[Efthreeoh]

I got to drive my dealer's mannequin this morning. A 4-door, soft top Cyber Orange Badlands, 2.3L automatic. High package + Leather. 33" tires. I had it for about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Man am I glad I'm getting a hard top. The soft top is a very well designed and manufactured roof, but the side rear windows are a PIA to deal with. The bottom side has to slide in, Rubiks Cube like, then snap-in plastic tabs in the front and a long plastic tab in the back. The clamshell design of the rear window is neat, but you pretty much have to release both latches at the same time, then pull out the kickstand. Fine if you are not holding a package that is the reason why you are opening the clamshell in the first place. The rear window takes two people because it is so long and wraps around. Two dealership guys were putting the rear window in when I got there and I said to myself, "bring on the honeycomb".

The truck drives great. Good steering feel I thought. Not sports sedan like, but for a EPS rack in a 4x4, it was very nice. Throttle input is good, brake feel is a bit soft in the first inch or so of pedal travel, but then the brakes bite very well and can be modulated easily. The seats are extremely comfortable IMO. Steering wheel positioning is quite adjustable and a good position can be easily found. The gauges are downright stupid. Why it has a real speedometer dial indicator and a digital indicator is beyond me. For a vehicle that comes with a manual transmission, it needs a real tachometer. I looked for a different tach display but didn't find one. The 2.3L turbo is adequately powered and will match well with a manual transmission I'd bet.

The automatic trans sucks, but that's coming from a diehard manual trans guy, so I think all automatic transmissions suck, regardless of programming and number of gears. I guess Ford threw in the manual mode so you can hold a gear, but to shift with it as a manumatic, nah. Letting it shift on it's own in Normal GOAT mode, it was okay, but like all automatics, the engine is off cam and a down shift is needed. Off road, I'd bet the trans is spot on.

I didn't want to take it off road and dirty it up. I did drive up my driveway fast, which is gravel through the woods, then over a bridge. It handled that as well as my H3T does. I then drove it around my front yard, which is basically the same as a fire road, and the suspension soaks up bumps great. Ford nailed the steering and suspension. I really didn't play with the GOAT modes.

The Tech in the truck is annoying and pointless, as I think every modern car UI is. The in-car Owner's Manual was a bunch of videos from what I could tell. Neat and modern, but painfully long to wait if you want a simple answer to a question. I didn't look at the paper copy (I think there was one in the glovebox). It's good you can turn off the Nannies (hopefully they stay off). I did connect my Sony Walkman via Bluetooth and played some music through the B&O Sound system. It sounds decent enough, but costs a whole lot to get, and I'm betting the aftermarket will improve the base system with a sub, amps, and better speakers. The B&O system was enjoyably loud enough, but fidelity was on the good side, not great.

The mirrors are about two inches too short (side to side) in IMO. I can use them in traffic, so it shouldn't be an issue.

So far I like the bronco enough to still be interested in driving what I ordered, which is a 2-door, manual, Black Diamond with just the advanced transfer case.