Hearing some interesting rumors around the dealerships about the new Bronco

[fastpakr]

Agreed, the GX and LX Lexus SUV's are just the equivalent of Toyotas in formal attire. The attractive thing on some of the upscale vehicles like that is that the resale isn't that great. My wife and I have owned a Lexus ES300 (Toyota Camry), Infiniti QX4 (Nissan Pathfinder) and an Acura MDX (Honda Pilot) all because we were looking for the lower end versions and ultimately found the better optioned equivalent for less. Just as capable, but nicer vehicles to drive daily.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

An old friend of mine bought a brand new, shiny yellow paint Jeep Wrangler back in the early 2000's. He immediately started offroading it and doing things that no other local Jeep owners would even attempt. Crossing the local river and climbing it's banks in places where no one had before.. Beating it over large rocks.. Sinking it in to mud pits that other people were afraid of, filling it with mud.. He had ZERO modifications done to it except mud terrain tires on the factory wheels.

He told me "why not do it while it's under warranty and see how strong it really is?"

He broke the following while under warranty, and he had an excellent local lawyer that had to intervene more than once:

2 complete engines (2nd one he had to pay labor fees for install as per agreement with Jeep who claimed there was water in it)
2 rear axle housings snapped in half (had to pay labor on one install, same reason as above)
1 rear leaf spring he snapped the entire pack
1 front axle housing snapped in half
1 exploded transfer case
2 manual transmissions smoked/busted

Not necessarily in that order.

All of this was within the first year to 18 months or so.

After his last time snapping an axle housing in half, higher-up Jeep executives (lawyers) sent him a personal letter that said it was obvious he was trying his best to break it, and they voided his warranty, as well as saying that if he ever bought a Jeep product in the future through their financing companies, his name would be recognized and the sale would be declined. He had his lawyer draft an excellent return letter stating that Jeep advertised their products as being the most durable, capable vehicles on the market and he was simply doing what was shown in their commercials. He finally ended that Jeeps life and his ownership of that Jeep by breaking both new axle housings in half again and had the engine smoking like a diesel, and then having a local towing company drop it off at the dealership with LEMON spray painted on the side of it. He never saw it again and his lawyer dealt with Jeep freaking out about it.

After that he switched over to mini SUV 4x4's (Rav4's, Trackers, etc) and beat them so relentlessly that you couldn't recognize more than one of them over the years. Sunk one in the river next door to his house (drove it to his cabin through flood waters and parked it overnight. The cabin is on the river bank on telephone poles for flooding, and he woke up the next day with water inside the cabin, and the Rav4 was nowhere to be seen) and it was later found around 6 or 8 miles down stream.


So apparently there are SOME people that beat on brand new vehicles... SOME of them have more money than brains.

 

[wildbill23c]

If you got the money to buy a nice pretty new vehicle and beat the shit out of it fine, but don't expect the rest of us who work for our money to do the same...I'd rather have an older vehicle to do that stuff in than a new one and not have to do nearly as much modifications to it to get it to do what I need.

How many on this forum that do heavy offroading just drove their brand new RBV off the lot right to the mud pit? I bet not a single one of you did...I bet you went and bought a lift kit, and tires, and wheels at a minimum, and many went further and bought lockers....so with that, you aren't likely to see someone in a 100% stock vehicle flying through the trails even the Wrangler owners swap tires and wheels...they pay all that money for a Rubicon, and first place you see it sitting is the tire shop LOL....and most likely adding a larger lift to go with the larger tires/wheels they are buying.

Most who daily drive their vehicles have to keep them pretty roadable those who are deep into wheeling usually have a dedicated trail rig and trailer it to the trails....those you see on the highways with huge lifts and tires and every single gadget and accessory you could order out of a JC Whitney catalog are the mall crawler types the real wheelers know that all that crap ain't gonna fare so well offroad they'll forever be stopping along the trail to pickup the stuff that keeps falling off and the rest of us on the trail hate those people they hold everyone else up.

Even if I had the money to buy a brand new vehicle I wouldn't take it on trails, there are plenty of used vehicles for that job that are a lot cheaper and if you look around enough find one with the work already done to it and ready to hit the trails. That would be the way I'd go personally, a used vehicle somewhat setup already for what I need and then finish it off with customized stuff for the areas I'd be in.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

If you got the money to buy a nice pretty new vehicle and beat the shit out of it fine, but don't expect the rest of us who work for our money to do the same...I'd rather have an older vehicle to do that stuff in than a new one and not have to do nearly as much modifications to it to get it to do what I need.

It really depends on how you view your vehicle. My truck is old and I do not beat on it or scratch it any more than I can help it.

lol on not needing much modification, only things original on mine are the bumpers, cab, dash, bed and frame. Despite being a VERY mild build it would annihilate it's former self offroad.

 

[snoranger]

$63K sticker price as it sits.
1 month after buying it we drive to North Carolina for vacation. I had it on the trails down there (nothing to tight, I didn't want deep scratches) and had it buried up to the axles in mud.
It's pretty much been muddy since day 1.

 

[PetroleumJunkie412]

$63K sticker price as it sits.

I'm sorry, I just vomited everywhere.

 

[Grumpaw]

View attachment 30098

$63K sticker price as it sits.
1 month after buying it we drive to North Carolina for vacation. I had it on the trails down there (nothing to tight, I didn't want deep scratches) and had it buried up to the axles in mud.
It's pretty much been muddy since day 1.

Did you by mistake transpose the 6 and the 3 ???
Or maybe that included a second back up vehicle instead of a spare tire???
Grumpaw

 

[snoranger]

Did you by mistake transpose the 6 and the 3 ???
Or maybe that included a second back up vehicle instead of a spare tire???
Grumpaw

I'm afraid not.
The base truck, before the dealer add-ons, was $55k. These things aren't cheap.

 

[sgtsandman]

Did you by mistake transpose the 6 and the 3 ???
Or maybe that included a second back up vehicle instead of a spare tire???
Grumpaw

I paid almost $41,000 for my Ranger. $63,000 isn’t unrealistic for what they are charging for trucks now. You think his truck is bad, don’t even look at Super Duties. House mortgage territory there.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I paid almost $41,000 for my Ranger. $63,000 isn’t unrealistic for what they are charging for trucks now. You think his truck is bad, don’t even look at Super Duties. House mortgage territory there.

Gassers are about the same price as a comparable F-150 though.

 

[wildbill23c]

It really depends on how you view your vehicle. My truck is old and I do not beat on it or scratch it any more than I can help it.

lol on not needing much modification, only things original on mine are the bumpers, cab, dash, bed and frame. Despite being a VERY mild build it would annihilate it's former self offroad.

True. If I had a new vehicle I wouldn't be taking it offroad...I've always had more than 1 vehicle and most of the time whatever wasn't my daily driver was my camping/hunting vehicle which of course got used and abused nothing like running into stuff but I made my own trails several times and generally other than losing a front plastic air dam and a few scratches nothing major, I always drove around the trees and large rocks LOL.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

I'm glad some people take their new trucks off road. The Load Ranger might not officially be personally owned but we got some great reading, pics, and vids out of it.

People should be able to enjoy what they have. They paid for it after all.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I'm glad some people take their new trucks off road. The Load Ranger might not officially be personally owned but we got some great reading, pics, and vids out of it.

Exactly. And generally the people that do what Jim is doing with the Loan Ranger generally are not doing it in $500 Blazers/Broncos on boggers (aka cheap beaters)

Wallering in the local mud hole is one thing, offroading where endurance and drivablity is concerned is another. I am trying to make a truck that was kind of the former into the latter, I will let you know in a 5 weeks how good of a job I did.

 

[G8orFord]

While it's currently out of commission getting a new motor and trans, I'm pretty sure my '01 Ranger 4X4 will take me anywhere I "need" to go with very little, if any, modification and do it similarly to what a stock Jeep could do. Sure, it's a bit longer, so that's a bit of a trade off, but that Jeep won't haul all my chit in the back either. I just don't get the folks wanting Ford, or any other manufacturer to make them a special purpose vehicle for their "offroading". It just doesn't make sense from a business perspective. If you want a true rockcrawler or a mud machine, build one, but don't expect a manufacturer to build your perfect truck when the rest of the world doesn't want it.

I live in the middle of Redneck Country. Hell, I am one. Believe me, there's a lot of call for the vehicles you guys are craving, but even then it's still a small minority of the buying public.

Before the flaming starts, be aware, I never said my Ranger would go everywhere a Jeep might be able to go. I said my Ranger would take me anywhere I "need" to go. If I get to a point where I need to go somewhere that the truck won't take me, I have other options.

Also, I have a 2017 F-250 Superduty Lariat FX4. While I haven't tried to kill it, I bought it to use and not sit around as a lawn ornament. It can take me "almost" anywhere I "need" to go too, but due to it's size and weight, it does have it's limits. I haven't found them yet, but I know they are there. LOL

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I live in the middle of Redneck Country. Hell, I am one. Believe me, there's a lot of call for the vehicles you guys are craving, but even then it's still a small minority of the buying public.

When I picked up my Ranger two days ago from the dealer they had two Raptors and three jacked up Rocky Ridge F-150's on the lot... someone is buying them.