The FORD Lounge

[Nothing Special]

TheScatch wrote

The new Bronco doesn't 100% float my boat... I've been waiting forever for it and it's.... Ok.

Ford should have taken a cue from the guys at 6g. This I would buy in a second....

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Concept =/= execution.

They're not trying to appeal to die hard Ford fanatics.
They're trying to steal some of Jeeps momentum.

Although as an early Bronco guy, I like the look of the actual new Bronco a lot better than the pictures Scatch posted above.  Those look like a new take on the Bronco 1.5 (aka "full-size Bronco") while the actual new 2-door Bronco looks like a new take on the first Bronco.

Meanwhile, the new 4-door Bronco would look like a new take on a 4-door Bronco if there was a such thing as a 4-door Bronco, and the new Bronco Sport looks like a new take on how to market an Escape.  But Ford'll probably sell a lot more of both of those than the 2-door, so if it makes it financially feasible for them to offer the 2-door, I guess I'm OK with it.

And while I can't see myself interested in buying any new vehicle, including the new Bronco, I still think Ford did a great job with this.  Of course they weren't going to specifically target people who live for any older version of the Bronco.  There's absolutely no way they could've made any significant percentage of us happy.  And even if they did, they'd end up selling hundreds of vehicles that way.

Plus, like I said at the start, I think they did appeal to early Bronco enthusiasts a lot more than they did to F-series Bronco enthusiasts.  There's a lot of people on the early Bronco forum I'm on that have already reserved their's.

[Danny G]

Ok I like it a lot more now that I have seen videos of it vs the stills. I bet I like it better in person.

I would put down a reservation if Ford would drop some more pricing so we can compare packages. I've got about $12k left to pay off before I'm debt free and would love to have a factory new vehicle as I have never had one before.

Check this link.

https://www.motor1.com/news/435305/ford-bronco-crawler-gear-explained/

[ArdWrknTrk]

Centurion made 4 door Broncos.
I'm not sure about the EB Bronco.

But if you look at the attention those early Broncos have been getting, and the prices, it's easy to see where Ford is going with this.

Reamer (Ron) said he put his $ down the other day.  

[Danny G]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Centurion made 4 door Broncos.
I'm not sure about the EB Bronco.

But if you look at the attention those early Broncos have been getting, and the prices, it's easy to see where Ford is going with this.

Reamer (Ron) said he put his $ down the other day.  

A friend of mine read some intel that ford is going to expand it to go fully toe to toe with jeep and are planning a Bronco pickup to compete with the Wrangler pickup as well as expanding the engine options to match Jeep which means a v8 and a diesel version.

While the engine options will be awesome I don't think they should do a pick up version. I don't thing Fiat-Chrysler sells a lot of  the Gladiators. Probably because 1) They're ugly 2) They're ugly 3) Not practical for a crawler and are street queens.

[Danny G]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Reamer (Ron) said he put his $ down the other day.  

Also just saw the news, they will release more model options in 2022 including the Bronco Raptor. If it mirrors the Ranger Raptor it will have the ecoblue diesel engine. That would be my preferable power train.

[Danny G]

The other fingers crossed item was I was finally (after 12 years) able to get over my anxiety and file my VA disability paperwork. I was discharged with a reenlistment code of "disabled" due to in service injuries. Going over the paper work with the VFW VSO if I were to max out it would be 140%, which gives me a 40% buffer to hit 100% rating. 12 years of missed disability payments... that would definitely make up for it.

[salans7]

I can't see myself ever forking out Bronco money, but I am interested to see how they fair in today's market, as well as long term.

salans7 wrote

Thanks! Now I can move onto the seemingly endless list of things wrong with the truck. Today I came out to the driver's side interior soaked from today's rain. Not sure if it was the sunroof, but I did find that the weather stripping on the cab for the doors is no longer sticking to the cab, so the water may be coming in through there. I'll have to verify next time I know it's going to rain and I can sit in the truck and get wet.

Realized the front left sunroof drain was pinched off causing the drain tray to overflow, so I have a vice grip clamped on that to hopefully reform it to it's original round shape. I also replaced the third brake light seal, as that has been leaking for quite some time. I decided to put some of the sound deadening I bought for the F350 in the Ranger, mainly in the areas that had thin sheet metal with some flex. I have a few more things to do in the interior before it can go back together, and then I'll move on to the mechanical maintenance, and then after that she'll get new wheels and tires, a lowering kit, and a few audio mods. And once all of that is done, my attention is going right back to the F350.

[Nothing Special]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Centurion made 4 door Broncos.

Centurian converted F-series pickups (and possibly Full Size Broncos) to have 4 doors.  But there's some debate about whether Full Size Broncos are actually Broncos anyway  let alone whether the third-party modifications were actually Broncos.  So I'll stick with my "never was a 4 door Bronco" position.

But again (and as the part of your post that I didn't include in the quote says), I think Ford was aiming at a modern interpretation of the early Bronco, not a modern interpretation of the Full Size Bronco.  So even if the Centurian was a true Bronco, the new 4 door isn't an evolution from that vehicle.

ArdWrknTrk wrote

I'm not sure about the EB Bronco.

....

There have been a few one-off conversions of early Broncos to 4 doors.  But I'm pretty sure there were no mass-produced third-party conversions.  And Ford certainly never did it.

(although isn't "EB Bronco" a Full Size Bronco with a tan stripe along the bottom of the body?  I don't think there ever was an Eddie Bauer edition of the early Bronco.  

[ArdWrknTrk]

Early Body, not Eddie Bauer.

What is your opinion of the Bronco II?
Bronco, or not Bronco?

[Nothing Special]

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Early Body, not Eddie Bauer.

I think that's the first time I've heard "EB" mean "Early Body."  I've heard "EB" mean "Early Bronco" (so Broncos (Bronci?) like mine are either "early Broncos" or "EBs" rather than "EB Broncos").  And I've heard it mean  "Eddie Bauer" and "Eco-Boost".  So in general I'm not a fan of using the initialism "EB" because everyone knows what it means, but we don't all agree.  

ArdWrknTrk wrote

What is your opinion of the Bronco II?
Bronco, or not Bronco?

You asked for my opinion.  Keeping in mind that opinions are like that part of the anatomy that everyone has and it stinks...

To me the early Bronco is the only real Bronco.  The Full Size Bronco is a great vehicle, but in my opinion it's not an evolutionary change from the Bronco that preceded it.  It's simply an entirely new and different vehicle with the same name.  It's sorta like the 1977 - 1989 Honda Odyssey and the 1994 - present Honda Odyssey.

The Bronco II again was a completely different vehicle (from either the early Bronco or the Full Size Bronco) with the same (almost) name.  So again, in my opinion it isn't "really" a Bronco.  Not saying it isn't a good vehicle.  But it's more an Explorer prequel than it is a Bronco sequel.

Having said that, another option is that Ford quit using the name "Bronco" to refer to a vehicle and instead is using it as a brand.  Like the "Wrangler" name for Goodyear or the "Cutlass" name for Oldsmobile.  In both of those cases the company started with a single product, then added so many variants (all with their own subtitles) that it sort of just became a sub-brand.  My opinion again, I'm not a fan of that.  It takes a name that had an identity and waters it down.  But it's not my job to make money for Ford, so they get to do what they want.  And again, I think this will make money for them.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Well, I'm in agreement with you there.

Actually kind of surprised Ford didn't use the Ranchero name for whatever that mid-sized thing was they called a SportTrac with half a bed.

We haven't seen a Torino in a long time.
When are they going to resurrect that one?

[Nothing Special]

... as far as whether the new Bronco is a real Bronco or not (only my opinion again)...

We'll have to see how things play out, but based on what I've seen in the release hoopla I'm of the opinion that it is.  Again, my criterion is whether it's an evolutionary change from the original.  Given that there's a gap of 44 years between the last real Bronco (in my opinion) and now there's obviously no evolutionary record to point to.  But the way I've worded it above is that it looks like a modern interpretation of the early Bronco.  So it's easy to imagine that if Ford had been making Broncos for the past 43 years that were all evolutionary changes from the original, that the 2021 Bronco could be an imaginary evolutionary change from the imaginary 2020 Bronco.

But we'll see.  I know that right now my younger son is a lot more interested in it than the Wrangler he was planning on getting in a couple of years!

[Gary Lewis]

And my son is interested in the new Bronco.  Which is saying a LOT as he's shown no interest in any Ford product heretofore.  But he wants one, badly.  And he knows more about them than I do, and I've been reading about them.

So it looks to me like Ford hit a home run - assuming that the vehicle lives up to the advertising.

[85lebaront2]

Since he has a thirsty Subaru that may destroy it's engine, it's probably not a bad idea. That will serve them well if they go back to Central America.

[Gary Lewis]

Actually it is the son that wants a Bronco and the daughter that has the Subie.

As for taking a Bronco to Central America, and Nicaragua specifically, that might work.  There are very few Ford or any other American vehicles there as the US pulled out in the 80's.  But in recent years a Ford dealership was opened in Managua and I've seen a few, but very few, new Fords there.

However, I don't know how long that dealership will survive.  I say that because there was significant unrest in the country just over two years ago that significantly curtailed the economic expansion that was just getting started.  And from what little is getting out about it the pandemic is running rampant down there at present.  So the struggling economy is going to be even worse.

[Rembrant]

With the tires and winch combo, clearly this truck is a heavy duty offroad machine, right?...lol.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, those tires are perfect.  With little sidewall the wheels will be bent easily.  And when you air those tires down they'll come right off the beads.

I think the winch is 'cause he knows he's going to need it - maybe in his own driveway?

[salans7]

Came across something interesting in my 2002 Ranger the other day. Upon removing the carpet for deep cleaning, I stumbled across a vin tag laying on the bare floor. It had obviously been removed, and upon further inspection, was not the same vin number as my truck. My heart instantly sunk, knowing that my great uncle may have bought a five year old truck with a bad history, and now I was the owner of a truck with a bad history. But after verifying the vin plate attached to the dash, the rivets holding it on, the partial vin on the frame and engine, and the certification label, I determined the vin plate I found was not from my truck. After decoding this mysterious vin tag, I came to the conclusion that it belonged to an almost identical truck to mine, that was scheduled to be built around 60 trucks after mine, and that somebody at the factory in Edison must have put the wrong vin plate on my truck, and for some reason after it was drilled out and removed, it was thrown onto the floor, and the cab went down the line.

I also had an issue on my old F150 where the vin stamped on the frame was one digit off from the truck's actual vin, so instead of reading RHD0580, it read RHB0580.

[grumpin]

Glad that worked out!

I got that feeling after we bought my son a car. The plates didn’t match the title or the registration. He had veterans disabled plates which do not stay on the car.

But the current plates should have matched the registration. I told the lady at the DMV and she asked what plates are on it. She processed it, so it was apparently an old registration. Whew!

[salans7]

grumpin wrote

Glad that worked out!

I got that feeling after we bought my son a car. The plates didn’t match the title or the registration. He had veterans disabled plates which do not stay on the car.

But the current plates should have matched the registration. I told the lady at the DMV and she asked what plates are on it. She processed it, so it was apparently an old registration. Whew!

That's definitely cause for concern!