2021 Ford Bronco Sport: Off-Road, Snow and Overlanding Review

The new Bronco Sport is an all-new compact crossover built for the rugged outdoors, or at least looked apart. Can this baby Bronco live up to its lofty name? We push it to the limit to find out, on this episode of Driving Sports TV. The Ford Bronco is an all-new body-on-frame SUV that aims to compete directly against the Toyota 4Runner, Jeep Wrangler, and the Land Rover Defender. This is not that vehicle. What we're looking at here is the all-new 2021 Bronco Sport. It's a compact, unibody crossover that more closely aligns with a Subaru Forester than a Defender. Price starts at $26,820 plus delivery for a base trim with standard all-wheel drive. The model we're testing today is called a First Edition, which includes all the features of the off-road-focused Badlands, plus accent stickers, a navy pure blue interior, and a unique gray grille. Our test car also came with Cyber Orange Metallic paint for a price of $40,050 including a $1,495 destination and delivery fee. The first clues that this crossover is off-road-focused are the exposed recovery hooks, standard Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires, plastic-clad wheel arches, and underbody bash plates. But it goes deeper than that. Let's start with the engine. Under the hood is a larger of two engine options. This is a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder that's been turbocharged for up to 250 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque when using premium fuel. Though it does run just fine on regular. This engine is mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission that sends power to all four wheels with a center transfer clutch. Badlands and First Edition trims get an off-road-focused twin-clutch rear drive unit, which we will get into later in this video. EPA rates economy of this setup at 21 miles to the gallon in the city and 26 on the highway. With the included receiver, you can trailer up to 2,200 pounds. To get into the back, you can open the glass by itself for easy access, or open the whole door. Behind the second row is 29.4 cubic feet of capacity. Note the rubberized protection. It's a nice touch. Fold the seats flat for up to 60.6 cubic feet. Lower trim models do have slightly more capacity. Under the floor is a full-size Pirelli Scorpion tire. It is odd that it doesn't match the included all-terrain tires on the outside of the vehicle. The back also includes standard AC and DC sockets, as well as a bottle opener in the door and adjustable work lights at this trim level. Maybe it's a non-issue, but I am a little concerned about this pin that makes the wiper go back and forth aligning to this disc with the hole. Like, if you get this out of alignment and you put it down there, is it going to damage that? Is that going to work? It just seems like an unnecessary problem down the road. Squeeze in. This seat is where I would be sitting normally. I'm six foot one. This is where I would have it. And it's not too bad back here. My ankles are kind of hitting the bottom of the seat. Do get this neat pouch here with a zipper, which is good for security. If you want to keep an iPad in here, you can keep it in there, and then nobody can see it when they're walking by. Down here, we have an AC socket, but no USB. And here, an armrest with cup holders. One thing I really like is this cutout. The way they raise the roof, not only does it make it look more aggressive on the outside, but it also gives me just tons of headroom. I could wear a cowboy hat in the second row. It's not something you can say about a lot of compact crossovers. In fact, I can't think of any. Get out of there. Oh, cool. I get like these rolling rocks on the display. And it is nice that this has a combination analog and digital display. I don't like huge digital displays on off-road vehicles. I don't know why. It just doesn't seem to match. Let's look at the details. Down here, we have aircon physical buttons. That's important. I like that. We also have a heated seat, three stages of heat, as well as a heated steering wheel. And when I turn that on, yeah, I can almost cook eggs on this thing. Let's turn it off. The seats are quite comfortable, actually. These have really good padding in all the right places. I have power adjustments on the driver's and passenger seats. It does have a sunroof, and you have to use buttons to open and close it. I would almost rather just use my hand, but, you know, that's okay. Overall, this interior is okay. Yes, it's small, but this is a small vehicle. We must remember that. In spite of the fact that it looks huge on the outside, it's not. Smaller than a Subaru Forester. But it has lots of good stuff going on here. The steering wheel is leather-wrapped, and it also has all the controls that we need. I have the tiniest of paddle shifters for controlling that eight-speed automatic. If I need to downshift on a downhill or something like that, I can do it with that. And then I can also go into the menu here and make lots of changes. Not a lot of options here, actually. I guess over here is where we'll get all the safety stuff. Click on that. We have Lane Keep Assist, Pre-Collision Assist, Rear View Camera, Blind Spot ID, Trailer Sway Control, Parking Aids, Cross Traffic Alerts for the back, Driver Alert to let you know if you're swaying too much. But it's interesting, this does not have Adaptive Cruise Control, which at this price point and being an all-new vehicle, I am shocked that it does not come with that. You can get Adaptive Cruise Control as part of the optional Co-Pilot 360 Assist Plus package, which is available on all trims except base and first editions, for some reason. I also like the fact that this display is not a massive portrait unit like so many car makers are wanting to jam into their vehicles. This is, I think, a near-perfect size. You can do everything you want. You can play with your navigation. You can run Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, all that stuff. Easy to read. It's at a good eyeline position, even though it does look like it's tacked on there. Yeah, no complaints with that. And, of course, when I put it in reverse, I get a large, beautiful rear-view camera with tracking lines and parking sonars. So, we got all the stuff that we really need. Down here is a charging pad for my phone, as well as accessories, and I have both USB and USB-C sockets for charging as well, and for interfacing with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Lots of good ideas in here. Definitely a 1.0, but I think they're heading in the right direction. Overall, the interior is functional and decent-looking, with useful bins and controls that fall to hand nicely. There are, however, a few low points here. Floor mats simply don't want to stay put. They slide all over the place. And the B&O audio system is horrible, totally lacking mid-range. On the outside, fake vents look corny, and the piano black inserts are too easily scratched for an off-road-focused vehicle like this. One reason you might consider this compact crossover over all others when you're looking at doing some off-roading is this, the GOAT modes. No, it doesn't stand for Greatest of All Times. Here, it stands for Go Over All Terrain. And that not only gives us control over the standard drive modes as well, like slippery, sport, eco, normal, and whatnot, it also gives us mud rut, sand, and rock crawl modes. Now, this is not a dual-range gearbox. It does not have physical lockers. A lot of the stuff here is being emulated by a hardware-software combination. The middle still uses a transfer clutch. And in the back, instead of a proper locking differential, they use twin clutches that can engage and disengage. Now, the thing with those type of setups, both in the middle and in the back, is the fact that if they overheat from lots of use, and lots in many cases is not very much, they will disengage. So it is not like a proper locked rear diff, where it locks it, and it just works. This one, it is variable. It's always variable. And that goes for the four-wheel drive lock button, as well as for the rear lock as well. So, got to keep that in mind. There's one more setting here called Trail Control, which we'll also get into once we're actually on the trail. Now, let's pack up and head out for an adventure. We have a lot of tests planned for this vehicle. This is a new, exciting entry in the category, and I think that we would be remiss by not really testing the full range of its capability. First, we're going to take a quick drive on the freeway. Now, this is a hundred miles that we're going to be driving from Bellevue, Washington, all the way to Ellensburg, Washington, which is our offshoot for the Washington Overlanding Trail. Then after that, we're going to go into the Cascade Mountains and find some snow. And after all said and done, we should have a really good, clear picture of what the Bronco Sport is capable of. Our first test will focus on economy. How close does this get to the claimed 26 MPGs in real-world driving? So, I just reset my MPGs, and we're going to see just how well this does. Now driven up to Snoqualmie Pass, which is an elevation of about 3,000 feet, and we have hit an MPGs of 21.2. So, from here on out, it should only improve because we're heading mostly downhill as we go into Ellensburg. Now that we've gone up the pass and over, it's time to take a look at MPGs again. Almost 100 miles of varied terrain going, around 70 miles per hour, and I have hit 25.7 MPGs, which is actually pretty good considering the amount of horsepower out of this vehicle. So, great. With economy turning in a performance that was very close to the EPA numbers, it's time to turn our attention to the next test, an overlanding adventure. Today we're going to take a small segment of the Washington Overlanding Trail. What this is, is a path that you can take from all the way in the south part of Washington State, all the way to the Canadian border, and barely travel on any paved roads. It's an all dirt adventure trail, and some segments are quite easy, others are quite hard. The segment we're doing today has a couple hard pieces on it, but is overall a fairly moderate trail. The idea today is to take this Bronco Sport up to those transmission towers and beyond. How far will we make it? Let's find out. The trail we're on started out as a stagecoach road in the 1800s, linking the growing city of Ellensburg with the booming Wenis Valley. So right here we have the first challenge. This is a crosscut, which should take traction off this wheel and that wheel, and really see if this all-wheel drive system is worth its salt. I'm not going to do any changes. I'm just driving at a normal, intelligent four-wheel drive right now, and we'll see if we need to kick in a goat mode. All-terrain climbs right up. Didn't need to do a thing. This is where the twin-clutch rear drive unit comes into play. As power is directed to the back, the clutches transfer power to the wheel with grip, moving the Bronco Sport forward and over the obstacle. As elevation increased, I continued to look for land features that would let me stress the limits of the Bronco Sport's all-wheel drive system. Finally, I came across a trench that appeared to be an ideal candidate. You know what? I don't have to look out there. I have a camera right here, although I don't have wheel tracks. So I'm going to still look out here. Now keep in mind, I'm still in intelligent mode. I haven't bothered yet. Switching into a goat mode. Really careful. Power is still shuffling around. Now I also can lock the center clutch as well as the twin clutches in the back, but I haven't had to do that yet. Okay, now let's cut back the other way, and now it's even worse up here. You can see the trench I'm following right there. Now let's really take this power off. If I do this wrong, I'm stuck here for a while. Okay, we got power on two wheels. Can we climb this? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now the back wheel, it does it. No goat mode required. As the towers came up closer, the road deteriorated even more. Snow melts caused severe trenching, while large rocks clanked on the bash plates under the vehicle. The Bronco Sport's 8.8 inches of ground clearance is good, but for a road like this, more is always better. Still, the Bronco Sport pressed on, and all the while, never needing once to change drive modes or engage special features. With the peak in sight, it was becoming clear that goat modes and manual locking options were simply not needed on an adventure like this. The computer managed to engage both the center clutch and the twin clutch rear drive units without any intervention. At this point, I was starting to wonder if goat modes were even necessary, or can this little rig just get through even greater challenges in the default intelligent mode? For that, we'll be heading to the evergreen forest of Snoqualmie Pass, where I believe we will still find some late season snow. But first, let's just take a moment to appreciate how far we've already traveled. That's Ellensburg in the distance. Across the overlanding trail, the Bronco Sport's suspension was surprisingly good, soaking up the rough stuff without beating up the driver in the process. Of course, the Land Cruiser and the Defender provide much more comfortable rides in conditions like this, but at a much greater cost of entry. This was a nice compromise for the price, and I'd have no trouble doing a trip like this again in a Badlands or First Edition, as other Bronco Sport trims have a more street-oriented suspension setup. Before we say goodbye to the overlanding trail, there is one more set of tests to complete here. Let's see how this can climb out of a very deep bowl. Let's try climbing up that, shall we? You know, this looks way steeper from inside the vehicle. The question is, should I use trail control or should I manually do it? I think I'm going to try manually first and see how that goes. So I got my gauge cluster up here showing me the percentage of climb. Let's see what we got here. So we're at 9%, 10%, 11%, 12%, 14%, 15%, 16%, 17%, 18%, 19%. This is a 20% climb. 22%, 23%. Made it, no problem. All-terrain tires for the win. Also, the way that the back end really, you know, pushes power to both wheels really got me through that. That was great. So we're going to do trail control, set. I'm going to say set the speed to, let's just do a one mile per hour climb. We'll let it do it itself. That's really loose surface, so the tires are going to scramble. 13%, 14%, 17%, 20%, 21%, 22%, 24%. Dang. And up and over we go. Nice. Really easy. Now let's try going down. Where's our down pull? Oh my gosh, that is way steeper looking going down. I mean, I just went up it. Yeah, that'd be no problem. It's just a little nerve wracking not seeing where the heck the road goes. You know, I'm I think one mile per hour is too quick for this. I'm turning that off and I'm just going to ease over. Slide and hopefully the approach angle is okay and we're good. And that was sketchy, but no problem for the Bronco Sport. So in terms of overlanding, this vehicle is comfortable enough and capable enough for most of the stuff that you're going to throw at it. We didn't try anything extreme or crazy, but, you know, overlanding isn't about rock crawling. It's about the adventure. And in terms of adventure, this vehicle definitely has what it needs. The suspension is a little on the tight side, but it wasn't too bad for our overlanding adventure. Here it kind of comes more into its own though. You can tell this is really optimized for daily drivability. There's very little body roll and the steering feedback is actually pretty good, you know, for what it is. Let's test out the automatic transmission. Now I'm just in normal intelligent mode and 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5. It seems to switch pretty quickly. Now let's switch it up into sport. Right now the throttle is much quicker to engage. Now granted, wide open is always the same no matter what mode you're in, but here, as soon as I put the throttle in, I'm getting a little bit more kick. Also, yeah, that transmission even switches up a little faster, which is pretty awesome. The paddle shifters are tiny. I don't actually care for these. They're so small, I kind of wonder why they even bothered. Oh yeah, that's nice. Okay, well let's try a 0-60 and see if this is as quick as it feels. I'm already in sport mode. There's really nothing else to do here. Come to a complete stop and 3, 2, 1, go. Power kicks in at 4,500 and now that we're in sport mode, it's keeping it in the optimized range, 60. You know, it felt quick at first and then it kind of fell off as I went up the speed range there. So feels quick, isn't really that quick in a 0-60, but it's still fun to drive. Now let's head into the Cascade Mountains and see how it does on a traditional forest road. And then we're going to test, we're really going to test those goat modes. So just like in the overlanding experience, the suspension's a little tight for this kind of action. Visibility is very good for this kind of stuff though. The wheel flares kind of give me a indication where the wheels are. Oh, splash time. Because this has the Falken all-terrain tires on it, I can be a little bit more aggressive because we have more sidewall than they usually give us on a crossover. And of course I have that extra grip that comes with an all-terrain tire, which is great on surfaces like this. Yeah, it looks like we still have a lot of snow here. I bet that our rock climb is going to be absolutely covered in it, which is perfect because I want to see how useful these goat modes are when it's pushed to its limit. I'm also curious, do you even need the goat modes or is the computer smart enough to sort it all out for me? While we're heading up, let's talk about the all-wheel drive system in this vehicle. Here is where it will really be pushed to its limits. It is of course an all-wheel drive system. It is not a four-wheel drive system, so do not make that mistake. Even though they write four-wheel drive lock down there, it is not four-wheel drive, it is all-wheel drive. That means that it is a part-time all-wheel drive system. It will power the front wheels predominantly, but I think it'll put a little power to the back when necessary, and it does so with a transfer clutch in the middle that is computer controlled. Further, this system even has clutches on the outbound drive shafts in the back to be able to create a locking-type differential-style function. So basically, it'll lock up those two clutches to give even power to both axles as necessary. On paper, it sounds great because you should have more capability with a variable system than you do with a straight-up lock system. However, is it good enough? We're about to find out. So this has 8.8 inches of ground clearance. That dinged a lot of stuff along the way on our overlanding test. Right now it's definitely going to start feeling, I think, this ice alley down the middle of the road here. Okay, yeah, we're getting through that. And is it deeper? Now we're grinding. Okay, that's fine. This does have underbody protection, as I covered earlier, which is important. I don't think people realize quite how important it is. And with 8.8 inches of ground clearance, it has that much more than a Subaru. They clearly looked at the Subaru spec sheet and said, we're doing a little bit more than that. It does appear as though our hill climb is completely covered in ice with a fine layer of snow on top. So it is going to be super slick. A lot of vehicles have come up here. They've definitely compressed the snow. That means a lot of ice. So how are we going to approach this? Well, I am not going to change anything in the vehicle until I have to. I'm going to start up in normal, and then we're going to go into the goat modes as required. Also, I'm not going to engage the center locking clutch either. We're just going to basically go up, see how it does. We're just in intelligent four-wheel drive, and away we go. So the parts of the course that are normally challenging are going to be completely different this time, because obviously the snow ruts have caused their own issues. On top of that, we have the benefit of having all-terrain tires, which will give us better grab versus all seasons that we normally take up here. So I have high hopes here. So this is a spot where normally we lose traction on these two tires, and I'm feeling a little traction loss, but no big deal. Like, no big deal at all. I haven't even entered a goat mode yet. You know, this display really isn't just showing me much of anything. I can see the incline, however. Ground clearance might be an issue. There's a lot of undulations in the snow here. It's going to lift traction. But man, this system, putting power down. I'm really actually surprised with how good this is doing before I even turned on the goat mode. That means just the basic hardware is quite good. I mean, the all-terrain tires are helping a lot. I mean, most of the vehicles we take up here. Oh, finally. Nice. So we've lost a lot of traction. I can tell I'm kind of sliding and seesawing here. Now, normally you want to maintain momentum through something like this, but because we're testing the system, I want to show how bad it can be. So it also says that because we're on a steep grade, that the engine is on, and it will not power off automatically, even though I have not personally disabled the auto start stop feature. Let's look at that power distribution and see how this does. It's going to put in power. It's not telling me which wheels are slipping or even how power is being distributed. It is showing a little bit of back and forth. Oh, it's putting way more power to that back right tire. That's interesting. Okay, let's give it a fighting chance. Back up just a little bit on the crown. Drive forward a little momentum. Can it do it? Oh, okay. Well, it's having a lot of problems here, so I'm going to go ahead and switch it into goat mode. I think we want to do mud ruts because we want a little slip, but we don't want the most aggressive because we want a little momentum in the wheel spin. So we'll give this one a try first. So what this does is it locks the front-to-back four-wheel drive, but it's not locking that rear twin clutch yet, at least according to the gauge cluster, it's not. Here we go. Throttle on. Let's see if it figures it out. It's keeping my speed down to two, three miles per hour. It's not spinning out of control. Yeah, it doesn't have anything to work with here. Be interesting to see what the outside camera shows here. Okay, so let's just see if a goat mode can get us out of this really weird position. Let's go to sand, which should allow for more wheel spin. It's still two, three miles per hour because it just has no grip. Okay, we're going to have to go back and crown it a little, and then we're going to drive forward, keep it in the goat mode. Actually, let's lock that rear too. It's not getting me through. I know it's tricky, but I kind of thought that locking that rear would help. Okay, let's back up a little bit, reverse a little, get on the crown, drive forward, throttle. Oh, almost made it over the crown. We got this. So it's really retarding the throttle a lot. It's not allowing me to be aggressive, but that's good because you don't want to be aggressive in slippery conditions. Boom, made it. Took a little work, but it actually did a pretty good job, I think. I'm back down at the bottom of the hill because I want to try going up it one more time, and this time I am just going to put on trail control. So I'm going to set speed, trail control to activate, select gear, drive, and away we go at one mile per hour. Now, this system is very much like Toyota's crawl control system, where it will not only use braking for downhill, but it will also apply throttle for uphill. And in doing so, it'll also use the all-wheel drive system to its maximum capacity, because it's assuming you're doing this in a tricky situation. This is for getting through complicated things, but you don't want to think about what settings to use. You can just put on trail control, and it should be able to just get you through it. Actually, it's interesting. It's making the same grinding noises that I hear when I'm doing it on a 4Runner. I'm actually really impressed by that. I thought they would have made it, like, all comfy cozy and not as capable. Really impressed by this. This is really doing the thing. What fascinates me is just how much it sounds like Toyota's crawl control. Now, here's the spot where we got hung up before. Can this get through it at one mile per hour? Wheel up. Is it going to get it? Is it smarter than the driver? Boy, that sounds awful, which I love. Yeah, this is not... We're just spinning in place now. Shut that down. Driver's going to take over. Thank you very much. I'm not turning on anything. This is all completely off. I want to see if I can get out without any goat modes. I'm going to test the theory that the goat modes are essentially a placebo. Make sure my setting is in normal, which it is. I'm going to rock back a little bit. And up we go. Throttle in. Ah, come on. Oop, sideways. Oh, that's never a good sign. Now we got icy snow under our back. Uh, might have to turn around. Okay, maybe it's not a placebo, or maybe it is and this driver just sucks. Come on. Oh, almost got it. And rewind a little bit. I got this, I think. Oh, no. Okay, there we go. Getting a little, little high out there. Let's see if we can throttle through. Momentum. Full throttle. Wheels aren't spinning. Throttle's getting cut. I'm trying to hold myself in position and it's, I do like that there's a steering gauge in the center here. Okay, let's get that rotated this way. Full throttle. Come on. Okay, well, you know what? Let's stop that traction control because it's just, I think it's just biting me here. Come on. Okay, lock it up. Rewind a little. Get on the crown. Throttle in. Nope, not enough of a crown, but I am getting straight again. Let's reset this. Okay, and boom. Wow, that is, uh, that's gnarly. At least we can reverse now in proper line. There we go. Oh, yeah. A sheet of ice. No wonder. Okay, better line this time. Keep throttle in. Traction control off. See if we can just muscle our way up. And there you go. The Falken Wildpeak tires are twin peak rated, meaning they're actually pretty good in the snow as their large blocks and low temperature compounds make the best of the available grip. But let's see exactly how power is getting put down to those rear tires. What you're seeing here is an intelligent mode with the rear twin clutch unit in automatic and slowed down to 25%. You can see power shifting left and right, and then the computer decides it wants to lock it up, creating equal spin with some minor power shifts. Once I manually engage the rear twin clutch unit, the results are very similar, a mostly locked situation with minor shifts. To see how the Bronco Sports computerized variable system with trail control varies from a more hardcore off-road setup, I ran and grabbed my 2021 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road for a quick comparison in the same conditions. I am aware that the 4Runner is not a direct competitor to the Bronco Sport. It's a competitor to the proper Bronco. But two things. First, we don't have a Bronco yet. And second, that Bronco Sport was over $40,000, which puts it in spitting distance of a proper 4Runner. Let's see if the OG can hold its own against the more modern upstart. As far as preparation goes, I have it in for low because that is required for the trail control system. And I'm going to set trail control to low. And I'm just going to drive and we'll see what it does. It's clearly too slippery to try this climb with crawl control alone, so I'm going to manually override it and continue with 4 low and multi-terrain select, just to see if I can do it with the all-season tires. On the 4Runner, it's easy to see from the outside that when the four-wheel drive system is locked, it has a 50-50 power split front to back. No variation. The 4Runner can do this all day long. The Bronco Sport, with a center clutch that relies on friction, has limitations in the duration of its lockup. The computer will release if it gets too hot. While testing, the all-wheel drive system did cut out on me once. Four-wheel drive temporarily disabled. But it was brief and we were back in business a moment later. Another thing to take a look at is articulation. Just how much more articulation this 4Runner has compared to the Bronco Sport. And yeah, again, this competes more directly with the full-size Bronco, which has yet to come out. But it's also something just to keep in mind. Looking back at our adventure with the Bronco Sport, I think the GOAT modes are nice. But in terms of capability, it appears there's really nothing there that Intelligent can't already figure out on its own. Sure, it'll slow down the steering inputs and also limit speed, as well as pipe in extra sound to the cabin, but these are not things that improve capability, they are just there to improve enjoyment. One feature I am excited about is the addition of trail control, a first for a car in its class, and I hope other manufacturers will follow. This is a feature that I think really opens the door for inexperienced adventure seekers, as it makes almost any terrain a cinch. Not sure what to do? Just engage trail control, and the Bronco Sport sorts out all the details, be it uphill, downhill, or just straight ahead. In short, this little rig actually impressed me. Not enough to consider trading in my 4Runner, these are two very different classes of vehicles, but enough for me to recommend it to someone who wants power in a small package and occasionally ventures off the beaten path. What do you think of the Bronco Sport? Post a comment below. Also, take a moment to subscribe, that really helps us acquire vehicles from manufacturers for adventures just like this. For Driving Sports TV, I'm Ryan Douthit, thanks for watching. See you again next week for another all-new adventure.