We've ridden along in the new Ford Bronco. It's one of the vehicles we can't wait to drive in 2021. And while the Bronco is still a couple of weeks from entering production, Ford is already making changes to accommodate its customers' requests, including a tweak to one of the vehicles' coolest accessories.
Many buyers will add a "safari bar" to the front of their Broncos. It looks awesome. In theory, it protects against brush in the wilderness. In practice, the safari bar may do more service protecting Broncos from damage inflicted by errant suburban parallel parkers. Ford's quasi-official outlet Bronco Nation reports that Ford has changed its design after allegedly receiving feedback from reservation holders (or possibly someone at Ford nitpicking photos).
The safari bar as originally conceived obscured the white Bronco lettering on the grille. Ford raised the top horizontal bar to let onlookers see the RONC part, which is, of course, critical to the SUV's appeal.
Ford has responded to buyer feedback throughout development, most notably by reversing course and offering the Sasquatch package with the manual transmission. And while some may find fretting over details like this and removing the Wrangler lettering from the Bronco's Goodyear tires obsessive, Ford deployed that same attention to detail when benchmarking the Jeep Wrangler to make the Bronco great.
The new Bronco has already been a rousing success, with more than 125,000 reservations converted to pre-orders before the vehicle has hit dealers. But its chief rival has not sat still. In the interim from the Bronco's launch to production, Jeep has countered with hybrid and Hemi V8-powered versions of the Wrangler.
