Ford Bronco Sport Details Leak; Model Looks to Distance Itself From Escape Sibling

Not everyone spent all week searching in vain for toilet paper. Someone with access to Ford’s dealer order site snapped pics of trim levels and powertrains pertaining to the upcoming Ford Bronco Sport, originally scheduled for a public reveal next month.

That debut could still happen, most likely online, but now there’s even less to learn about the Escape-based model that wishes it was a Bronco.

You’ve seen pics of the thing already. Clearly, Ford designers took great pains to erase clues as to the Bronco Sport’s real DNA. It’s retro all over, mimicking the equally leaked body-on-frame Bronco, but underneath its an Escape through and through.

The dealer site details published on FullSizeBronco.com show this clearly. On tap for the compact CUV is a brace of turbocharged powerplants: a 1.5-liter three-cylinder and a 2.0-liter four, each paired to an eight-speed automatic. The lesser of the two mills generates 181 horsepower and 190 lb-ft of torque; the uplevel engine is good for 250 hp/280 lb-ft, at least when found in the 2020 Escape.

There’s little reason to believe those figures will change.

Unlike the Escape, which carries the usual Ford trim lines (S, SE, SEL, etc), the Bronco Sport dons a manly list of brawny names that intrigued Ford aficionados when they appeared in trademark applications last year. Competing site BroncoSportForum.com published an image of the model’s trims, showing Base, Big Bend, Outer Banks, Badlands, and First Edition models.

In a nod to the model’s heritage (at least, the heritage borrowed via its name), all-wheel drive will be standard across the board. If you’re looking for a grocery getter that shuns even wet pavement, buy a FWD Escape.

As seen in spy photos and leaked images of pre-production vehicles, Bronco Sport buyers will be able to choose from a choice of roof colors (black or gray) and a selection of seating options. Among the choice of chairs is ebony leather, Active Orange sport cloth, and the unusually titled Area 51 cloth. Are we to assume an intergalactic motif in that cabin? Maybe, but perhaps Ford execs were just on the lookout for any avant-garde locale in the United States.

It seems the Bronco Sport shuns the 18- and 19-inch wheel options offered by the Escape in favor of rim-protecting 65-series rubber wrapped around a 17-inch hoop. This is a model that supposedly will take you off-road, after all. (Most buyers will cover in fright at the thought of such an excursion.)

Arriving ahead of its namesake non-twin, the Bronco Sport should reach customers late this year.

[Images: BroncoSportForum]