Spy Shots—Best Look Yet at Bronco Mule

From SEMA:

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Caught testing in Dearborn, Michigan, the Bronco mule wears light camo over a cobbled-together Ranger T6 body. Recently, the Bronco has been seen testing with the Jeep Wrangler and Toyota 4Runner, but it has been a task to capture them all in one image since they’ve been leaving the proving grounds at different times.

The Bronco will have body-on-frame construction, and unlike the Ranger, will have a coil-spring solid axle in the front and back. According to sources, the Bronco will have Dana Spicer AdvanTEK axles with a Dana 33 up front and a Dana 44 for the rear. The axles will be assembled at a new facility in Toledo, Ohio, and is located right down the street from the Jeep Wrangler plant. For cost reasons, the F-Series’ aluminum construction will not make its way to the Ranger follow-up or the Bronco.

The Bronco is expected to share the Ranger’s 2.3L turbocharged four, paired to the new Ford/GM 10-speed automatic transmission. A hybrid powertrain is rumored to be part of the lineup as Ford goes all in on hybrid availability throughout its product portfolio.

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What's known thus far about the new Bronco....Not much.
What's not known thus far about the new Bronco...A whole lot.

That's Ford operating procedure it seems like since 2014~.

Very tight lipped, leaking stuff not till the very end, aka the vehicle is about to hit showroom floors.

Hard to build hype as a consumer, but hey, that's the way they want to run it I guess.
 
This isnt what will be running around as a Bronco.

Obviously theyve designed a swb Ranger to see how the concept reacts at the length/width dimensions theyre testing.

There likely are or have been shorter and longer versions as well.

Once this is figured out, theyll plop one solid body on top of this chassis length and call it good.

All said and done, i think it's bad ass. Super stoked someone is finally coming back to market with a Bronco/Blazer type vehicle.

I'd highly consider one.
 
I understand about putting false bodies on chassis for testing (I worked on the Lincoln LS test mules that has LS chassis under Jaguar XJ bodies), but this is pretty ugly. Looks like a Sport Trac refresh as this point. If it has basically a Ranger body, why camouflage it?
 
This is just Awful.... How can they ignore all the hype driven by the fake renderings and come up with what is essentially a Bronco II. Looks like a Ranger with a Cap.

Deeply saddened it does not appear to be a full size F-150 Based model. Was sooooo looking forward to getting one.

Huge mistake IMO. Chose a 18 Ram over a 18 F-150 for quite a few reasons. Reasons I would probably prefer over a 2020 F-150 based Bronco as well. But certainly would have thrown those reasons out the window if the Bronco was being done differently.

Just Sad....
 
I was pumped when I read solid axle front, but when I zoom in I see no pumpkin...how certain is this detail??
They've never said it had a solid front axle. Dont know where this article got that from but probably just another person confusing Dana meaning solid axle
 
This is just Awful.... How can they ignore all the hype driven by the fake renderings and come up with what is essentially a Bronco II. Looks like a Ranger with a Cap.

Deeply saddened it does not appear to be a full size F-150 Based model. Was sooooo looking forward to getting one.

Huge mistake IMO. Chose a 18 Ram over a 18 F-150 for quite a few reasons. Reasons I would probably prefer over a 2020 F-150 based Bronco as well. But certainly would have thrown those reasons out the window if the Bronco was being done differently.

Just Sad....
Still dont understand how you guys believe this is the bronco body in the slightest, but ok
 

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