Ford Bronco: What We Learned After 40,000 Miles of Ownership

• After two-plus years and 40,000 miles, our Ford Bronco is riding out to the sunset.
• It won us over with its extroverted personality and legit off-road capability ...
• But "trouble free" was not in its vocabulary.

Bronco good!

We loved these top three Bronco attributes.

Distinctive styling

It's big. It's blue. It's got "BRONCO" tattooed across its forehead. Among look-alike crossover SUVs, our Bronco stands out like a shirtless Chris Hemsworth at a meeting of octogenarian librarians. And similar to shirtless Chris, you can take off the Bronco's top and doors and drive around to show off your buff biceps and abs to other motorists. (You've got those, right?)

Big-time off-road capability

With four-wheel drive, low-range gearing, 35-inch all-terrain tires, locking front and rear differentials, and a disconnecting front stabilizer bar, our Bronco has the right stuff to maximize its capabilities off-road. Rocks, ruts and steep hills are little trouble. We often used our Bronco as a benchmark for testing other vehicles' off-road capabilities.

Easygoing driving style 

Prod the gas pedal in our Bronco and its 330-horsepower V6 hustles this 5,222-pound SUV with satisfying speed. It's not quick — 0 to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds, by our testing — but it certainly isn't slow. It lopes along at a relaxed pace around town and maintains its lane composure with minimal steering corrections needed. It's just fun and enjoyable in a way that most other SUVs fail to be.

Bronco bad!

Now, here's what we didn't like.

Loud on the highway

It's a party in the cabin when you're driving 70-plus mph. Much like having to talk to a blowhard co-worker at an after-work get-together, you can tolerate the Bronco's extensive wind and tire noise for an hour or two. But drive it cross country (which we did) and you'll wish for earplugs or noise-canceling headphones to save your eardrums. Hardtop, soft top, it doesn't matter. It's loud.

Not ideal for short people

A 5-foot-2-inch member of our team had this to say about getting in: "There's more than 12 inches of clearance from the ground to the bottom of the Bronco's door. I have to practically do a box jump to get in. What makes it worse is the grab handle (situated near the steering wheel) is not at all helpful for pulling yourself up." Even taller team members found the process a bit laborious when driving the Bronco daily.

Big fuel bills 

After 40,000 miles, our V6-equipped Bronco averaged just 16.4 mpg. It requires premium fuel too. There's no official Edmunds' MPG Hall of Shame. But if there was, our Bronco would likely be a first-ballot nominee. It could join gold jacket wearers such as the 2015 Dodge Viper (13.9 mpg), 2010 Ford F-150 Raptor (12.7 mpg) and 2019 Jaguar F-Type SVR (17.0 mpg).

Bronco broken!

Let's hope other Broncos are less trouble-prone. Ours never completely broke down but several issues did crop up.

Busted rear cargo door handle

This broke early into our Bronco ownership; we couldn't open the rear cargo door because of it. It took a dealer visit to fix under warranty.

Front axle (4WD) engagement failure

This caused us much angst because of Ford's inability for multiple dealerships to diagnose the problem. Check out our How Our Long Term Ford Bronco Lost Its Four-Wheel Drive in-depth article for more.

Electrical gremlins

Our Bronco occasionally displayed occasional messages warning that there were faults with the blind-spot and rear cross-traffic systems.

Rear defroster issue

The power wire to the cargo door window defroster snapped, rendering the defroster inoperable. Rather than just fixing the wire, Ford wanted $2,000 to replace the entire window. We just decided we could live without a defroster. A future owner could likely do a DIY fix.

Edmunds says

Most crossover SUVs are reliable, sensible and easygoing. Our 2021 Ford Bronco was none of those things. Nevertheless, it became a memorable favorite of our test team. And when polled, the majority of our writers said they'd buy one over a Jeep Wrangler.