There are only a handful of vehicles that if you say their name to regular people who aren’t that interested in cars, they’ll know instantly what you’re talking about.
Corvette.
Suburban.
Mustang.
F-150.
Bronco.
You get on a list like that by being around a while, and this year is the Ford Bronco’s 60th birthday. Ford introduced it in 1966 as an alternative to the Jeep (now the Jeep Wrangler), which in those days was a very primitive vehicle, only slightly more refined than those the original G.I.s drove in World War II and Korea.
Jeeps then were small and inexpensive and so was the first Ford Bronco. You could buy the ’66 Bronco without doors, a top and windows, but you could also buy one that enclosed the cab but kept the bed open – a kind of Bronco pickup – or one that enclosed all of it. You could get a six-cylinder engine or a V8, and you could get it in any of 13 colors at no charge, including Wimbledon White.
And it did okay. They sold enough to make a profit, but Jeep buyers kept buying Jeeps and in 1969 Chevy shortened a full-size pickup truck, put a roof on the bed, called it the Blazer and America (as it tends to do) bought the jumbo size (the original Bronco was small).
The original Bronco soldiered on until 1977, and then Ford copied Chevy by shortening the F-150 full-size pickup, putting a roof on the bed and making it the 1978 Bronco. And Bronco sales went up. The big Bronco (yes, the O.J. Simpson-era Bronco) lasted through 1996, after which the Bronco nameplate went into mothballs.
The story might end there except for nostalgia and America’s current fascination with extreme abilities in its vehicles. Ford began to think there might be a market to challenge Jeep a second time and win.
So it brought back the Bronco in 2021, styled to evoke memories of the original. I drove it at a Western Automotive Journalists event in Half Moon Bay a couple of months before it went on sale, back-to-back with the Wrangler, driving the Jeep first.
My first, immediate impression that day: Jeep has a real fight on its hands this time. The Bronco is roomier and quieter inside and feels more solid and planted at highway speeds. And although I am not an off-road guy, it’s clear Ford did not compromise on the Bronco’s abilities there, either.
The 60th Anniversary Bronco you see here (in Wimbledon White, now a $495 option) is a thoroughly modern off-roader. Based on the Outer Banks trim level (the lowest in which a turbocharged V6 engine is an option), its base price is $48,090 and four-wheel drive, a solid suite of active safety features, a terrain management system, removable doors and top, dual-zone climate control, a leather gear knob and steering wheel, power 10-way driver’s and eight-way front passenger’s seats and smart charging USB ports are all standard.
Ours had nearly $19,000 in extra-cost options – the 60th Anniversary package, Luxury package and the hardcore Sasquatch package, which brings serious off-road bits like advanced 4×4, front and rear locking axles and 35-inch all-terrain tires. And it has the turbocharged V6, which adds $2,995. All told, with delivery charges, it came to $69,065.
That price and the size of the current Bronco (three and a half feet longer, a foot and a half wider and four inches taller, not to mention a full ton heavier) are nothing like the original.
But the world has changed in 60 years. By today’s standards, in a category that has only three true competitors – the Land Rover Defender (“On the Move,” July 2025), the Jeep Wrangler and the Bronco – the Bronco is as good as it gets and the price is in the ballpark for that level of four-wheeled adventure.
