2022 Ford Bronco: Rugged ride is a strong contender despite a hard-to-take soft top

2022 Land Rover Defender 90 First Edition vs. 2022 Ford Bronco Advanced 4x4 WildTrak: Off the beaten path.

This week: 2022 Ford Bronco

Price: $61,440 as tested. The Wildtrak Series adds $3,590; heavy-duty bumper, $825; towing capability, $595. More noted below.

Conventional wisdom: Consumer Reports likes the “off-road ability, acceleration, and character,” but not the “braking, fuel economy, or wind noise.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Introducing the Bronco family.”

Reality: Rugged competition.

What’s new: Ford has brought back the Bronco to capitalize on Americans’ renewed zeal for old-school trail explorers.

It comes in a four-passenger two-door or a five-passenger four-door model such as the one tested.

Up to speed: The 2.7-liter Ecoboost V-6 lets the Bronco live up to its name, bucking to 60 mph in 6.3 seconds, according to Car and Driver. This puts it almost neck and neck with the Defender despite having 80 fewer horsepower at 315. (The standard 2.3-liter four creates 275 horses and takes 7.7 seconds.)

Premium gasoline boosts both those horsepower numbers, if you’re, say, a CEO or independently wealthy and can pay for premium.

A 3.0-liter V-6 is also available on the Raptor Tech series.

Shifty: The 10-speed automatic operates through a large, Jeep-like shifter, with PRND plus a manual setting.

In automatic mode, it performs mostly well, with the occasional chug chug feeling that comes with the tough trucks.

More disappointing, though, the manual mode is only for downhill control and such. Shiftability only comes through a small button on the side of the shifter, a less-than-enjoyable experience.

A 7-speed manual transmission is standard with the four, and I’d love to try it out.

Transfer: The Bronco features a knob to access two-wheel drive, 4 high, and 4 low, and a version featuring an all-wheel drive setting is optional.

On the road: Whether through deliberate planning or just the laws of physics, the Bronco does a fair approximation of the Jeep Wrangler. The big tires and the stiff suspension combine to make the handling as loosey-goosey as the competition, but a bit of practice makes it all seem just fine. It slaloms nicely on winding roads and is easy to drive to the right edge in tight spaces, but the Defender still features a nicer ride and more poise on the road.

Driver’s Seat: It certainly feels Jeepy up here, as well, with an almost-upright windshield and dashboard, and lots of controls for big paws. The buttons are covered in rubber for hosing down or splashing through giant waterways. Plenty of handles allow for holding on.

The leather-vinyl seats ($2,195) provide nice comfort, certainly on par with any of the rugged four-wheelers.

The speedo is digital and the tach is digital with a slider bar, not the usual dials. The coloring lacks contrast for seeing while wearing sunglasses in the sun, which seems like a poor decision.

Top down: I’d love to try out the removable hardtop, available in either two- or four-door, because I tried the soft top and it seemed less than a good idea.

It appears to beat the Jeep: The roof folds back and the side and rear windows remove and stow in the back, so it’s nice to have them along for the ride when conditions change. (The hardtop also has a place available to bring the pieces along, as well.)

But several drawbacks appeared over a week of testing. Lifting the manual top requires more than eight feet of clearance, so you can’t get ready in a standard garage, which I’d often do with the Wrangler.

Second, there’s no place to stow the windows separate from the cargo, so they could be damaged when carrying other materials. Ask me how I know.

Third, removal is easy but reinstallation can turn any mild-mannered auto reviewer into Will Smith at the Oscars. Slide the bottom into the channels — easy. Connect the corners of the back window? I watched the video several times, and I still have no idea where the top point connects; I just connected the bottom point and then hoped for the best.

You’ll know for sure you don’t have the top rear window in the right spot when the side windows don’t connect properly. Fitting those pieces together requires beaucoup stretching and finger work, and owners of a certain age or strength might be unable to do this.

Finally, at least three of the top clips — basically plastic backpack clips — had a piece broken off before my test. Fortunately, heavy Velcro flaps fold down to provide belt-and-suspenders coverage.

The doors also come off, but I’d already devoted far too long to this endeavor.

Fuel economy: Like the rest of the bunch, the Bronco struggled to keep it at 16 mpg. Oink.

Friends and stuff: The Bronco offers a comparable amount of space to the Wrangler. Legroom and foot room are generous in back, although headroom is tighter than one would expect.

Cargo capacity is 35.6 cubic feet in the back and 83 with the rear seat folded. Eight-foot boards fit from the console to the back door, and 10-footers can prop on the windshield frame.

Play some tunes: Sound is pretty good, about a B+. Controls are standard Ford — dials for volume and tuning, and a big, easy touchscreen for the rest.

Keeping warm and cool: The seat heaters get nice and hot for cool days with the top down, and the heater blasts some sauna-like air.

Where it’s built: Wayne, Mich.

How it’s built: Like the Defender, the Bronco also gets a 2 out of 5 for reliability from Consumer Reports.

In the end: If you can afford to pump the gas into one of these things, more power to you. As far as which is best, it’s a really tough call — they cover all the bases completely.

The Defender offers more poise but the Bronco would be my choice, especially if the four-cylinder 7-speed is easy to live with — just give this soft man a hardtop.

For now, though, the plug-in hybrid Wrangler 4xe remains the model to beat, because the time for hybridization is long overdue.