Update, January 4th 2021: According to a new report surfaced in late December by the Bronco-minded members of the bronco6g.com forum, the dates for initial orders being accepted and for production to kick off have been updated once again. Bronco orders from dealers will now be formally accepted by the factory starting January 19th, the report claims, with production starting on May 3rd. The first Broncos should hit the streets roughly six to eight weeks later, according to the forum, which should put them on the road by the Fourth of July.
Believe it or not, Donald Trump hadn't taken the oath of office when Ford announced that a new Bronco was coming back in January 2017. The road forward hasn't been smooth since then for the new off-roader. The Bronco prototype reveal finally happened in July, after a pandemic-related delay, with first production vehicles expected to land on the streets in early 2021. Now, however, Ford has confirmed the production Bronco will take even longer than anticipated to reach customers’ driveways.
Bronco deliveries were supposed to start in spring 2021. Now, Ford has pushed that timeline back to the summer, due to coronavirus-related delays with Ford’s supplier network. Bronco reservation holders were supposed to begin placing orders on Mon. December 7th; that process has now been pushed back to January 2021.
These delays will not affect the new Bronco Sport, which we recently drove both on-road and off-road. The crossover has been in production in Mexico since October, and Ford still says the first deliveries will start in “late 2020,” so any moment now.
The new Bronco was quite well received at launch, generating extraordinary interest from enthusiasts and new buyers. Waiting a couple of more months for it won’t be that big of a deal. But the new timeline does place the Bronco at a further disadvantage to the SUV it is challenging, the Jeep Wrangler. Tweaking an existing car requires less legwork than forming a supplier network from scratch for a new one. And Jeep was able to react quickly to Ford throwing down a gauntlet. This news all but guarantees that the 6.4-liter V8 Wrangler 392 and the plug-in-hybrid Wrangler 4xe will be in showrooms before the Bronco arrives.
