Please keep in mind that there’s no multiple sources here, and it was likely an off-the-cuff remark said during an internal webcast, but the source is trustworthy and, well, shit-talking is fun. Especially when it comes from Ford’s COO, and it’s about the new upcoming Bronco and the Jeep Wrangler.
Here’s the specific bit of shit-talk:
Yes, the report is that Ford COO Jim Farley claimed the Bronco will be “a much superior product” than the Wrangler, which is fairly mild from a true feces-speaking perspective, but pretty significant coming from someone so high up at Ford, which pretty rarely engages in such outright shitspeaking.
The same tweet also retweeted another tweet of a slide that showed that our European friends will have to get by without Broncos, Sport or otherwise, so, sorry Europe. Looks like you can have all the Mach-Es you want, though!
Our own on-staff off-roading experts, one of which may have some strong Jeeply biases already, has told me, in confidence, that
“My engineer friend tells me the Bronco is going to make the Wrangler look lame. So I’m excited for it. Though no solid front axle, so I’m highly skeptical.”
Another Jalopnik off-road enthusiast, this one quite high-placed in the Jalopnik org chart, stated
“I’m thinking of the Bronco more as a reborn FJ Cruiser.”
...which is an interesting comparison.
It was also agreed that the FJ Cruiser had many “weird flaws” that the new Bronco is expected to avoid, and, notably, has a removable top, an omission that “doomed the FJ from the start.”
The FJ’s triple windshield wiper setup was also praised, and compared to an MGB.
Of course, it’s far too early for us to really assess how the new Bronco will stack up to the Jeep Wrangler. But, I think we can all agree that everyone benefits from this early adoption of shit-talking, as that can only provide entertainment for the automotive world as a whole, and perhaps even the greater population of humanity as a whole, who are in desperate need for some kind of conflict that’s ultimately harmless.