S3, E63 - Vaughn Gittin Jr.
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Part
RTR rover package
It’s a set of upgrades that makes the car better for rough terrain, like bigger wheels and stronger body parts.
Part
free wheeling package
It’s a set of parts that lets the wheels turn on their own when you’re not pushing the car, handy for off‑road driving.
Term
MCE 2.3 liter engine
MCE is a new type of engine from Ford that uses the same parts in different cars. The 2.3‑liter version is found in newer Broncos and Rangers.
Term
V6 engine
A V6 engine has six cylinders that are set in a V shape. It’s a good middle ground between smaller engines and big, powerful ones.
Part
2.3L EcoBoost engine
The 2.3L EcoBoost is a small, turbocharged engine that gives a lot of power for its size. It’s found in many Ford SUVs.
Term
NVH
NVH is a fancy way of talking about how much noise, shaking, and roughness you feel when driving. Lower NVH means a smoother, quieter ride.
Car
Bronco Raptor
The Bronco Raptor is a special, more powerful version of the Ford Bronco that can handle tough off‑road adventures. It has stronger parts and a more rugged look.
Part
Hoss 3.0 shocks
Hoss 3.0 shocks are like better shock absorbers that help a car handle rough terrain.
Part
Sasquatch suspension
Sasquatch makes parts that make a car go better off the road, like stronger springs and shock absorbers.
Term
camera ecosystem
A camera ecosystem is like a set of security cameras inside the car that show you what’s happening around it, helping you see blind spots and park safely.
Part
front camera
The front camera is a small camera on the car’s front that helps the driver see what’s in front, especially useful when driving uphill or around corners.
Term
PowerPort
PowerPort is a handy power outlet in the car that lets you charge phones or other gadgets without having to reach for a spare jack.
Part
sway bar
A sway bar is a metal rod that helps keep the car from leaning too much when you turn, making it feel more stable.
Part
Coyote engine
The Coyote is a powerful 5‑liter V8 engine from Ford that’s popular in cars and trucks.
Term
one pedal drive
One‑pedal drive lets you slow down or stop by just easing off the gas pedal, so you don’t have to press the brake button. It’s handy for city driving and helps save energy in hybrids.
Concept
Bronco Nation
Bronco Nation is a group of people who own Bronco SUVs and like to meet up, share stories, and go on adventures together.
Concept
King of the Hammers
King of the Hammers is a big off‑road race in California where people drive special cars through sand and rocks for fun.
Brand
Jeep
Jeep makes cars that are great for off‑road driving, like the Wrangler. They’re known for being tough and able to go on rough terrain.
Car
Toyota Maverick
The Maverick is a small pickup from Toyota that looks like a big car but can carry a few boxes or a small trailer. It’s cheap and easy to drive, so it’s good for people who need a truck but don’t want a big one.
Concept
unibody pickup truck
Most trucks have a big metal frame that the body sits on. A unibody truck has its body and frame all in one piece, like a car. It’s lighter and handles better, but it can’t pull as heavy loads.
Car
Bronco sport
The Bronco Sport is a small SUV from Ford that can handle rough terrain, like dirt trails and rocky paths, while still being easy to drive in the city.
Car
Toyota RAV4
The RAV4 is a small SUV from Toyota that can handle everyday driving and some off‑road use. It’s a good choice for families who want a reliable vehicle that can go on rough roads if needed.
Part
Robinson Blues rims
Robinson Blues makes aftermarket wheels that can be put on cars to change their appearance. They’re known for bright colors and eye‑catching designs.
Term
OE's
OE means parts that come straight from the car maker, like the original accessories you get when buying a new car.
Concept
vehicle personalization
Vehicle personalization is when you change or add things to your car—like new paint, wheels, or gadgets—to make it look and feel like yours.
Term
chassis control
It’s how a car’s body is set up to stay steady and not flip or slide when you drive fast.
Part
roof rack
A roof rack is a piece you put on the top of your truck or SUV so you can carry more stuff, like bikes or a big cooler.
Company
Fox Shops
Fox Shops makes parts that help cars handle better on rough roads. They’re popular among off‑road enthusiasts.
Part
X-Brace FIA case
It’s a metal brace that sticks out from the back of a truck. It helps keep the truck’s frame strong when you’re driving on bumpy or uneven ground.
Term
end stop control valves
These valves stop the suspension from moving too far in either direction, keeping the car’s body stable when you hit big bumps or dips.
LIVE
Welcome back to another episode of the truck show podcast recorded from the pod shed in lovely Huntington Beach, California, where it is currently 70 and sunny outside. And while I'm a little bit jealous of those of you getting a white Christmas, I do have to let you know there's a tree in my front yard that has changed the color of its leaves, so not all is lost here in Southern California. And at night it gets down into the 40s here at the beach, so it does feel a little winery. I wonder how many of you guys are saying,
not Winner, Holman. Well, this for us. Anyway, with the annual SEMA show behind us, it's time to get caught up with our normally scheduled programming. And I've got a lot of bank content to get to, so we'll start ripping through that and hopefully end the year off nice and strong. So in this episode you get to join me as I head out to Johnson Valley, California at the invite of Ford and RTR to attend the second annual Bronco golf invitations. But before we get into it, we have to thank our awesome sponsors. And as you know, the truck show podcast is proud
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We have the lifted, we have the lower neck, everything in between. We'll talk about trucks that run on diesel, electricity and our gas of the truck show the truck show the truck show.
It's the truck show with your host, Holman.
Let's get started. So as I mentioned in this episode, I head out to Johnson Valley, California. In fact, I was there just about a week ago and joined Ford and RTR in their attempt to merge two sports into a news board.
Say what? So here's the description. I got an email from Ford that said, hey, we've got this thing going out. It's in SoCal and the desert. We'd love for you to come out and cover it.
The chance to talk with Dave Rivers from Ford and Vongett and junior, who I saw him as he made and have a chance to an interview with. I think that's great. So the email comes. It says Ford and RTR creating a new sport, merging the popularity of off-roading with the growing trend of recreational golf challenges and a whole new landscape. We're bringing an epic experiential golf experience driven by Bronco to Johnson Valley and you're invited featuring Vongett and junior Lord and he Lee Bailey Campbell, a trio of pro golfers and a ray of golf influencers.
We're bringing a Bronco scramble in the three whole parts. Well, of course, featuring technical crawls, high speed desert runs, challenging dunes, the most capable golf cart ever. Join us as we redefine the phrase ready golf says day one introduces guests and participants to three of the most unique holes of golf ever imagine golf influencers team up with Bronco owners and members of the media to experience the Bronco and untamed barren expanse that Johnson Valley participants will traverse huge elevation changes, blistering speed, technical rock crawling and that's just getting to the holes.
There's a unique and extreme environment designed to test man and machine a par three par four and par five hole give golfers different challenges meant to push the limits of their game. All right, so here's the deal.
We got to use broncos as golf carts to chase these I guess pro am golf influencers and was led three groups won by each of the professional drivers. So Bailey Campbell was there, Vongett and junior and Lauren he Lee each leading a group.
And we went into three different holes one was like on a whipped out section one was in a slot canyon with a hard right hand turn and rocky hills and I'm sure you can only imagine what it must be like to find a golf ball after you hit it and it's bounced a hundred yards away off some rocks on a desert hillside
and then hopefully sticks and some sand somewhere near the tea. My favorite hole was our final one where they took a Bronco with the RTR rover package on in a roof rack and they had put astro turf on the roof rack
and that was the T box and it was actually articulating on some rocks so it was off center and down and the golfers were like, I feel like I can't hit it as hard because I'm going to fall. It was pretty wild. So the whole point of this is apparently in 2026 the pro league network is taking the date.
So I was there for day one, the media part, the day two was the pro golfers and the racers challenging each other and they're doing a content series and that'll be on the pro league network sometime in 2026.
So keep your eyes out for that. Anyway, to facilitate my observation of the golf tournament, I was also able to spend the day driving a brand new Bronco free wheeling package on a four door and it was Sasquatch 35 of the Bill Steins and I was chasing the golfers around Johnson Valley.
I got to drive it both on and off road. So stay tuned to the end of this episode for a truck review there and then I also connected with Ford's Dave Rivers to have a conversation about Bronco and RTR founder and race driver Vaughn getting junior as he takes us for a ride in the latest RTR Bronco creation. So let's start with Dave.
All right. So I'm sitting in a brand new free wheeling Bronco with Dave Rivers and what's your job title now at Ford?
Yeah, so I'm the head of our enthusiast brands. It's a pretty important job. It's a fun job. Like super fun. Like it's Bronco, Bronco support and Mustang and you know they're really passion products for us really for owners.
I mean that's somewhat argue if you had to have the ability to touch any product in the portfolio, those are the ones.
Right? Yeah, like you know each name play plays a specific role. Sure. But for our product lines it's like people truly love to be behind the wheel or in a vehicle like a Bronco like the one we're sitting in or you know the ones all around here.
Same can be said for Mustang.
So it's been a while since you and I worked together and I don't know this story hasn't really been told that much but I was part of a panel for almost five years.
Yeah, and that was during the Bronco development you brought some industry people in that was lucky enough to be one of those people who helped kind of guide the Bronco.
And here we are. Is this model year four or five into Bronco and just seeing the I haven't driven a regular Bronco in a while.
It's I drove a Raptor last year and on a Bronco owner's trip to Colorado and back and it was it was great. But I hadn't been in the standard Bronco.
So we're in a freewheeling. Yeah, this is a Sasquatch. This is a four cylinder. So I've driven the Ranger of the two seven. Yeah, this is the new MCE 2.3 liter. Yeah.
And what's special about that is even though it has the exact same displacement as the old one. This is a completely new engine family with your I guess modular cylinders and you don't have to agree or not or blink twice or anything.
But what I heard was the rating is the same on on Ranger and Bronco as the outgoing 2.3 but the capability of the engine you can see the power numbers on Mustang is a lot higher.
And to be honest, other than engine note, it felt really close to the V6. Yeah, really interesting.
So I can imagine there's room for improvement. If somebody had Ford performance wanted to do something, there's some overhead on the engine.
I would guess that there's two things that play probably one is not to encroach to high in the V6 territory but also durability off road and truck use.
You probably don't want it to be as high strong as you could get away with in the Mustang. Yeah, right exactly. I think you're spot on.
And it gives us a lot of flexibility on what to do with it. You know, it can go higher if it needs to and it gives us just a great really solid product offering.
Like you said, you're on you're on 35s here. Yeah. My wife's got the Heritage Edition also the 2.3. It's got so much capability but it has to watch on it.
And it's just it's a phenomenal engine that gives us a lot of room.
I'm really impressed. I don't always love the smaller displacement boosted engines and more durability dependent applications, but I've been nothing but impressed driving this today.
So we started the Bronco industry expert panel. We saw the original bucks that were foam. I mean, that's how far back before the clay is before the design was even finalized.
We would go back to Dearborn a couple of times a year. We'd have some video chats and we really helped kind of guide it to where it was launched and then beyond that, it's back within the walls of Ford.
But I have noticed just in driving this, the amount of tiny details, the fit and finish, some of the like the gauge cluster design now or digital.
All digital doesn't have the bar graph for the tack. It has a sweep which I like better for off-roading.
Just the way things feel, the how much more quiet it is. I feel like you guys have done a lot of incremental improvements since I last was kind of engaged with this product.
Well, just going back in time, so 2026, which launches in January, that'll be our sixth model year. So we had 21, 22, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
So we were six model years inserted. That's crazy. It doesn't seem like it's been that long.
No, right. And then if you go backwards from that, when we picked up having you part of our expert panel.
Gosh, that was like 2016. Yeah, something like that started way back then.
Yeah, and so we're yeah, we're 10 years ago and plus something like that from when we were engaged in kind of getting this product back to market.
And every time I see one, it's funny people will ask me, well, do you know anything about Bronco? I was like, yeah, just a little bit, you know everything.
You know, all of the inside from back then. And I think what's so cool is we listen to people like you and our expert panel, you know, the Dave Coles of the world.
We listen to our dealers. We listen to customers thousands and thousands of research hours.
Yeah. To bring out at least the first iteration. And if you can believe we've already had a turn on it.
So you mentioned things that we've improved NVH, right? So so things like changing out the tire offering to get a little bit quieter tire.
We put more insulation in the inside of it. We heard a lot from rear passengers on needing rear a, you know,
Yeah, it's right now. Yeah. So we have that in the back.
You know, and we continue to evolve what it is. So in 2025, you recall in 24, we brought out the two doors strap.
So I, if you looked around, Bronco Raptor to me is a little bit different than Bronco. It serves a different purpose.
It's a performance model. It's an icon. It's a kind of top echelon, you know, kind of it's an aspirational type vehicle.
Everybody's gonna, it's our apex. Yeah. And it has completely different chassis. And it's like an ultra four car that you could put a license plate on.
And it's just so different. So take, take away that from this discussion. But one of the things I've always loved Bronco here.
This drop was always something that growing up as a kid, you would see one. You would know what the color scheme is very, very unique.
And you give a little strap badge, you know, on the fender. And car shows or Bronco place. They would pop up from time to time.
Yeah. I was so stoked when you guys did the strap. And I believe now it's the only way to get a two door V6, right? It is.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. We just get Sasquatch on it. You get Sasquatch standard. You get Hoss 3.0. So you get the higher, the better suspension, the higher suspension.
But we, the interesting thing about a shot is that we saw there, there's so much of a move to four door.
Yeah. So in 26, we just launched the four door strap, right? So we're gonna, we're gonna sunset the two door.
And we're gonna shift to a four door just because of the peel. Yeah.
We saw the opportunity, as you mentioned, heritage is so important to us.
We don't want to look back. We're always looking forward but paying tribute to what got us where we are.
But the appeal to a four door is that much bigger. We just want to open the market up and give people more of that.
So they'll have everything, all the design cues that the two door had in all of the capability.
There's just a purity to the two door. And I know we even talked about this back when, you know, the development team was in process and the expert panels in process.
And they're, I still think that the two door, especially roofless, just, it's, it's bronco, it bulls eye. Yeah.
It's hard with the four doors to get the proportions just right. Obviously, they look bit great on 37 inch tires and all that.
But some of the things that I did love, I still do, and I kind of forgot about because I hadn't been one in one.
It was the trail sites on the leading edge of the hood, you know, off-roading today.
And then you forget, on the higher trims, there's such a great camera ecosystem.
This one doesn't have the front camera. And I found myself missing it going over the hills and things like that.
And it's funny how you become reliant on, you know, that technology before you wouldn't care.
But it's, it's amazing how you don't realize those little things impact your ability to crawl without getting yourself into trouble
and being out on your own, because it's like having a spotter. And your cameras are really good, because they're very high definition.
And the screen's a very high definition screen. So it's easy to pick out obstacles and rocks and things like that.
And a lot of other little things I love about bronco, the fact that you have at the base of the windshield of Powerport.
And so you can read architecture or your dash cam or whatever.
The aux switches are on the ceiling and this so it doesn't take up dash space.
Just a lot of those little things that are great. And then, of course, trail turn assist.
This has it. So this package is missing over the higher end package, like Baja mode.
And sway bar just connect. But it does have a front rear locker. It has trail turn assist.
And it has, I think, maybe six or seven goat modes on it.
So I was playing with them out when we were rolling around out there.
And this one, I think, stickers around 58. And it's a lot of capability for money.
Yeah. And, you know, it's interesting, you just mentioned it, because it's built off of our big bend.
We started with kind of a big bend and then we built off of it.
But it's like, what are all the things that people want that get, like you just said, most of the capability that they're ever going to use.
And you head on all of them with trail turn assist with rear lockers, this one has front lockers on it.
Interesting. You say the, the port for powering, Blake from Alabama, one of our owners.
He's got, he showed me his, he's got all his cameras.
Oh, yeah. And he's got, you know, the, the, the rail up there, right?
And, and then plug in, you know, so I think that, like stuff like that, but that came by way of us listening to people like you.
Like, I just remember those conversations. Hey, have you guys thought about this?
Well, we, I remember one of the ones we talked about that I was really, you know, kind of hell bent on was make the wiring gauge big enough to the rear power so that your fridge doesn't think you have a voltage drop and then not keep your, you know, snacks cold or your drinks cold.
And, I mean, those are the types of details that we got into, like what do owners want to see?
What are the little things that will make the experience better?
And it just keeps getting better with Bronco.
Now, selfishly, I am sad that we weren't able to push Coyote into the platform. I know that was something that was talked about and tried.
Yeah.
The three-liter V6 twin turbo and the Raptors obviously a really special engine.
Yeah.
And now this 2.3 and the 2.7 are, are pretty darn impressive.
And, uh, spend a lot of time over the years with various drive trains.
And, they're all good. There's not, there's not like one real estate away from that one on it.
Yeah.
You guys have done a great job and the 10 speed is so much more refined.
Yeah.
And the other thing I'll say is on Bronco Raptor, one of the most impressive things about it is how dialed your traction control and goat mode systems are.
Yeah.
We were up in the San Juan Mountains doing, and I was using trail turner system because we were going up switchbacks.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
We were doing a tight one. So I was playing with that and then the different modes and there are other vehicles around us that were doing a lot of wheel slip.
And I was just walking up in that because it was so dialed.
And I think that's one of the things that forced in a great job of bringing to the Bronco platform is all the modes that I think originate probably in what F-150E maybe.
Yeah.
And a lot of them did.
Yeah.
And, you know, as you say that too, we're out here at an owner event.
Yeah.
We have some newer owners that that's one thing that again, you guys pushed us was make it easy, right?
Yeah.
So I remember having these conversations around the dial and making the dial just change for you rather than have to in and out with a bar and, you know, it just so happened that we were able to brand name it.
The goat mode's goat system right goes over any terrain.
Yeah.
Which harkens back to the original code name of Bronco but just that encouragement by the panel to make it easy, right?
So I just think about all the, and I will tell you, I hear that so often from owners is I'm new into this space.
I just wanted it to be easy and you guys made it easy by way of whether it's that.
Like you mentioned gauge wiring so that, and Justin from Vancouver, he showed me his back end and how he's got power back there.
He powers his lights.
Sure.
And we're seeing way more of that even now is the back end being used for storage and it's what it's the next iteration of kind of how we're thinking about this.
And it sort of stays there all the time, right?
Like all the time.
Like rather than having an open storage for whatever, people say no, I got drawers and cubbies in my fridge live here full time because this is my adventure vehicle.
100%.
It's interesting too.
This is one of maybe the second or no, it's probably more than that because I've been to some off rodeos as well.
Yeah, maybe the fourth or fifth owners event that I've been with Bronco with you guys.
Yeah.
And I love the fact that you get a lot of owners who are new.
Yeah.
Never been off road.
And even today we were talking to some people.
Yeah.
And they're like, we're going over that, right?
And they don't, they may think it's cool.
They always wanted one, whatever the case may be, but it's pretty fun to watch a new owner conquer an obstacle and then be like,
I can't even believe I just drove over that.
I just went up that.
Yeah.
Like the trepidation maybe in, you could see it in their eyes, right?
And we had some new people out trailing with us today.
And you could see it in their eyes, but once they, once you walk them through it and we got, you know, of course, great spotters.
But, you know, the vehicle does it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're teaching them one pedal drive.
Like you could do two pedal.
But we've got a mode that you just hit a button and it goes automatically into one pedal for you.
You just work the gas.
You just work the gas, right?
Yeah.
You know, a trail control, right?
Up and down.
You know, so it's that off-road, you know, cruise control is the off-road, right?
And I think that's what I love is when you get somebody out here that's never done it.
Yeah.
And they, they had that new appreciation just to get them from Vancouver.
He was telling me this morning that I never did this stuff.
And this isn't this backyard type of terrain either, right?
We're on Johnson Valley in the middle of whoops and rocks.
And, you know, washes and, you know, completely varied from forest roads and things like that.
100%.
And he's not having a blast.
He's having a blast.
And they drove down from Vancouver, which is what about a 20 or so hard drive, right?
Yeah.
And I think that's the thing that we're seeing more of is the community.
We've got, we've grown our Bronco Nation member, like the number of people in Bronco Nation over 120,000.
Oh my gosh.
Amazing.
It's awesome.
And it's so much fun.
We do events at, like, we'll do a big event at King of the Hammers again this year.
And we'll invite several hundred owners in.
We did Raptor Rally that the team's done now two years in a row.
And that's one of those, kind of like the three tenants were, they get it right.
Yep.
Be, build community.
Hunter, see, have it, accessory ready.
Those were sort of the things that when we were involved in kind of helping you build out the business plan or
what the marketing and go to market plan would be.
Those were some things to focus on.
So here we are, six years after launch.
Yeah.
And you have this community.
And it's kind of fun to see the Bronco versus Jeep guys and stuff.
Yeah.
And that little bit of that, you know, and it's always fun to have that kind of adversary on the trail.
Right.
You know, the two of you guys are like, wait, what about us?
But I feel like you've kind of leapfrogged a lot of those guys, right?
Yeah.
We're enjoying that part.
You mentioned we were chatting earlier to say about SEMA.
Yeah.
Even at SEMA now, we see way more people with their own customized Bronco.
Yeah.
You know, and doing their own thing to what you mentioned, accessorization.
We're seeing way more people accessorize that we ever thought before.
And again, push from the expert panel.
It's like, you know, things that you mentioned trail sites.
Like use it for functional use, but use it as a tie-down.
Use it to customize.
Even on the Bronco sport.
Yeah.
It was the Batlands version.
You got the ones that kind of pop out from the side to tie down the front of your Yokai
Acc.
Or something.
Yeah.
About those were so smart.
The metal bumpers.
It's fun to see some of the real kind of features intact from the big Bronco.
Yeah.
Triggered down to the sport because I was out on the sport launch for 25.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Early this year.
Early this year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it was about nine months ago.
Yeah.
And I couldn't believe how capable those things were off-road.
And if you're trying to out Subaru, Subaru.
Yeah.
I don't want to be like, listen, we can give you that kind of efficiency, but we can give
you way more capability than you're going to get from that.
The high end off-road trims on that little SUV are quite impressive on road night.
It's like, you know, that in Maverick.
I wanted to hate Maverick.
Oh, it's just going to be like 100 originalized unibody pickup truck.
I can't hate Maverick.
I love Maverick.
And it might give me one for one and say for a time for a meat alone.
Yeah.
And so just fill it up.
Yeah.
You can still use it.
Yeah.
And I was like, for the right person, this is the perfect vehicle.
And to see that in Bronco sport on the same platform.
Yeah.
Two completely different user bases, but people out using them, see them out on the wild.
You see them out on the trail.
Yeah.
And I'm glad that Ford has sort of taken that off-road heritage and doubled down into maybe non-traditional
off-road markets and all the things you see there becoming more mainstream.
You know, there's two things that we picked up in the five years of Bronco's been in market.
One is our owners use the vehicle at rates almost 15, 16 points higher than our competition.
And that speaks volumes, I think, from vehicle, like what the vehicle is capable of, but what
the people want to do with it.
So, like, that's a lot of, meaning I bought the vehicle for its capability, but actually
use the capability.
Even on a Bronco sport, it's even higher than that, meaning our next closest competitor,
this pales in comparison to the capability we give somebody to use at Bronco sport with
you mentioned.
Like, we brought Sasquatch down to Bronco sport.
Yeah.
We have a black diamond package now, and it's just like we had for Bronco, but people
use it for the capability, and it doesn't mean that I go hardcore off-road or say it's
just like, I want to go enjoy the mountain.
Totally.
I've sold a couple of those for you because somebody came to me, they're coming from like
a cross-strike SUV.
Yeah.
I want to go rock climbing or mountain biking, or it may not be the adventure, but it's
the facilitator of the adventure, right?
Yeah.
And they're like, I'm looking for a small, efficient SUV.
I can only have one car, and he's got 30 miles to the gallon, so I still need all that,
but I want to be able to down a more, you know, hairy dirt road than I can today, or I want
to be able to go down a two track with some rods, and I need better, you know, traction
or capability.
And I'm like, go look at a Bronco sport.
The people that have bought Bronco sports for their use case have absolutely loved it
and use it for exactly that, and they, you know, go to Moab and go to some of the unimproved
campgrounds that might be two miles off the highway.
No problem.
Yeah.
Going rock climbing or rafting where you have to go past the trailhead to get into a secret
spot, or whatever the case, yet they're still getting their 30 miles per gallon when
they hop on the highway on their way.
100%.
You're spot on.
Like that is, I feel like you know, that is the customer, that's what they use it for,
kayaks on the top, bikes on the back, fully geared out, and they're actually using it.
That's what we love, is they're using the vehicle for what it's intended.
You know, we're sun setting escape, but we've got this really great, well-positioned Bronco
sport.
It's priced right.
It's at the heart of the small utility set.
The set was really good.
Standard big screen.
Yeah.
That is really nice.
We upgraded all that for 25.
We went through, we listened to customers against, like they told us that your interior
technology needs an upgrade, so we did bigger screen, all digital.
We doubled down on some capability, and you know, we gave them some, like we brought
a heritage down to Bronco sport, it's doing very well.
The one five does really well, or two liter does well, it's just like, yeah, we've got
this nice little offer.
And you have everybody wants to be in that space, you know, of the Korean manufacturers,
teasing, teasing, teasing, you know, Hyundai has their HRT, Kia has their thing, you've
got some of the Japanese manufacturers like Toyota now with a more, you know, adventure-ready
RAV4, and you're going, okay, that's great, but I think you guys still have the credibility
of really entertaining people in that space, without, you know, not every car needs to
go in an overlanding adventure, but that's what the commercials are for everybody, right?
Sure.
Yeah, yeah.
We're all kind of, I think we all see the same thing in terms of the push.
I think what's different about us is, like for Bronco sport, we offer the off-roadio,
we offer you Bronco nation, we offer you all of this, we, you know, we did it last year,
we do it again this year, we invite Bronco sport owners to join us at KOH26, we do a different
drive for them, and this is all post-buying experience, you're not, you're not like, you're
buying and you're walking away from them, you're trying to include them in the tent.
We want them in.
Yeah, we want them to be a part of Bronco, every bit, every bit a part of the brand is
anyone else, and that's what, I don't know, I was raised in the South and I love just
the hospitality of community, I love campfires, that was the one thing that we said when we,
and again, I go, going back to the expert panel, when you said community, it's like, oh,
this thing about the campfire, it's like you go do the trail, and then you sit around
the campfire, and you talk about it, and you enjoy each other, and I guess there's just
something in that that our owners really love, they tell us about it, and so we just want
to, we want to do more of it, and we're doubling down, I mean, more of that to come.
Well, I mean, we're sitting here, and there's probably 30 Broncos, some are corporate
own, some are owner vehicles, all different colors, all different design style, where do
you go from here?
What's next for Bronco?
Obviously, in the world of automotive, there's going to be a mid-cycle refresh at some
point, you don't want to lose the heritage, but you want to get modern with it.
There's going to be, you know, you look at Mustang, and you look at Bronco, and they have
heritage designs, how far can you take them to still be modern, but not shirk away the
roofs with people like about it, I mean, that's going to be a really delicate balance, as
a car manufacturer to get that right.
Yeah, we, you know, again, the one thing that I feel like the design team just absolutely
nailed, we hear this from our owners is the design is timeless, and you know, whether it's
around headlights, the one piece grille, the flat surfaces, I don't think, I don't see
things like that changing, I think, I think there's more of that, we hear a lot, and
more, most recently, our heritage edition, people love it, they love it, they love the
white roof, they love the, some of the pastel colors that we've had, the white rims, so
that's a super important piece for us.
Not very many people can get away with the white rim from the factory.
I know, right?
That's pretty cool.
My wife's got one, I can mention it, and we get stopped all the time, she has the
Robinson blues, we get stopped all the time, what color is that, those rims are amazing,
and so there's that, we just launched the 60th anniversary Bronco, it comes to market
now, and orders are very strong.
So we're enjoying that, like the 60 years of history, but going forward, I mentioned
Strop as a foredoor, you know, we got, we're not here to share a whole lot more of what's
going on.
But I will say that our owners, we, we love, I mean, I love the brand, I've been around
the brand, it's my 31st year with Ford, wow, I was Ray, my father was, I'm a second generation
Ford, Ford employee, my father worked for Ford for 35 years, I was raised in a muscle,
we were going through old pictures of my mom's over Thanksgiving, and we've got a whole
bunch of old pictures of, he had a boss, he had a Mach 1, it was so cool, and I see
these things in our driveway, and then there's this picture of a Bronco, I'm like,
yeah, dad, he's since passed away, so I was more like to my mom, I'm like, why did we
get rid of all of those, you know, and she's like, well, we have five kids, right, yeah,
so, but I don't know, it's just like, it comes back to passion, enthusiasm, I mean, I love
the brand, I love the company, we have a phenomenal team, one thing really quick about our team,
they listen, pushes like what you guys, encouragement, really great direction, listening to that, but
they come with us, like we've got a whole line of designers, engineers, and wider program
team members that'll be here again with us at KOH this year, they came last year, we
do Bronco Safari at Moab in April, they came with us there, you know, we're in front
of a couple hundred Bronco owners, and we use it as focus group time to hear what's
on their mind, what makes, what do they want, you know, differently, and you know, it's
like we're always looking to, you know, make things better.
So one last question, I know this is sort of not necessarily a forward thing, but curious
from the Bronco, the Bronco accessory performance, enthusiast guy's perspective, we know that
regulations are changing, we know that we have things like Ados and things like that that
are coming into play, I'm guessing, and if you can answer it, that Ford is committed to
still allowing their customers to accessorize, because that's such an important part of
what we do is allowing it to, I mean, look at all, not one of these Bronco's the same,
but I know there's a lot of people that are worried that with Ados and the manufacturers,
you know, not wanting the liability, that the ability to accessorize might not be there
in the future, I know that something that Seema's working with the OE's on, but talking
to you, clearly it's an important part of the business model plan, yeah, we, in fact,
our former general manager of enthusiast brands, Matt Simpson, he now runs all of our
vehicle personalization team, so he, and they've elevated the role, it's critical to our
company, there's tons of opportunity, we talked about Seema earlier, you go there and
you see everything, and so we see it as that's what our owners want, and we're growing
in that space.
It's great, Matt will be here at KOH, he'll have his team out here, we're not stopping
so we're all in, yeah, we appreciate your time, yeah, good to see you again, I like
you guys, man, thank you.
All right, so that was Ford's Dave Rivers, great guy, and really super passionate about
the brand, awesome to catch up with him, I hadn't seen him in, I don't know, probably
a couple of years or so, so it was nice to catch up and kind of get a little of that insider
perspective into where Ford goes from here, and next up, a ride along with Vaughn getting
junior.
All right, I'm in a special vehicle, this is the RTR Rover, ROVR edition, and I'm in
number 235, and it's got the dude who's driving signature on the dash, what's up with that?
Yeah, dude.
Welcome.
Dude, this is awesome, so I'm sitting with Vaughn getting junior, and you guys have heard
of him on the podcast before, but it's been a while since we checked in, it's not you
and Lauren at Seema, it was just a brief hello, but I'm out here with you and kind of
this Bronco program, so all right, this is the second year of this hair brained idea,
and it was so crazy last year, Ford said we're signed up for this year, and they made
it bigger with all these owners and stuff, so want to explain what we're doing out here?
Yeah, so this is the second annual Bronco Golf Invitational, so last year, people would
have saw the video for the first time, we came out with a smaller group and kind of tested
this idea that I had of golf is such a good vibe right now, and I'm not a big golfer,
but outside looking in, I really like the energy and the fun that everyone's like kind of
a rebirth of it.
Yeah, totally.
And I'm like, what if we could bring the golfers out, and the Broncos be the golf carts,
and we give them a gnarly fish out of water experience, and so where else in the birthplace
of Bronco and King of the Hammer says Johnson Valley.
So here we are, so we did three holes, and they're what they're like between part three
and five, or something like that, and these things are basically in and out of washes,
and one of the T's, T-Holes, or T, I don't even know golf, the T's where he started.
The T.
Yeah, anyway, it was on top of the roof of a Bronco.
Yeah, yeah, and we have, so we have a T-Box, that's what we're saying, we both have a T-Box
on the top of the rover, which was sick.
You know, we're just trying to like really, really surprise people.
Oh, they were surprised, I saw the golf in those spaces, because they were all cocky-talk
last night at dinner, and then they got out here and they're like, wait, what are we
doing?
And they had their full golf bags and taken them on the back of the Bronco, and then you're
going over like terrain, whoops, by the way, Vaughn's driving us over some gnarly whoops in
the Bronco.
So you'll probably hear me going, but uh, it's pretty cool.
So anyway, there, like on one side, it's rocky cries on the other, it's like a sand dunes
so you don't know if your ball's going to stick if you slide, so you've been out there,
you've been out there.
It's crazy.
It was great, and like, you see I'm trying to like putt and it goes up inch up her hour,
you know?
So it was super cool, and like the concept works, they all had a blast, and my favorite part
of it though, and one of my real passions is sharing off-roading with people, and so these
people have never had dirt, you know, tires on dirt, and so we had them rock call and
using all the goat modes.
Dude, it was awesome, because they were like, I can't believe we're driving up that, right?
Like they were, you take some people who are obviously really good at what they do, they
love golf, they're influencers, they're semi-prose, whatever, and then you put them in a Bronco
and they never done it before, and they're like, what do you mean we're driving up
with that?
Like where's the road?
You're like, that rocky trail that's part of the Johnson Valley race course from KOH,
like, what?
To see them stoked, because they'd have to go drive down the trail to get, again, golf
cart, to get to where they're, they're ball eyes, right?
Yeah.
So rad.
Yeah.
They, yeah.
It was, it was sick.
It was really, really sick to, uh, to do this and like, you know, it's just nice to
mesh worlds, you know, and that's kind of been, you know, me, right, bringing drift friends
out the off-road, they all fall in love with it, totally.
And, you know, some of the vehicle dynamics are the same other than the bumps, but I mean,
like, chassis control, kicking the rear out, all that, I mean, that's all stuff that
a driftier could get used to really quick, and the right, you know, deal, you gotta pick
your lines of force, but I could see some crossover discipline there.
Oh, yeah.
Well, you did it.
Yeah, the, you know, the vehicle placement and the comfortability of being loose, you
know, is really where that transcends.
So okay, tell me about this vehicle that we're in, this is number 235, this is your Rover
package.
These are known for doing RTR, especially the Mustang side.
Yup.
And now you've jumped into Bronco, and it's kind of a natural progression you went from
one of fours, enthusiasts, icons, the next one, you guys are obviously dialed through your
race team, through the funhabers, and you and Lauren are out there racing Broncos, and
you're out drifting, you musting.
So tell me about this vehicle, where the idea come from, like, what are you doing to this
vehicle from you guys?
Yeah, so you know, you know, for those that don't know RTR, started RTR in 2008 with
Mustang, but my vision has always been to, you know, we're only solely focused on Ford
vehicles, not because Ford tells us to do that, but because it's my passion.
And you know, we started out with Mustang, we just saw we have a production Mustang coming
out from Ford, and the way that our other Mustangs work, our spec Mustangs, they basically, you
know, we get them from the plant, we send them to our fit partners, and then all the parts
we've designed, engineered, and had manufactured get installed into, like, a package, if you
will.
So with Mustang, we have everything from appearance to just appearance all the way to
fully adjustable suspension, and 810 horsepower, the warranty.
And very similar approach with Bronco, you know, we actually were one of the first to have
a complete Bronco package, you know, we had early prototypes and data from Ford, and, you
know, really almost had them available since they came out.
And this is our latest package, this is the Rover, so this has a full roof rack, a very
well-built engineered roof rack that we've done ourselves, like most all of our parts.
And it's got our rock sliders, which have a kick out on them, super strong.
You can drop the truck on them, give any off-rocks or trees in the trails, a good amount more
body protection in the factory sliders.
We've got our rear bumper on it, that's got some hooks and mounts on it, our rear tire
carrier, that's super sturdy, it also allows the rear tire to extend, and you'd put gear
behind it if you want, there's a mollipan on the rear, and also has 37, so 37-inch Nitto
recon grapplers, Fox performance elite, shocks, two-inch lift, and, you know, that's it,
protection, we've got a light bar on it, so we've got protection roof rack, enhanced suspension,
and it's fun for just about anything.
Basically set up to be, like what I like to call go-over landing, it's your go-fast
overlay, or it's set up for adventure, but you don't have to crawl, this is more of a,
like let's cover some ground and see some cool stuff, and that's the type of wheeling
that I like to do, is I like to camp, but I want to get there and do 100 miles in a day
or something like that.
As we're chasing Lauren Healey and his Raptor.
So, yes, Lauren Healey, who is your race partner, and the famous off-road racer on his own
ride, is in front of us in a Raptor, and we are hanging with them in this rover here,
and it's pretty fun to watch the, you know, the Raptor special, it's got like 14 inches
of travel, and you can just, it's an ultra-fort car with the pedal license plate on, and here
we are in kind of an overland sort of setup, and we're just hanging with them, and I'm
watching all the vehicles, and suspension movement, and then feeling it in this vehicle,
it's pretty bad.
Yeah, you know that, you know, Lauren Eyre partners, I'll be able to know this, but,
you know, the RTR vehicles off-road team, Lauren Eyre been partners in that initiative
now for going on six, seven years, we just built the new 20,000 square foot facility
in Farmington, that backs up to BLM Land, which will be doing an open house in the coming
year, and we're just basically, you know, enhancing the Bronco with the enthusiast in mind,
you know, Ford obviously has to, you know, build a lot of vehicles for everyone, and we're
getting a little bit more niche, you know, we're offering full-color paint, and this vehicle
is actually painted in Mr. Chrome, which is one of our premium extended color palette colors.
So that's a famous color that was on of Kilber for like two years, if you go to my Instagram
or our Trucksha podcast, through a reel up of it at Sunrise, and it literally goes from
purple to amber to a forest green to blue, depending on the light and the angle, and the
highlights and low lights from the body panels, it looks, it looks, I never thought this
would be a color that looks like on a, on a Bronco, and it totally works.
It works, yeah, and it's cool like, you know, being able to have the ability to do
full-paint, you know, it's something that, you know, obviously, it'd be really tough for
Ford to do the volume they'd do, but because the volume that we're doing, you know, our
targets are, you know, a thousand issues, it's a year, we're able to get a little more granular
with the customer, we're even doing paint-to-sample, it's an option. So someone wants any color,
they can send us a chip, we send them back up, speed-shaped colored, and then we get, we get
a cranking. So, yeah, it's a real honor, you know, I'm still, you know, RGR has grown so much
more than I ever imagined, like I'm not surprised, kind of how much work we've been doing.
Yeah, totally. But it's like, you know, our recipe has been very simple, and it's that cool
it wins. Exactly. And we just do the stuff that we love, and those that vibe with what we're
doing are all about it, and, you know, we're all about the, you know, customer experience,
and taking our customers out on rides like this, and just showing people the, you know, the community,
and getting them immersed in the things that you and I love. You know, this is, this is a very
special thing that we're able to do in America, and the more I travel the world, the more I see
people wishing they could off-road and have the places we do, and it's so fun for me to share that.
We're, yeah, we're so lucky. The fact that we have the ability to do this kind of stuff,
and all this public land to use, and all that, and it's, it's pretty rad. By the way,
this is the gnarliest off-road I have done since my accident, so this was sort of my welcome back
hotter moment right here. So I drove a little bit today, and the Bronco Fort gave me,
and then getting a little e-ticket ride with you. Pretty, pretty badass, but thanks for
getting me back on the trail. Let's talk about how you, let's talk about how you did a golf today,
but how was that? So I didn't, I didn't golf because my handicapped is like 50 when there's windmills,
and so it's like 200 out on this deal. I probably could have borrowed like a pitching wedge,
but I saw the golf influencers who were with us pulling out like full on golf bags,
they're wearing golf shoes, they're in the middle of the desert, and I'm like, yeah, that's,
that's a different level from what I used to, so I purposely chose to just talk.
I mean, almost that's fun. Almost that's fun, of course.
Well I was thinking next year you could do a Bronco Polo, take the doors off,
and you could have those polo sticks out the window, and it hit the ball that way.
That would be a sick color, right? Bronco Polo, and then I just had fun driving, and
you know, somebody would hit a ball toward us, and I'd be like, four by four,
lots of golf puns in off-road puns, believe it or not, and we're just going over these
whippers right now. So this has the Fox Shops on it, I'm actually pretty impressed with
the bottom out control, it feels like there's a lot of valving toward the end of the travel on the
stack, because we're not blowing through the jams, and you've hit some pretty big stuff,
and it just sort of soaks it up. Yeah, and this is our like how we ship it,
because I like when I'm out and doing these types of things, the experience exact is our
customers, I mean I've definitely signed off on it, but my point is it can get stiffer.
Yeah, these are adjustable, these are the podium elites, so they have the low speed and high speed
adjustability, and you know, they work great, they are, you know, built in, you can get the two
inch lift out of them, and they perform, you know, really well, they are definitely a upgrade.
So I'm just really happy, you know, wouldn't never put anything out with RTR on it that, you know,
both myself and Lauren aren't super pumped on, and we have these, you know, these are over
with the paint, which is the fully loaded everything, and we have packages that just, you know,
you can get our suspension, our lighting, and or our protection, and then of course add
the other things you want if you like. And you can just go to RTRVicals.com. Yep, RTRVicals.com,
we have dealers all over the country, and we get vehicles, like I said, directly from Ford,
RUP, Fit Partner, build them, and yeah, it's really, really amazing to be able to create and,
you know, supply these types of products to, you know, people I want to have fun with them.
So what's next for you? Obviously, KOH is coming up in about another month and a half or so.
Yeah, you guys will be back, I'm sure you'll be out here before then tuning and testing and stuff,
or yeah, we got a big year planned after this, I'm going on vacation, but then I get back,
get back, and we're on a full, you know, full hammers focus. We've got a big year next year,
we're doing hammers, we're doing some of the more desert races in the U.S., the Mint,
Vegas, Torino. I love the Mint, by the way, the Martellies. They do such a great job on that race.
Agreed. I went for the first time in a long time earlier this year, it gets us in March,
and I thought they just nailed it from an experienced standpoint, being able to view the racing,
all that stuff. We're looking at a left-hand turn, but because we have so much rain out here,
there's a giant truck gobbler right in the middle, and there's no way we're making, yeah,
no, not unless we had 42 or something. I thought you know what, Lauren, you know, you look fabulous.
Should I do this for you? Yeah, by the way, Balania. Lauren, you're famously has a video of him
watching off of a waterfall straight down. Yeah, King of the Hammers, was that like three or four years
ago? Yeah. Funny story about that. Yeah. I followed him over that in the dark wheel,
practicing for qualifying. Oh, no. And, and it was fine. And I was playing on doing it,
because it doesn't look fine from the from the video. No, but in the dark, I didn't even know
what we went down. It was just a big drop. And then I was like, all right, me and him were playing,
like we're both doing in qualifying. Yeah. And I totally went down. I totally went down.
Oh, man, it could just go, it could go bad. And then we're not starting in the back.
I just remember watching it in like the first half of the video. I'm like, this is we're
to learn dyes. And then he landed. I'm like, oh, my god. Oh, no, it's so cool. Yeah, that's
Lauren. Healy, lazy. Yeah, remind me of that time. Mel Wade rolled the the Jeep. And then let
the get rid of his every man or whatever. It got back on his wheels and went right back up. I mean,
it's just like, it's crazy. The amount of action that happens and that kind of racing because your
vehicle has to be good at everything. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, speaking of being good at everything,
you know, the hall 1000 this year was. You wrapped it up. It was my first 1000.
I was my first 1000. No way. Yeah, I was impossible. Well, I did the 500 this year,
pulled the corner off my race track. Yeah. As happens in the hall, which I learned. Yeah.
And I just never done the 1000 because I never. I mean, it's a big commitment. And you got to
go with the right people because it's not, it's not easy. Like every time I've gone down there,
I've been with a factory back team. And every time I've ridden or co-dogged, it was with, you know,
driver I knew who had a factory back. It's the logistics of getting down there. The parts,
the chasing, all that was already in place. It's really hard to be a privateer and go down there.
Yeah, and it was, you know, I just, I didn't. If I'm going down there with Ford, like, I'm giving
that my all. Yeah, totally. And I didn't want to compromise it. And this year, as I got,
I'm committed. I'm in. And I got, I pulled the rookie card and got the nightstand.
I love night, though. Night's my favorite to race. It was my first at that level.
Dude, it's just to me. The thing I love about night is if you have a good co-dog who's falling
out of the dangers and double dangers and something like that, and you can just drive. I like it because
it's cooler. You don't have, you know, you're only driving the tunnel of light that you create.
And it's just chill. Like there's just something about night that's just like magical out there.
You're going to cross the planet at like sunset and then just racing through the night to get
that. See when the sun come up. Oh, so badass. And I was worried because I go to, you know,
I'm on the East Coast. Yeah. So I didn't get in the truck until 11 o'clock by time. Oh, dude.
Right? Yeah. And sorry, I lied. I won a clock in the morning by time because it was 10.
10 there. When I got in it. And I, but I was so surprised at how well and how focused I was able
to be. Except for the last 45 minutes. Sun was off. And it was just getting to be like a lot. Yeah.
It's fun. You got to be an athlete to do it. You don't realize that you're just driving a car. No,
it's a hardcore. You're controlling your breathing, your thought process, your energy expenditure.
If you're a co-dog, you're getting out to run ahead to rabbit or to use a strap or help a teammate.
And it's, you know, it's a, um, from a energy level, you're, you're expanding a lot of energy
because you got down there. You're a crutch time. You're racing and everything's under the
clock. Even when you're not on the course because you're chasing train to the next pin. It's,
it's intense. It's intense for, for a week. It's one of the most incredible life experiences I've
ever had. Yeah. No, it was, it was that big and, you know, um, four and had a four Raptor
effort, one of the biggest efforts ever. It was so crazy. And uh, yeah, we achieved the goals and
it was, it was an honor to be a part of it. Say a funny story one year. I think it's Vegas,
Torino, uh, uh, Chad calls me and says, uh, through GM. Hey, we want to, you know, get a meet-a-guy
in here. Do you want to race with us? I think it was when they debuted the ZR2 or the Colorado ZR2.
And I'm thinking, yeah, no, no way they're going to have a back seat or in that one. So I'm in,
because I turned down all the back seat seven. Fouts have called me. He goes, hey, I'm racing a Raptor.
You want to come, you know, ride with me. I'm like, front seat or back seat. I'm like, no,
I'm not going to be balanced. Screw you, dude. I'm too old. If I'm going to do that to my body,
it's going to be because, uh, you know, I want to be a part of it and win, not because I just
want to go out right along. Yeah, I want to be part of it. And so he's like, all right, whatever,
you know, and so it was, uh, it was hilarious because he, uh, sees me and I get there and Chad's truck
has a rear seat. And I'm like, no way. And it had an X-Brace FIA case. There's no room for my legs.
Fouts like you could have been in mind with air conditioning and wind and wind shield. It's like,
damn dude. So I got, I got snooker once in, uh, missed my, uh, missed my Raptor ride.
Said, dude, that was awesome. So we're in the sand dunes on the west side of, uh, of the valley.
I just got to say thank you for, uh, I can't wait to interview you through that whole
woofer section. Oh man, Lord just took off on us. Oh yeah, he's going to sail the jump here in a minute.
I know him too well. All right, well, I'm going to let you, uh, let you drive. Thanks for the,
yeah, the time they interview you and, uh, can't wait to spend some more time in one of these things.
Yeah, we've got one dropped off to you. It'll be awesome. Yeah, it'll be great. And, uh,
yeah, I'm so stoked for your success in seeing how you've grown RTR over the years. And it's,
it's awesome to see you turning out like cool products actually work and are enthusiast focused.
And, uh, as an enthusiast, I definitely appreciate that. Thank you, my man. Well,
glad you had fun and came out. Hang out with us today.
All right. So as you can tell, I had a, had a good time with Vaughn there. We were, it was great.
We were just having a conversation while hitting whoops and chasing Lauren Haley through the desert
40, 50 mile an hour. It was so much fun. Once again, I want to thank Vaughn for giving me a ride that was,
that whole day was my first time back doing any sort of serious off-roading. And being in Johnson
Valley, it's not just a dirt road. Like we were rock crawling low range up and over stuff.
Scraping skid plates, lockers, sand, there's mud out there from recent rainstorms. I mean,
it was real off-roading. Had a lot of fun and felt pretty good after. So it was a good kind of
putting my toe in the water to see what my body will tolerate. And I felt pretty good. So
thanks again to Ford and RTR and Vaughn getting junior. And before we end the podcast,
I want to make sure that we get a little truck review on the Bronco free wheel and package,
because I haven't had a chance to get into a current non-raptor Bronco in quite a while.
All right, so I feel great to be back off road. I've been wheeling this thing all day long,
and I'm driving back to the hotel we were at. So I figured this is a great time for a truck review.
So this is a 2025 big bend with the free wheel and package. So it's got the retro wheels and the
orange yellow red graphics stripes on the side that kind of do the fade and it's got that repeated on
the inside of the interior as well. And I've got to tell you, I really like this thing. It's fun.
This one, I'll get in the monoroni as soon as I say goodbye. I'll tell you what options it has.
But it goes for a 58k and it's got the sass watch, the 35s, it's got the bill stands with the
end stop control valves on it, which are really great. And the ride and handling is great,
and it's got most of the upfront features. This one does not have a sway bar disconnect on it,
but it does have front and rear lockers, trail turn assist, and the modes, the goat modes are a
little bit different on this one, because it doesn't have a Baja on it, but it's got some other
ones like sand and rock and mud and ruts and all that kind of stuff. So I've been wheeling it all day
and took it over a bunch of pretty gnarly stuff. Definitely stuff that the average person would
not be taking their vehicle on if they got it from the showroom floor. Ford really let us push the
limits and use the skid plates and crawl over some rocks here in Johnson Valley, did a lot of sand,
did a lot of whooped, a ton of whooped out of roads. And I was pretty amazed at the fact that
the bill stands after miles and miles and miles of really rough whoops at like 25, 30 miles an hour,
no real fade until the very very end, there's a little bit of it as a shocks guide heated up,
but it was no problem. So a few things to talk about on this one and keep in mind, I have not been
in a regular Bronco in a few years, like it was, it's been a while. And the last time I was in
a Bronco was Bronco Rapture, which is kind of a different beast. So it felt good to get back into
more of the standard one kind of a more of a mainstream model. And a few of the things that I noticed
were this has the new 2.3 liter four cylinder and that's their new, I believe they call it the MCE
family of engines and it's really good. It's definitely peppy and torquey and it has a great
exhaust note to it. It doesn't sound wheezy or thrashy. It's got this kind of nice,
drummy noise to it. I don't know if that is partially pumped into the sound system or not,
since some of the manufacturer's platform likes to do that. But you know, I'm not a huge fan of
that, but overall driving experience is really good. I thought this was the V6 when I first got into it
and it turns out, no, this is the new 2.3. So not only is it the first time that I've been in the
Bronco in a while, but it's also the first time I've driven this engine. So,
trans-engine tuning are great and a lot of the little things I've noticed are the fitting finishes
better. The quietness of the interior is way better and it just feels more solid. And I think
they've done a nice job of kind of incrementally upgrading the Bronco.
Couldn't tell you feel economy because I only spent a portion of the day on the highway and then
of course off-roading. So, you know, that obviously cuts into feel economy, but
power's good, throttle response is good, especially after the turbos get on the boil, passing power is
good. You know, I'm not always a fan of the turbo fours, but this one it doesn't feel like there's
a whole lot of light abilities to it when you are driving. I never once got into a situation today
where I was like, oh gee, I wish that I could have a bigger engine. So, on this particular one,
this one is, it starts as a big bend four-door and it has the big bend series package 10-speed
auto for 1495. It's got the black painted hardtop which is nice instead of just the raw kind of
black one. It's got the free wheeling package. So, let's see, the painted hardtop's 2495,
the free wheeling package which is the graphics, the wheels, the interior, additions 2495. So,
it also has the black diamond package which is 4495. That's advanced 4x4, steel bash plates,
rubberized flooring, steel front bumper, a Sasquatch package, 4180 which is a must-have. That's 470
gears, rear locking diff, front locking diff, 315 tires on 17-inch wheels, the Raptor style running
boards. Let's see what else. I think that's it. So, oh, the offensive accessory package which is
the one where you can 3D print accessories 135 and the running boards 755. So, this comes out to 58,
315 and it's listed at 17 city, 18 mixed in 19 highway which seems to be pretty much what
what I was getting. I would say that's probably pretty close to reality. I'm gonna merge out on
the highway here. So, hopefully you can kind of hear the power there or the engine note of
wide open throttle. And it's not overwhelming. It doesn't feel like it's crazy power but it feels
way better than the adequate. You could get the 4 cylinder and you would be happy. You wouldn't be
wishing for more unless you're doing things like towing and stuff like that. Or really heavy,
then I would recommend the V6 but the 2-3 feels awesome. And overall, like the Bronco is a great ride.
It's got really nice highway manners. It has the big screen. The ones that have cameras are great.
I love the new graphics on the screen where it's a full digital display now which is nice.
The seats are super comfortable on it with good lumbar and bolstering. And overall for less than
60 grand, you get a lot of capability. And I think I proved that today on all the roads and
things that I went on and really had a chance, especially the whoops. Like the Johnson values
no joke for that kind of stuff. And I mean we're doing miles and miles of whoops. And there's a lot
of times where I thought I was gonna get into a truck gobbler or blow through something where I
kind of puckered up and the, you know, Bronco handled it great. Part of the magic is those ESCVs,
the in-stop control valves. It's like an internal, a giant slumper inside the built-in shocks.
And they just mellow out that last, I don't know if it's an inch or so, but let's just say that
last bit of travel where it feels like you have a hydraulic bump stop but without the loud engagement
noise that you would get from a hydraulic bump stop. And right now I'm doing 70 on the highway
and a little bit of wind noise but it's not bad. And this has a part-top insulation like headlighter
panels in it. So I think they learned from the competition there. And makes it look a little bit
more finished. Some Broncos in the past have carpet. So I don't know why some have that and they
don't and this one has the panels. But overall, especially around the a-tiller, the noise level
is definitely noticeably improved over the last time I was in a Bronco. And then they've done
a lot of smart stuff. They've got the, right at the base of the windshield center is a power
access. You've got the four by four controls right above the screen on the dash. They're an easy
reach. The aux switches are above the rearview mirror. So that's super easy. And it just,
it's functional. It works well and kind of gives you a unique driving experience. And I've driven
a lot of different vehicles. And what I can say is getting behind the seat or the steering wheel
and the driver's seat and seeing what the hood view looks like. And just kind of getting a
bypass. The Bronco feels very old school in that sense. Like you see the high fenders on the
outside of the hood, you know, the hood is a drop center. And they've got those trail sites
which can be used as tie downs on the front corner. So you know where the corner of the vehicle is.
That works really well out for road, especially when you have a vehicle like this. That doesn't have
a front camera. That's one of the only things I think I miss. I didn't really miss the disconnecting
sway bar. That's a cool to have. But I would rather have a camera than the sway bar disconnect.
For at least what I was doing today, I thought it was totally, totally fine. Again, seats are comfortable.
Glass is nice and big. Visibility is good. I still think the mirrors are a little bit too far
forward. You know, Ford did it where the mirrors come off the cowl on the Bronco and aren't attached
to the doors. So that way the window glass as the doors are framed, let's go inside and make
some more compact when you pull the doors off. But they still strike me as being in kind of an
odd position. I don't know. I guess you can use to it, but it's still not my favorite. I
don't hate it, but every time I get it just feels weird. Steering is nicely weighted.
Brakes are totally fine. Good pedal feel. I thought today that I could use a little more throttle
input. I think it would be a little bit happier if it was a little crisper. There were times where
I was really slow to dip into the throttle going over an obstacle. And then it would
kind of like, woo! So I feel like if it was a little bit less traveled to modulate and was
a little quicker, that would have been a better for at least my style of driving. And I guess
that's it. I mean, I'm pretty impressed. $58,000 for a really capable off-road family hauler
with, you know, this is a Ford Ort. And it's got the free-wheeling package. So you can,
you could say, I don't want the retro free-wheeling package and save yourself some money and then
upgrade to something more functional. But all in all, as this thing says, it's a head turner.
It's cool. It looks good. It's really pleasant to drive. It's fun off-road. I thought, you know,
all the tech, the goat modes. You know, I think I said it in my interview with Dave. I'm really
impressed with how well Ford has those dialed in for different conditions. So we got to test some
of those today. And actually got to go through some mud today because there's still some mud out
on the lake bed. And the Bronco did find it was never in any danger of getting stuck. You know,
it was a really greasy kind of nasty mud. So anyway, that's that's my review of 2025 Ford Bronco.
And again, this is the new 2.3 liter MCE 4-cylinder. And it fits great. I mean, it just,
or it feels great. It just works well. And yeah, so there you have it. I'm going to give you guys
one last full throttle run here up the hill. So you can hear the engine. So here we go.
And that was basically 59 to 70. So good power. And I think if you were torn between the two and
you wanted the efficiency of the 4-cylinder, but the power of the V6, I don't think you would be,
if efficiency was your priority, you're not going to be disappointed getting the 4-cylinder. You're
not leaving a lot on the table. I think it's a great option for a lot of people. And you know
it, if you need more power, Ford's got the 2.7 V6. So you step up to the Bronco Raptor and get
the 3-liter. Well, all right, that's it for now. Thank you for coming along on this ride along.
And I guess we'll see you on the next Trek review.
All right, so there you have it. My day in Johnson Valley with Ford and RTR. Thanks again, guys.
Thanks Vaughn and thanks to the team that invited me out. It was great to see Bailey and see Lauren
out there and bunch of my friends and just get back to driving trucks and SUVs off road again. So
I really appreciated that. And that'll do it for this episode of the Truck Show Podcast. Don't
forget to follow us on social at Truck Show Podcast or hit us up on the 5-star hotline and wait
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About this episode
Vaughn Gittin Jr. joins the Truck Show Podcast to discuss the unique Bronco Golf Invitational held in Johnson Valley, California, where off-roading meets golf. The event featured pro golfers navigating challenging terrain in Bronco vehicles, redefining the concept of golf carts. Holman shares his experiences driving the latest Bronco Free Wheeling package, highlighting its capabilities and improvements. The episode also includes insights from Ford's Dave Rivers about the Bronco's evolution and the importance of community among Bronco owners. A fun blend of off-road adventure and automotive passion awaits listeners.
Original notes
Holman hits the dirt once again, joining Vaughn Gittin Jr. with RTR and Ford, to conquer the terrain of Johnson Valley for the 2nd annual Bronco Golf Invitational. Listen in on an interview with Vaughn while chasing down fellow driver Loren Healy and also get some insights from Ford's own Dave Rivers. Holman ends this episode with a truck review of the Bronco Free Wheelin' package. The Truck Show Podcast is produced in partnership with AMSOIL, Kershaw Knives, and OVR Mag. Don't forget to check out truckshowpodcast.com for special offers from our friends and sponsors!
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The Truck Show Podcast
Sean P. Holman
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