Why Is the Ford Bronco Sport More Popular Than the Bronco?
The Ford Bronco is being outsold by its cheaper little sibling, the Bronco Sport.
Written by Allison Stone
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
The Ford Bronco is one of the most hyped new SUVs on the market—but it's being outperformed by its smaller sibling, the
Bronco Sport
.According to sales figures presented by
Goodcarbadcar
released by automakers, the Ford Bronco Sport is proving more popular than its more premium nameplate cohort, outselling the standard Ford Bronco in terms of year-to-date sales—but not by much.Ford Bronco vs. Ford Bronco Sport
The Ford Bronco Sport, the Blue Oval's smaller, cheaper, I'm-never-taking-this-thing-off-pavement-but-I-still-want-to-appear-outdoorsy entry in the revived Bronco lineup, has sold 58,549 units so far in 2022.
The Ford Bronco, its more off-road-capable sibling, sold 54,842 units in the same period—a little under 4,000 fewer than the so-called "baby Bronco."
So why is the Bronco Sport outselling the real Ford Bronco? We don't have any hard data, but we can assume a few things based on what the automaker and other publications have previously reported.
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The content
According to
Motortrend
Ford has said in the past that the Bronco Sport has about 80 percent of its parts in common with the Ford Escape, the automaker's smallest SUV after it discontinues the EcoSport this year.Based on sales figures, the Escape is Ford's most popular SUV after the full-size Explorer, with 73,920 units sold year-to-date in 2022. So based on the similarities in size and content, it only costs a little more to upgrade from the Escape to a Bronco Sport.
If you could snag a sportier-looking grocery getter at a reasonable price, why wouldn't you?
The price
The Escape starts at $27,184 while the Bronco Sport starts at $28,815—a $1,600 upgrade that gets you standard four-wheel drive in addition to seating for 5 and 65.2 cubic feet of cargo space.
Again, the commonality between the Escape and the Bronco Sport helps shave precious dollars off the final assembly price of the vehicle—which means the money saved on R&D by not creating brand-new Bronco Sport-specific parts contributes to a more profitable vehicle.
If the Bronco Sport had cost more, it'd probably be a safe bet to assume sales would have suffered as more buyers skipped it for its larger, more capable sibling, the true Bronco, which starts at $31,300.
Availability of the Ford Bronco and Ford Bronco Sport
While the full-size Bronco is the more hyped entry and the Bronco Sport is the more attainable option, there are still challenges in procuring them.
Both the Bronco and Bronco Sport are subject to low availability thanks in part to inventory constraints that still seem to be plaguing Ford. For those that can find a Bronco or Bronco Sport, you're likely to experience huge markups depending on which dealership you go to.
New vehicles in general are already notoriously difficult to find, given the litany of issues affecting dealership inventory.
Dealerships also happen to set the prices for the vehicles they sell, not the automakers—really emphasizing the "suggested" in Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.
Per
Markups.org
, some full-size Bronco models are going for $50,000 over MSRP, while quite a few Bronco Sport models are getting a slightly more reasonable (yet still ridiculous) markup of around $5,000-$15,000.There's also the threat of Bronco resellers, which has also caused the automaker to take action.
What that could mean is that when a dealership has the Bronco or Bronco Sport in stock with little to no markup, customers could be tempted to snatch them up on the spot. In the absence of a full-size Bronco, the Sport could be the second choice until availability improves for the larger model.
4.7
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