2021 Ford Bronco Sport First Look: The Good, and the Not-So-Good

Two weeks ago, Ford Canada invited us to their Toronto HQ to take a closer look at the new 2021 Ford Bronco Sport. A closer look did not mean a road test, at least not for now. Nevertheless, we accepted the invitation to go meet the model that was first introduced by Ford online a few weeks ago.

We also took the opportunity to test drive the new Toyota Tacoma pickup with a manual transmission in a slightly more substantial way; we'll be presenting you with a review of this vehicle shortly.

As for the Bronco Sport, while we liked some of the things we discovered about it, others left us more perplexed.

The style
This is THE highlight of this new SUV. On this point, Ford's stylists have hit it out of the park. The Bronco’s design signature is a winner, and in that respect, it's a bit reminiscent of the kind of media reaction we saw when Jeep first showed the first images of its Renegade SUV in 2014. In fact, something else reminds us of that vehicle, but not for the right reasons; we'll get back to that.

The other positive note involves how Ford names the Bronco Sport’s versions. Quite frankly, we're getting tired of alphanumeric or simply alphabetic nomenclatures like XLT, SE, LE, etc. Who hasn’t? Here, with four variants that adopt as names Base, Big Bend, Outer Banks and Badlands, there’s no confusion. Good on you, Ford.

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