#FordBroncoSport

The Ford Bronco Sport might not be the rugged, go-anywhere SUV that its larger cousin is, but it’s a formidable off-roader in its own right. It’s also surprisingly affordable for what it brings to the table, and a new report from CarsDirect suggests it’s about to get even less expensive.

The 2023 Ford Bronco Sport Heritage Limited is purely all about nostalgia. Thankfully, the platform upon which it’s built is good enough to indulge the trip down memory lane.

In other words, if you’re buying this trim of the Bronco Sport, you’re almost certainly doing so because you like the way it looks and/or you like its nod to the past.

If you’re a child of the 1970s and 80s, there’s almost nothing more nostalgic than faded rainbow-colored graphics on cars and old t-shirts. Ford seemed to know this at the time, offering a Free Wheeling package for several models, including the Bronco. The automaker is back at it heading into 2024, as it recently announced a new package for the Bronco Sport.

The "baby Bronco" Ford Bronco Sport doesn't get the pub that the Bronco does -- but based on what I observe driving around, it's been a sales winner for the Blue Oval. And while most are probably never taken off-road, Ford is offering more choice for those who want to take their Bronco Sports to the proverbial badlands.

A big part of the marketing push behind the Ford Bronco Sport since its launch has been centered around the vehicle’s outdoors/off-road capabilities.

What’s not being said is how one needs to buy the top-dog Badlands trim to really unlock those capabilities.

If you have Bronco on the brain, you may find yourself buying one from a store that stands separate from your local Ford dealer.

I was running an errand earlier this week and spotted a Ford Bronco Sport street parked on Chicago’s famed State Street. Coincidentally, I had just tested one off-road a bit over a week prior.

The baby Bronco impressed me on our first drive, despite some flaws. And our own Adam Tonge has argued that the Escape-based Bronco Sport may spell the end of the line for the venerable crossover that lends it its platform.

My first car was a hand-me-down 1984 Ford Bronco II that my parents bought new. I took possession of it as a hot-to-trot teenager in 1997, happy to finally be a licensed driver and glad I was lucky enough that my parents could gift me a car, even if it was over a decade old and even if my end of the bargain was to get a job bagging groceries to pay for insurance and maintenance.

Many teens, even in the relatively well-off suburb I grew up in, don’t get a car when they reach driving age. I had friends from families who were wealthier than mine who ended up hitching rides, as they didn’t have their own wheels. So I knew I was lucky to have a vehicle to call my own.

The Bronco family, as Ford calls the trifecta composed of the Bronco Two-Door, Four-Door, and Bronco Sport, has a singular mission: to leverage the fond memories and emotions generated by a storied nameplate to lure new buyers to the brand, boosting the automaker’s volume and profitability.

Despite the pandemic, Ford’s expectations haven’t changed. And the ideal buyers of any member of the Bronco family isn’t someone who can take advantage of Plan Pricing.

The Ford Bronco news doesn’t just stop with one model. There’s not one, not two, but three in the family.

That threesome includes the two-door and four-door versions of the Bronco, as well as the smaller Bronco Sport.

Think of the Bronco Sport as an off-road version of Ford’s Escape crossover. Ford might get mad at us for saying that, but hey, we’re not PR.

Like its Mustang stable mate, Ford’s returning Bronco finds itself with a brood. The Bronco is now a brand, comprised of the namesake, body-on-frame off-roader and the tag-along Bronco Sport — a retro-styled model based on the unibody Ford Escape.

That’s apparently just the start of it.

At this point, if Ford wants to keep the upcoming Bronco and Bronco Sport under wraps until their respective unveilings, it had best invest in surplus anti-aircraft batteries — or just never leave the confines of company-owned production facilities. Even those walls have proven a porous barrier, however.

As the weekend dawned, drone-provided aerial spy photos appeared of the two dissimilar Broncos congregating with a Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 out in the desert, far — at least, one would assume — from prying eyes.

The upcoming Ford Bronco and its baby sibling, Bronco Sport, have been inspiring a lot of dreaming around these parts.

We’re even dreaming of a Bronco that dances.

No, that’s not a quarantine-inspired fever dream. It’s inspired by a new report from Motor1 that suggests that the next Bronco will, indeed, be able to two-step. So to speak.

The lesser of two utility vehicles lined up to carry the Bronco name has reportedly been delayed for reasons that should surprise no one.

Production of Ford’s Bronco Sport, the retro-styled Escape sibling scheduled for a reveal at the New York International Auto Show, should, like the show itself, be pushed back by a matter of months. It’s looking like the original debut venue might get some use.

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.