This 12 months’s SEMA Present featured a cavalcade of modified Ford Broncos exhibiting simply how customisable the rugged off-roader is, and making us much more annoyed it’s not coming right here.
The SEMA (Speciality Tools Market Affiliation) Present is America’s premier automotive commerce present, held yearly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s an industry-focussed occasion designed to offer exhibitors with extra enterprise and model consciousness whereas providing a platform to launch new merchandise and community with a variety of native and worldwide automotive professionals.
Whereas the occasion covers the complete spectrum of automotive genres, it does have a robust off street part and is often a competition of full measurement vehicles and Jeeps. However this 12 months, the occasion was overrun by the favored and adaptable Ford Bronco.
Arguably on present in larger numbers than Jeep, the Ford Bronco has been clearly adopted as a purposeful platform for the US market and the aftermarket producers who’ve invested closely in creating an enormous quantity of equipment and upgrades for it.
In each corridor and in all method of accent classes, modified Ford Broncos have been proudly on show. Whether or not it was automotive audio, window tinting, bull bars or efficiency wheels, the Ford Bronco was clearly the flavour of the 12 months. Which in flip raises two questions from my facet as a global journalist: why is it so standard and why don’t we get it in Australia?
Its reputation appears to stem from the truth that its look heralds again to the long-lasting appears to be like of the early Broncos, Worldwide Scouts and even Chevy Blazers however because the story goes, again within the 60s, a number of the design engineers from Worldwide Harvester have been poached throughout to Ford and the 1966 Bronco was born!
So, whether or not it’s impressed by the unique Scout or early Bronco, the present Bronco nonetheless holds the form and contours of that period and the attraction its fashionable incarnation presents with is clearly apparent.
So what about its availability in Australia? Ford says the car will stay as left-hand drive (LHD), making it not appropriate for our native market however there’s extra to it than that.
Robust gross sales of the Ford Ranger may very well be impacted by a direct competitor (even from the identical producer) and Ford is probably going reluctant to spend the money and time required to create one other car for a market they’re already doing exceptionally properly in, with out having to re- or over-invest.
Rumours abound the present Bronco is only a re-shelled Ford Ranger, a lot because the Toyota FJ Cruiser was a Prado beneath. There could be some fact to that, however in any case it’s not sufficient to encourage Ford to tamper with its Ranger market down below.
Andy Brown, proprietor of ARB, supplied additional proof by saying the Ford Bronco had introduced with adequate mechanical adjustments and variations to require its personal devoted Previous Man Emu suspension resolution with no parts from the Ford Ranger equipment relevant.
Due to this fact, whereas it’s does share some very primary platform similarities, it’s totally different sufficient to be of its personal existence.
Ford has beforehand said that it doesn’t make monetary sense to supply the Bronco in a RHD manufacturing facility possibility, even for standard 4WD fanatic markets like Australia.
Plus, whereas the Bronco is predicated on the identical Aussie-developed T6 platform that additionally underpins the Aussie Ranger and Everest, which was partly developed in Australia, it’s only inbuilt LHD in North America and China, with no prospect of a manufacturing facility RHD manufacturing mannequin within the foreseeable future.
The Ford Bronco was first launched again in 1966 to chase gross sales of the favored Worldwide Scout. 5 generations of the Bronco have been bought from 1966 to 1996 and after a 25-year hole, the sixth technology (present mannequin) was launched for MY21.
In contrast to most of its predecessors although and similar to its Ranger counterpart, the present Bronco sports activities a ladder-frame chassis however with absolutely unbiased entrance suspension. In contrast to typical IFS autos although, Ford says the specifically designed IFS configuration affords superior coil size and journey for improved off roading.
Equally, gone are the bigger capability V8 engines and powering the present Bronco is both a turbocharged 2.3-litre four-cylinder engine or a twin-turbo 2.7-litre V6. No diesel is obtainable at this stage.
It’s a disgrace that the Bronco is just not out there in Australia and there could be another compliance points lurking that negate the chance. In any other case, it could absolutely be successful right here simply because the FJ Cruiser was.
Given the look, efficiency and out there equipment, we might all like to see the Bronco right here in dealerships, and whereas we received’t be holding our breath, there are a selection of unbiased importers trying to usher in restricted numbers and convert them regionally to LHD.
