product that could restore a beloved brand name, take on the off road SUV

market, and rake in the profits the company badly needs.

The product is the Ford Bronco.

The Bronco is a name that is familiar to generations of car buyers, first

introduced in the mid 1960s, it had a tough, rugged image and symbolized

an adventurous lifestyle many Americans aspired to.

It lasted for about three decades during which it endured a fuel crisis

and a changing U.S.

car market that saw the rapid influx of highly successful imports that

challenge American car companies.

After it was discontinued, it remained a favorite vehicle for collectors

and vintage car fans.

And now it is back.

And Ford is capitalizing on both nostalgia and the heightened interest in

SUVs and trucks.

Ford is promoting the Bronco as an off-road ready sport utility and has

debuted a new "Built Wild" brand campaign around it.

Ford is already the strongest brand in full sized trucks and has wowed the

market with the Raptor, an innovative off-road version of its best selling

F-150 half ton pickup.

But with the Bronco, Ford is going head to head with another best selling

brand, the Jeep Wrangler, which is extremely well established in the

off-road SUV segment.

Ford is also releasing the Bronco while the United States struggles

through the coronavirus pandemic and its resulting economic fallout.

The poor timing is no fault of Ford.

But with stiff competition and economic strain, the question is, can the

second largest U.S.

automaker sell a vehicle it has been hyping for years?

This Bronco brand represents fun, it represents off-road, it represents

kind of some classic American nameplate that goes way back.

Those people who remember that history and know that history, they're

going to love seeing the name plate come back.

Ford traces the history of the Bronco back to World War Two when the

automaker competed for government contracts to make military vehicles,

Ford sold 275,000 GPW jeeps during the war.

But the Bronco itself didn't come out for another 20 years, in the 1960s,

during a transformative time for Ford.

As an aside, there is an early sketch of the Bronco that was the handiwork

of McKinley Thompson Jr., the first black designer to be hired by any of

the Detroit automakers.

The Bronco project was led largely by Don Frey, who had just overseen the

launch of the now legendary Ford Mustang, the small two door pony car that

became a massive seller and an iconic American car.

The idea with Bronco was to build a sturdy Jeep like vehicle that would

also be able to handle on the highway something other models at the time

were not as strong at.

International Harvester and Jeep CJ were the only two kind of viable

off-road vehicles in the early 60s.

Ford did a lot of market research.

We talked about thousands of Jeep owners and thousands of Scout owners to

find out what they like and didn't like about the vehicles.

And what we found out is they weren't very good on the highway.

When the Bronco came out, Frey said in a press release that there was a new

pony in the stable, referring to the fact that both Mustang and Bronco

took their names from terms for horses.

But the Bronco was not expected to be the runaway success Mustang was.

In the 1960s, the off-road vehicle segment was a niche market.

It was a vehicle purpose built for recreation.

The early Bronco was only available with two doors, though there was a

wagon version which did have a rear seat.

It had a spartan interior, no air conditioning, and few other creature

comforts. Over time, some of those were added.

The first generation Bronco was actually rather small compared with those

that came later. The vehicle was meant to be updated with a larger

footprint in the mid 1970s, but the oil embargoes and fuel shortages

delayed that plan.

The larger Bronco finally did debut in 1978 and was based on the F-Series,

Ford's long running and top selling line of full size pickup trucks.

The automaker tried to widen the product lineup with a smaller version of

the Bronco called the Bronco II.

The vehicle was considered a flop, but it was the precursor to the

Explorer, which is now one of the best selling SUVs of all time.

In all, the Bronco ran for about 30 years before Ford pulled the plug.

By the late 1990s, market tastes had shifted and those who were buying

Fords wanted the family friendly explorer with its four doors, not the

rough riding Bronco.

However, throughout its three decade life, the Bronco did develop a

following. It was helped by Bronco's reputation as a desert racing truck,

exemplified by its performance in the Baja 500 and Baja 1000 races.

Bronco's got a real rich history in off-road racing in particular at Baja.

The vehicle behind me here is the Rod Hall, the winning truck in '69 at

the Baja 1000.

It also garnered some fame through popular culture.

So when John Paul the second made his first visit to the US, he was

shepherded around during his public visits in a modified Popemobile

Bronco. And there's a great photo of John Paul the second at Yankee

Stadium waving to the crowd at the back of his Bronco.

Since its discontinuation, the vehicle has become highly sought after by

collectors. Vintage Broncos fetch high prices, its cult status and racing

history left it poised for a resurrection.

For Ford, bringing Bronco back is about reviving a legendary name in a

moment when so many customers are turning toward sport utilities possibly

for good. The Broncos primary target, the Jeep Wrangler, is regarded by

many in the industry as one of the strongest brands in the entire

automotive world. Apart from a few other models, including perhaps pricey

Land Rovers and the also pricey Toyota Land Cruiser, the Wrangler is

considered the tough off road SUV to have.

It has a worldwide reputation for its ruggedness and quintessential

American identity.

It also has an almost religiously devoted fan base.

Fiat Chrysler Jeeps parent takes its core market seriously.

It also benefits from a long history of continuous production.

The Wrangler name has been around since the mid 1980s, and its heritage is

often traced all the way back to the original Jeep models that were made

as military vehicles during World War Two.

The Wrangler usually doesn't change much from year to year, which could be

said to be part of its appeal.

The company does listen to its customers and has the benefit of decades of

continuous feedback from them on what to improve to make the Wrangler

sturdier and more capable road name notwithstanding.

The Bronco, on the other hand, is an entirely new product.

Industry analysts note it doesn't have that long, unbroken history of

customer input and incremental product improvement.

But Ford's chief operating officer, Jim Farley, said in 2020 that the

Bronco will be a superior product to the Wrangler.

Jeep sold about 228,000 wranglers in 2019 and 240,000 the year before.

That seems like quite a lot, but the question remains as to how many

Wrangler buyers are likely to drop a trusted brand they are devoted to and

take a chance on something new.

The Bronco does have its strengths.

The vehicle is a traditional body on frame SUV and it is built on the same

platform as the Ranger, Ford's midsize pickup.

The Ranger itself is a revival, first released for the 2019 model year.

So that truck has not been around that long either.

But Ford's reputation in pickup trucks is strong.

So the Bronco may benefit from that association and from the company's

expertise in that corner of the market.

Ford's pickups, especially the F-150, are considered the company's cash

cow. The F-Series is not only the best selling line of trucks in America,

it is the best selling line of vehicles overall.

The F-150 accounts for the bulk of that.

The market for off-road vehicles is also bigger than it was when the

original Bronco debuted.

However, Ford is releasing the vehicle at what could prove to be a

difficult time for automotive sales and the economy overall.

Some analysts say the Bronco could end up like so many vehicles that have

made a big splash during their debut, sold strongly for a year or even a

few years, and then watched their sales fall as the shine wore off.

Automotive economist John Gabrielson has charted the rise and fall in

volumes of several vehicles and different segments that generated a lot of

excitement when they were introduced.

These include the short lived retro experiments such as the Chevrolet HHR

and SSR, and 11th generation Ford Thunderbird, environmentally conscious

vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt hybrid and Bolt electric,

and SUVs such as the once popular but polarizing Hummer vehicles, which

General Motors now plans to reintroduce as an electric.

Sales of these vehicles seemed to peak very soon after they were introduced

the first year or so before they declined, sometimes rapidly.

The Bronco has also drawn comparisons with the Toyota FJ Cruiser, a

purpose built SUV Toyota introduced in 2003, then pulled from the market

after the 2014 model year.

The vehicle was a hit with hard core off-road fans and has been a popular

choice as a vintage vehicle after its discontinuation in the U.S.,

There's a real dedicated following behind the Ford Bronco nameplate.

And so bringing it back makes sense, especially in this very kind of SUV

happy, SUV hot marketplace that we've got right now.

Ford seems to be taking steps to prevent the Bronco from becoming a product

whose flame burns brightly but briefly.

Jeep declined to comment on this story.

First, Ford is not just releasing a single Bronco, the Bronco is actually a

brand with the larger Ford brand, similar to what Mustang has become.

The automaker is offering a choice of three vehicles in the hope of

capturing a wider swath of customers.

Executives have said that more Bronco vehicles could be on the way.

There are two door and four door versions based on the Ranger platform and

a smaller, lower priced version called the Bronco Sport.

There are about six trim levels for the Bronco alone, plus a special first

edition version in designing the Bronco.

Ford has also taken customer input seriously and says it has tried to

answer needs it thinks are underserved.

We spent a lot of time digging through the archives to make sure we really

understood the essence of the Bronco brand.

We created expert panels and talked to enthusiasts to make sure we fully

understood what Bronco was all about.

And for for us, Bronco had to be really true to what a Bronco always was.

For example, many Wrangler drivers like to pull the doors and the roofs off

their vehicles. But Ford said its design makes doing this easier.

And on the four door version of the Bronco, all four doors can be stowed in

the trunk, a feature not found on the Wrangler.

Ford's actually done some really thoughtful design touches, like being able

to stash the doors in the back instead of having to leave them behind,

having the mirrors mounted on the fenders instead of on the doors.

If you've ever taken the doors off the Wrangler, you quickly realized I

don't have any side-view mirrors anymore.

There are slide out tables on the rear of the Bronco for camping or

tailgating, along with a bottle opener and floodlights on its tailgate.

Ford also offers an optional bundle of off-road upgrades called the

Sasquatch Package, which comes standard on the Broncos highest trim.

Opting for the Sasquatch Package makes the vehicle only available with

automatic transmission.

Manual options are otherwise available, but Ford's North America product

communications manager Mike Levine said on Twitter the company is open to

changing that if customers want the manual with the Sasquatch Package as

well. Ford is also trying to build out a community of Bronco drivers that

can help sustain interest in the vehicle over time.

The automaker is starting a program called Off-Roadeo, where new owners are

offered a free day and a half clinic in off-road driving and Bronco

ownership on one of four courses around the U.S.

There is also an online forum called Bronco Nation for owners and

enthusiasts. So this Bronco Nation website is is up and running and we

expect that to be just a great source for building that community.

We have the opportunity to come in fresh to kind of help organize that

community into a singular community, where if you want to know the latest

Bronco news or just learning about the outdoors signing up for the

Off-Roadeo, they'll go to TheBroncoNation.com.

The Broncos starts at $29,995 including destination charges, which is just

$205 more than a base Jeep Wrangler.

Prices for the highest end models, top $60,000.

If it takes off, the Bronco could be a great moneymaker for Ford.