Ford Motor Company’s 2024 Bronco Sport takes a retro step into its storied past with a visually striking tribute to a funkadelic era.
The Bronco name made a triumphant return to the Blue Oval line up in the 2021 model year after a nearly 25-year hiatus. Historically, Bronco is remembered for its go-anywhere attitude. Pent up demand helped elevate sales during its 2021 model year return, representing the vehicle’s sixth-generation effort. It’s important to point out Ford not only brought back the Bronco name, but added a second derivative and this week’s wild ride: Bronco Sport.
While the names sound somewhat similar, these two products differ like night and day. The larger Bronco 4 x 4 SUV with significantly more ground clearance shares a body-on-frame platform with the mid-sized Ranger pickup truck. It’s the workhorse of the pair designed for heavy duty off-road adventures.
Bronco Sport borrows a uni-body, or car-like underpinnings utilized with Ford’s front-wheel drive Escape compact crossover (with Bronco Sport measuring eight inches shorter in length). Don’t underestimate Bronco Sports’ ability to also tackle off-pavement assignments as it’s stocked with technology diving headfirst into outdoor adventures. It’s better suited than compact rivals including Toyota’s RAV-4 and Honda’s CRV to handle deep snow or mud.
Bronco arrives in three door or five-door variants while Bronco Sport strictly adorns five. Both assemble at different production facilities within Fords worldwide tapestry. Two powertrain choice are available in both, but only the larger Bronco offers a larger V-6 opportunity.
Back in 2023, Ford provided a Bronco Sport Heritage Limited special edition trim for a week’s testing with hints of Bronco’s 1966 debut year. Our limited-edition tester this week sets the Way Back machine a decade-and-a-half later to the tail end of the 1970s with a rainbow-like, sunset inspired color scheme dubbed ‘Bronco Sport Free Wheeling’.
These limited run, factory-built production vehicles create buzz for designated models, many times offering a hint of nostalgia and usually sold within a one-year window. Limited availability creates its own built-in ‘get-it-now’ enticement.
Back in the late 1970’s this scribe found himself entering college and unfortunately has little memory of the color-coded ‘Free Wheeling’ Bronco of the day. Other Ford vehicles from the era expressing these colors included F-150 pickups and Econoline cargo vans. Faux wood paneling plastered upon the sides of station wagons remains prominently engrained within past memories, yet these bright color lines have no immediate recall. Possible cause: elevated beer consumption during impressionable frosh/soph collegiate years carousing the dorms and greater DeKalb, Ill.
In any event, the ‘Free-Wheeling’ palate boasts five colorful rectangular strips progressing from a dark red top to the bright yellow bottom This design bears a striking resemblance to the ‘Tequella Sunrise’ muti-colored uniforms donned by the Houston Astro’s baseball team (back in their National League days) from 1975 to 1986. This color concoction proved wildly popular in Houston and beyond, provoking interest decades later during Major League Baseball’s promotional throwback jersey days.
These five, narrow, rectangular color bursts appear on the hood, side doors and liftback all backdropped with a solid black paint. Inside, four seat backrests include a vertical presence with cloth-style seat cushions boasting tri-color stitching and doors and storage bin cover settling for dual-colored stitching again with a black back drop. The driver’s bucket features an optional power cushion and backrest while the passenger’s manually slides forward and back via an under seat pull rod. Pull-style brushed aluminum side door handles ensconce within a C-clamp style red framing within all four. The upper dash’s instrument panel, eight-inch screen and lower HVAC controls all cocoon within this identical bright red framing.
The limited run Free Wheeling trim joins four others in 2024: Big Bend, Heritage, Outer Banks and Badlands with our Free Wheeling tester built upon Big Bend’s standard content and optional packages with a starting price $2,600 higher. A Base Bronco Sport trim available in the 2023 model year is history in 2024 with Big Bend (and by default Free Wheeling) now occupying the entry slot. The Free Wheeling trim remains mechanically identical to Big Bend but with notable visual enhancements.
Our Free Wheeling tester included a starting price of $33,730. A $1,785 option package included LED front fog lights, wireless charging pad, rear parking sensors and eight-way power driver seat. A $690 trailer tow package and $895 Co-pilot assist along with the $1,595 destination charge brought the bottom line to $38,695. The lowest-priced Bronco Sport includes a higher starting price point than most similar-sized rivals including the all-wheel drive 2024 Subaru Crosstrek crossover starting at $25,195.
In front, circular-style headlights include automatic high beams which conveniently activate if traveling the open road at night with no apparent traffic ahead. If the system senses oncoming headlights, lights dim back down to regular strength. In back, the manually lifting hatch includes two ways to reach into the cargo area: the entire structure lifts up from the bottom or for quick trips inside, the glass structure with bottom wiper also manually lifts up from within the frame. When closing, two molded, door mounted grab-bars assist with the process. Wheel wells feature a circular format framed by a protective black composite material also found below side doors and front/rear lower bumpers.
Each Bronco Sport trim includes a unique grille with our Free Wheeling sporting a silver paint with a machine-like two color Bronco lettering. All include active shutters to better circulate air. Side doors include large, extra thick brushed aluminum grab handles workable even when sporting the thickest of work gloves. In back the hatch door include red tail lighting in the shape of a capital letter D on the passenger side and a reverse capital D flanking the hatch’s other side.
The all-wheel drive Bronco Sport offers two powertrains also available in Ford’s compact Escape: a 1.5-liter EcoBoost three cylinder delivering 187 horses and ho hum results or a 2.0-liter EcoBoost with 245 horses. The 1.5-liter comes standard in all models sans the Badlands which features the 2.0-liter and the maximum amount of off-roading tech. EcoBoost represents Ford’s technology combining turbocharging, direct fuel injection and twin independent variable camshaft timing. These three phases help increase fuel economy and power by recirculating exhaust gases back into the engine and micro-timing valve activities.
Both engines mate to a conventional eight-speed automatic transmission, and both include one of the least intrusive, smoothest operating start-stop technology quieting the engine at prolonged stops. Too many rivals with this technology invite excess noise and rumbles. No manual transmission or four-wheel low gear are offered.
To bolster off-road chops, Bronco Sport includes the G.O.A.T. dial between front buckets. Representing ‘Goes Over Any Terrain,’ this dial allows shifting among five terrain modes with the 1.5-liter engine: normal, eco, sport, slippery and sand. The system automatically defaults to normal when starting the engine. Bronco Sport does not include a transfer case requiring a shift into neutral to summon four-wheel low like the larger Bronco; thus modes can be selected with the vehicle in motion.
Bronco Sport’s easy-fuel gas tank design incorporates capless status where the fuel nozzle lead penetrates a self-sealing port eliminating the need for a plastic cap. Fuel economy for Bronco Sport Freewheeling checks in at 25 miles per gallon city and 29 highway, figures below by many compact rivals.
Currently, no EV version of Bronco Sport or Bronco exist. Ford’s Electric Vehicle 2024 lineup consists of the full-size Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck, the compact Ford Mustang Mach E and the E Transit cargo van.
High, straight across boxy roof design aesthetics offer up oodles of interior head room, but adequate leg room needs negotiation with front bucket seat positioning. Seatbacks manually fold down with a 60/40 split gaining access to the cargo region. Two riders enjoy maximum comfort in row two; anymore and personal space gets compromised. Bronco Sport slots somewhere between a sizeable subcompact or cozy compact.
All trims include an easily removable/ washable rubberized cargo floor mat. Lift the floor cover to reveal a temporary spare tire, a pleasant find as many rivals quietly jettison this one-time ubiquitous feature. Ceiling grab handles reside above all side doors sans the driver door.
Also between front buckets, one finds the easy-twist dial motivating the eight-speed automatic transmission from park (P) to reverse (R) to neutral (N) to drive (D). One can visually determine the gear as a red underline indicator highlights the chosen gear as well as a secondary indicator within the instrument panel. To the right of this dial, dual inline beverage holders.
The easy view 4.2-inch instrument panel also includes two analog style orbs, left-side tachometer and right-side speedometer, with small fuel economy and oil temperature quarter circles in between along the bottom. A center digital window rests above these quarter circles providing scrollable information selectable via a steering wheel button.
The eight-inch, multi-function, flat, touch-sensitive screen jets up slightly above the center dashboard measuring in smaller than many rivals and that’s just fine as the screen doesn’t take over the entire dashboard. The logical design includes an omnipresent home icon in the upper corner that when summoned brings the screen to its tri-section starting position (map, audio, phone/app). Press any one of these colorful sections and a full-screen version pops up with swipe capabilities. Ford utilizes its Sync 3 version within the touch screen and little to no delay was experienced when switching between audio stations or other sections.
The diminutive screen size opens up room below for a pair of large industrial-looking dials monitoring volume and station selection flanking quick key audio options including forward and reverse buttons. Best of all (at least for those begging for more tactile dashboard dials) the independent HVAC controls along the lower central dash includes two twist dials flanking push buttons guiding fan direction/speed, front/rear defrosters and AC/Max AC opportunities.
Popular Smartphone interaction with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come standard as do USB ports accommodating both Type A and C plugs along the lower central dash. The optional in all trims wireless charging pad nearby allows Smartphone charging while lying flat. Besides the arm/rest storage bin hinged rearward, between the cloth front buckets, Bronco Sport includes many opportunities to store other small items in shelf-like nooks.
2024 Ford Bronco Sport Free Wheeling
Price as tested: $38,695
Engine: 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder
Horsepower: 181
Wheelbase: 105.1 inches
Overall Length: 172.7 inches
Overall Width: 74.3 inches
Overall Height: 70.2 inches
Fuel Economy: 25 mpg city/ 29 mpg highway
Powertrain warranty: Five years/60,000 miles
Assembly: Hermosillo, Mexico
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