no frame,
01:28 which means the glass slides down inside this door,
01:30 making it incredibly compact and easier to manage
01:33 once you pull it off the vehicle.
01:35 Why that's important is because if you suddenly decide
01:37 you wanna pull your doors off in a mall parking lot
01:39 and head down to the beach or up to the mountains,
01:42 you can store all four of these doors
01:44 in the cargo area of the Bronco
01:45 and you don't have to leave them behind somewhere.
01:47 The other nice thing about the Bronco,
01:49 well, depending on who you are,
01:50 the mirrors stay on the vehicle.
01:53 And the last thing to note,
01:54 check out the hinges on the Bronco and on the Wrangler.
01:57 While the Wrangler's hinges are exposed,
01:59 the Bronco's are hidden within the fender well.
02:01 I'd like to make some counterpoints.
02:04 Number one, I like the exposed hinges
02:07 because while the Bronco's doors
02:09 are probably a little bit easier to take off,
02:10 they're real hard to get back on.
02:12 Because these are exposed,
02:13 it makes the Wrangler doors easier to get back on.
02:16 Also, when you lose the mirrors on a Wrangler,
02:19 it's good if you live where there's narrow trails.
02:22 If you happen to have a Bronco
02:23 where there's trees close together,
02:24 you gotta get those mirrors off anyways.
02:26 And I've driven these things doorless way too many times.
02:30 I've never been pulled over for that.
02:31 Also, one more thing.
02:34 If you're at a shopping mall
02:35 and you suddenly decided to take the doors off,
02:37 I hope you didn't go shopping in the Bronco
02:39 'cause where are you gonna put your stuff
02:40 'cause the doors are supposed to store in the rear.
02:42 While there's no question
02:44 that the new JL Wrangler's interior
02:46 is a huge step up from the old JK Wrangler,
02:49 there's still some room for improvement.
02:51 Let me give you some examples.
02:52 It's 2021.
02:54 Look at this little baby screen, right?
02:56 This is, it's barely bigger than my phone.
02:59 Modern cars deserve modern screens.
03:01 I like the lever here for the transfer case,
03:04 but it's retro, it's cool, but you don't need it.
03:07 It gets in the way.
03:08 It takes up a lot of real estate.
03:09 And the same is true of the handbrake.
03:10 I like handbrakes.
03:11 I prefer them to electric parking brakes.
03:13 However, it takes up a lot of room.
03:15 So you have no space for stuff.
03:16 Like on the Bronco, you got a big binnacle here.
03:19 You can put things in it.
03:20 Wireless phone charger.
03:21 Here in the Wrangler, two cup holders, that's it.
03:25 - All right, well, as somebody who goes off-roading
03:27 all the time, I like to have a transfer case lever
03:30 that has cable actuation.
03:32 There's a positive engagement.
03:33 You know that you are in the gear you want to be in.
03:35 It's great.
03:36 I'm also a big fan of the emergency handbrake
03:38 because there's a lot of techniques off-road
03:40 where you can modulate that handbrake,
03:41 especially in manual, coming down a waterfall
03:43 where you don't want to stall,
03:44 but you need to slow it down,
03:45 you can kind of drag down on it.
03:46 So I'm a big fan of handbrakes.
03:49 If this was not an off-road vehicle,
03:50 I'd totally agree with you.
03:51 But to me, the off-road stuff comes first.
03:53 I like Jeep's execution.
03:54 The other thing I like about the Jeep Wrangler interior
03:57 are these great A-pillar grab handles.
03:59 You can see how sturdy they are, right?
04:00 You can move the whole vehicle.
04:02 They're on both the driver's and passenger's side.
04:04 On the Bronco, you only get one down
04:05 by your left passenger knee.
04:08 I think more grab handles, more better.
04:10 - Yeah, and the other thing is, as sturdy as that is,
04:12 this one here is like, you could tow the vehicle
04:15 out of the mud with this thing.
04:16 It's incredible.
04:17 And really, the whole interior's like that.
04:19 Yes, it's plastic.
04:22 It's obviously plastic.
04:23 But it's strong, tough plastic that feels like it's
04:25 going to last forever.
04:26 And that's not necessarily the case in the Bronco.
04:30 - All right, so here we are in the Bronco.
04:32 And there's a big difference in the types of materials
04:35 and even build quality of the interior versus the Wrangler.
04:38 - Yeah, I was pretty surprised at how low buck
04:41 this interior is.
04:43 I mean, that's pretty flimsy.
04:44 You're talking about the grab handles?
04:46 Do it with one finger.
04:47 - Yeah, I can move the grab handles around.
04:49 You can see how the dash flexes.
04:50 There's no soft touch.
04:51 The Wrangler had soft touch.
04:53 While you may not like the Wrangler layout as much
04:56 as the Ford, and the Ford definitely
04:57 has this great big screen, I am a little bit disappointed
05:00 in how it's put together and all the seams
05:02 and different materials.
05:03 It just doesn't feel as upscale.
05:05 - Yeah, and it's weird.
05:05 You'd think it would be easy to target Wrangler.
05:07 But Ford missed.
05:08 But one thing they got right, though, is the view out.
05:11 I really do appreciate the visibility in this vehicle.
05:13 - Well, part of that is because of the frameless windows.
05:15 So you don't have those big window frames.
05:17 You have a nice, large piece of glass
05:18 on either side of you, these big mirrors.
05:20 And unlike the Wrangler, which tapers at the nose in order
05:23 to have better visibility up front,
05:24 the Bronco is actually higher in the corners of the front
05:27 than it is at the hood.
05:28 So that blocks view.
05:30 So what Ford did was put these great trail
05:31 sights on the leading edge of the hood.
05:33 They're awesome to tell where the corners are.
05:35 And they can also be used as tie downs.
05:36 - Yeah, it's like driving a 911.
05:38 Speaking of driving like a 911, I was actually off-road
05:41 jumping one of these.
05:42 - Sure you were.
05:43 - There's video.
05:44 Check Instagram.
05:45 But I was jumping one.
05:46 But when you're doing a jump that's a bit of stunt driving,
05:49 my least favorite part of this thing
05:51 is the tachometer, this crazy digital dash they have.
05:54 You can't tell where red line is.
05:55 And when you're doing something like that,
05:56 you want to know exactly when to shift, blah, blah, blah.
05:59 And it's just like, why?
06:00 Why not just have a tachometer?
06:02 Why reinvent the wheel?
06:04 All right, I'm in the back seat of the Bronco.
06:06 I'm about 5'11", and there's enough room here.
06:10 I wouldn't want to do 1,000 miles in this back seat,
06:12 but a couple hundred miles, no problem.
06:14 - Yeah, it's pretty comfortable.
06:15 There's enough leg room.
06:16 There's enough shoulder and head room back here.
06:19 I think it's fine.
06:20 It's very comfortable to the Jeep.
06:22 The big difference in the open air experience
06:24 between the Bronco and the Jeep
06:25 is going to be in the structure of the roof.
06:27 So when you remove the roof panels of the Bronco,
06:29 the roll bar, or sport bar as Jeep calls it,
06:32 is basically has a B pillar cross bar for strength.
06:35 Ford took that out and made what they call a halo.
06:38 And so the open air experience feels much more open
06:41 from the back seat.
06:42 - However, if you have a roof rack like this Bronco does,
06:45 there's a big cross bar right here,
06:47 which is exactly like having the B pillar cross bar
06:50 in the Wrangler.
06:51 So it's kind of a wash, really.
06:52 - So here we are in the back seat of the Wrangler.
06:54 And as you can see, the view outward
06:56 is a little more restricted than the Bronco,
06:58 especially with the speaker bar right here.
07:00 But the Bronco doesn't have what the Wrangler does,
07:03 and that's the Sky OneTouch Power Roof.
07:05 Now that's cool.
07:11 - And now we're going to talk about
07:12 the rear ends of these things.
07:14 Shawn, if you would open the tailgate for me.
07:15 - Love you.
07:16 - So one of the problems with the Wrangler
07:18 is that on certain angles,
07:20 it's kind of hard to get the tailgate open.
07:21 For instance, you're facing downhill,
07:23 you got to get back there.
07:24 There's a big spare tire, it's heavy.
07:25 Ford said, we're going to solve this problem
07:27 by adding a damper.
07:28 But what I would argue is,
07:30 it's always hard to open the back of the Bronco,
07:33 whereas the Wrangler, most of the time it isn't.
07:35 And now, dust intrusion.
07:37 - So one of the big knocks on Wrangler
07:39 has always been the dust intrusion around the rear seals,
07:42 where the hard top meets the tub.
07:44 And Bronco is no different.
07:46 There's definitely dust that gets out here.
07:48 It's just one of the things that come with the territory
07:50 of a convertible hard top vehicle.
07:52 You're going to get dust in the back.
07:54 It's not a lot, but it's still there.
07:55 So I think it's important to note.
07:57 Also, when I look in the back, where are all the tie downs?
08:01 - Well, they're under the mat, which is weird.
08:03 They're there, there's four of them.
08:06 But why not make little cutouts?
08:08 - Yeah, I mean, it seems like you would want to have access
08:09 to your tie downs in the back.
08:11 And also the Bronco only has four tie downs,
08:13 where the Jeep has six.
08:15 - Speaking of the Jeep, so Ford's going to make a big deal
08:17 out of the fact that on paper,
08:19 the cargo area of the Bronco is bigger.
08:21 However, there are these big hard plastic sides right here.
08:25 On the Jeep, they're open,
08:26 so you can just kind of shove more stuff.
08:28 So I think functionally, the Wrangler can actually store
08:31 more off-road gear than the Ford.
08:34 All right, I'm going to open the back of the Wrangler here,
08:36 even in a strong wind,
08:37 even with this big old Rubicon tire hanging off the back.
08:40 Watch how easy this is.
08:42 There's nothing to it.
08:43 - Also, when you look at the Wrangler cargo area,
08:46 you see six tie downs, not the four that are in the Bronco,
08:50 as well as going back to those side panels,
08:53 you're not blocked into this very square space.
08:56 There's some shape to it.
08:57 You can hide things in there.
08:59 It actually works out really well.
09:00 And underneath the rear cargo shelf.
09:02 - Oh yeah, this is crucial.
09:04 So you leave this in place.
09:05 I'm just going to take it out to show you.
09:06 But when you do take the doors off,
09:09 there are spots for the bolts, right?
09:11 They all fit in here.
09:12 And when this is closed, you have them trapped in place.
09:16 You'll never lose a bolt.
09:18 This is a huge innovation,
09:19 one that Ford should have copied.
09:22 - So Johnny, having both of these vehicles at our disposal
09:24 kind of made me think about, they're so unique.
09:27 I mean, if somebody came up to you today as a car company
09:29 and said, you need to build a vehicle
09:30 that's a four-door SUV, it goes off-roading,
09:33 it has to go 80 miles an hour, it has to be safe.
09:34 It has to be, oh, a convertible.
09:36 Oh, and the doors come off.
09:37 You would think they're crazy for creating,
09:39 yet we have two of that exact vehicle right here behind us.
09:42 - The other thing is, I'm not sure what the reason is,
09:44 but a lot of people have felt
09:45 that since Ford is bothering to do the Bronco,
09:47 it's just going to come out of the gates and be better.
09:49 It's going to put the Wrangler on the trailer.
09:50 What did you call it?
09:52 - Wrangler killer!
09:52 - Yeah, yeah.
09:53 And it's not, it's really, really good.
09:55 And I'm actually surprised at how right Ford got the Bronco,
09:58 but there's definitely still a place for the Wrangler.
10:00 - It's very good, especially on the highway
10:03 and everyday driving and off-roading, very comparable.
10:07 Maybe extreme, you hand it to Wrangler,
10:09 but I think for the context of this test,
10:13 when we're talking about everyday usability
10:14 and not a head-to-head about capability,
10:16 the Wrangler just feels a little bit more refined
10:19 in the details, so for me, it's Wrangler.
10:21 - Yeah, for me too.
10:22 It's a more solid vehicle for right now.
10:24 The good news is we have competition for the Wrangler,
10:26 finally, they're both going to get better
10:29 as we move on down the road.
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